ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997 TAG: 9703240099
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY THE ROANOKE TIMES
Roanoke residents have lots of ``visions'' for the future, with plenty of hope and some doubts.
The topic was "effective government." The place was the Jefferson Center's Fitzpatrick Hall. The idea was "the vision thing," as in, let's get a little of it, and what do you want Roanoke to be?
The March 6 event was the fourth and final "visioning workshop" convened by Roanoke City Council this winter.
The problem was, only 27 people showed up - and those included a radio reporter covering the event, three people who live outside the city and two off-duty city employees.
"Obviously, we must not be doing terrible, horrible things," Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt joked, surveying the mostly empty room. "Otherwise, there'd be a cast of thousands."
It was one of the few jokes cracked during a total of about 10 hours of meeting spread over four sessions grouped around four themes: quality of life, the economy, education and effective government. In all, about 200 people participated, and the general tone was serious - with an optimistic bent.
Residents earnestly catalogued what they like about living in Roanoke, what they see already going on to make it better and what needs to be done over the next 20 years to make it even better.
The result: more than a thousand comments, ideas and suggestions, some of them with common themes that City Council expects to use to guide policy-making in coming years.
"This is kind of like baking a cake," Old Southwest resident Joel Richert said at the Feb.1 "quality of life" session. "You've got tons of little ingredients. It'll be up to the city administration to turn the oven on."
"Visioning" isn't exactly new to the valley. In one form or another, various local organizations have been going at it for years. They include the city administration, which used the process in the mid-1980s to produce Roanoke Vision, the most recent comprehensive plan. Others visioners are the Roanoke County government, the New Century Council, the Mill Mountain Development Committee and the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce.
If the most recent round is any indication, there are plenty of things residents like about Roanoke: the view of undeveloped mountains, public-private partnerships such as the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center, magnet schools, and the presence of neighborhood and business associations that get involved in important issues.
There are, however, plenty of needs. And the groups spewed forth ideas that ranged from the general, such as a desire for more regional cooperation among valley governments, to the specific, such as better dog control laws.
Some of the ideas were big: better flood control, a project the city has been wrestling with for a dozen years. Others were little: publishing slumlords' names in the newspaper.
Some were hard-to-grasp concepts - "adolescents need something to do" - while others were more concrete, such as a repeated call for greenways, a popular item at all four workshops.
Whether any of the ideas lead to measurable results remains to be seen. City Council members pledge there will be action.
For council members, there's a lot at stake, said John Marlles, chief of community planning. Members have spent two years and thousands of dollars "visioning" among themselves in preparation for the workshops.
And the exercise carries with it some political risks, Marlles noted. Council is essentially putting together a scorecard against which voters can judge it.
"For elected officials [who serve 4-year terms], there's no reward to visioning," Marlles said. "Our current system conditions people to think short-term rather than long-term."
For the most part, the residents who participated are optimistic and eager to get moving.
"I really expect big changes, because we spent our time going down there telling the city officials what we really thought and feel and hope needs to be done," said Jean Bevins, who lives in Northwest's Ridgewood Park. "I don't think they want to do all this work for nothing. I think they want a good end result from all those workshops."
Bevins said she'd like to see some changes reflected in the upcoming city budget. Old Southwest resident Chris Muse said that's probably unrealistic.
"You can't just snap your fingers and get things done just the way you want," Muse said. "If you get the 10 to 15 percent, that's great. But even then, change is a slow process. Any change for the better, even though it's slow, is still a move forward."
Some residents, such as Grandin Court's Billy Bova and Raleigh Court's Linda Scarborough, said they were a little disappointed that more people didn't turn out for the process.
Bova said he believes council's intentions are good, but he questions whether the meetings will lead to anything concrete.
"Basically, I think the needs are going to be determined by the city administration," Bova said, "and the future direction is going to be determined by the city administration. .... It's going to go in the direction the city administration really wants it to go in."
"A lot of people talk, but actually following through with what needs to be done is another question," Scarborough said. "I'm looking forward to seeing examples of things mentioned actually done."
Councilman Jim Trout, who has expressed some impatience over the length of the process so far, says time will tell.
"It does get to a point where at some time you have to move on," Trout said. "People who dream sometimes keep dreaming, and builders get out and go to work."
Barry Key, the city's chief of management and budget, said the next step is putting together "action groups" that will figure out what the city must do to fulfill the most common themes emerging from the workshops. As it stands, the process is "no more than 25 percent complete,'' he said
Some of the common themes that emerged as future needs from recent public "visioning" workshops sponsored by City Council:
Quality of Life, Feb. 1:
More effort on developing greenways, or linear parks.
Preservation of Mill Mountain and other ridge lines.
Neighborhood infastructure Improvements.
Completion of the Jefferson Center's performance hall.
The Economy, Feb. 11:
A higher education center for the Roanoke Valley.
Attracting more company headquarters to Roanoke.
Greater city leadership in promoting tourism.
An aggressive program to foster the creation of higher-paying jobs.
Education, Feb. 22:
Maintain current real estate tax rate
More attention to school capital improvements, such as classroom expansion, air conditioning, and elementary school gymnasiums.
A total "vocational" high school.
An emphasis on educational programs teaching ethics and morality.
Effective Government, March 6:
Greater regional cooperation.
Bench-marking against other governments.
Attracting people to the city/reversing urban flight
More activities for youths ages 14 to 18.
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