ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605100009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
LOCAL elections often dwell on a community's shortfalls. Roanoke city's councilmanic elections last week were no exception.
Fair enough. Roanoke isn't Camelot. Its residents can point to unmet needs, services that could bear improve-ment, attitudes requiring adjustment, leadership that's hard to find.
But, such naysaying and legitimate criticisms notwithstanding, the state of this city - in relation to most - ought to be a source of civic pride.
Roanoke Mayor David Bowers said as much during his campaign for re-election. Administration officials are eager to tell success stories.
Anyone needing convincing might consider the continuing recognition of Roanoke by national organizations with a broad perspective on urban livability.
It's no small honor, for instance, that Roanoke is one of 30 finalists vying for the National Civic League's 1996 All-America City awards - a coveted recognition that might be likened to the motion-picture industry's Oscar. Roanoke has won four times - in 1952, 1979, 1982 and 1988.
It made the cut to finalist from more than 100 communities in the running this year - the only Virginia municipality so honored. And it wasn't by luck of the draw. The nomination is based on three projects representing an extraordinary community involvement in the city's life. Cited initiatives:
The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. The community raised millions to help save its landmark hotel and - in the saving - to make it the centerpiece of Roanoke's economic-development plans.
The transformation of the old Jefferson High School building into an arts and cultural center. Not only was the structure rescued from the wrecking ball; it was converted into a home for an unusual mix of citizens, ranging from opera and symphony buffs to low-income children enrolled in Head Start to Police Academy recruits. The project also helps shore up an edge-of-downtown neighborhood.
The Roanoke Valley Trash Transfer Station. This is an imaginative solution for solid-waste disposal, the bane of many communities. Citizen involvement in the planning turned what could have been a not-in-my-back-yard dispute into a neighborhood-renewal coup, and produced a trash facility that's nearly a tourist attraction.
Win or lose at the National Civic League's ``Academy Awards'' in Fort Worth, Texas, next month, Roanoke has enjoyed a string of recent recognitions. The Hotel Roanoke project won the Virginia Municipal League's highest honor in 1995 for entrepreneurial government. The historic City Market has been designated one of 63 of America's "Great Public Places" by Urban Initiatives, putting it in a league with New Orleans' French Quarter and San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
National surveys have ranked the city's quality of life among the best: 77th of 300 cities in Money magazine's 1995 assessment of the country's best places to live; in the top 26 percent of most-livable cities in North America, according to the 1993 Places Rated Almanac. In 1990, Parenting magazine came closer to the mark, choosing Roanoke as one of the 10 best places to raise a family.
Sure, Roanoke has problems, some of which we discuss in these pages. A near-dearth of regional planning and leadership promises more and bigger problems to come. And no awards or rankings can in any case change the reality of life in the Roanoke Valley.
What others see can help remind us, though, of an important fact - the marvelousness of this place. We cite this fact as, of course, completely objective journalists.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB