Roanoke Off-Topic

[wrldcoupe4]

Why was Steven's link to Weil's blog deleted?

Does it really fall under this rule?

No Advertising unless you have prior approval from the site Administrator. This includes posts for other discussion sites.

[vdogg]

Why was Steven's link to Weil's blog deleted?

Does it really fall under this rule?

It's not deleted as far as i can tell. It's in his sig and it shows up on my screen.

[wrldcoupe4]

it was deleted in the topic discussing it...

[mclawsdrive]

I was just looking at the title for the Roanoke forum. 'Roanoke Star City of the South' . And I thought, I don't think we should include 'The south'. I think it should be 'Roanoke, The Star City'.

Including 'south' makes it seem like we're trying to identify too much with a southern cultural identity. I certainly see nothing wrong with southern culture, and see that its presence is significant in Roanoke, but in many ways, Roanoke is more similar to Pittsburg than to Charlotte or even Richmond. Sure, Roanoke is located in SW Virginia, but the history of industrial development of the city, and that economy's current decline, is more tied to northern economic systems than to the traditional southern economy. Heck, Roanoke wasn't even founded until 1882, 17 years after the civil war ended. Roanoke doesn't have any direct historical ties to the old south. In fact, the founding fathers of Roanoke were largely from New York and Boston. The city was a northern style 'core' that exploited the resources (mainly coal and labor) of the southern periphery in which it was located. In any case, I'm not really very passionate about this. I don't care about it that much. But if it were up to me, I'd rename us : 'Roanoke, Capital of the Blue Ridge', or something similar.

[StevenRocks]

If it were up to me, I'd rename us : 'Roanoke, Capital of the Blue Ridge', or something similar.

That does have a nice ring to it.

[mclawsdrive]

To me, 'capital of the Blue ridge' is more accurate and more descriptive. If one accepts the broader definition of the Blue Ridge Mountains, they extend from north Georgia to Southern Pennsylvania. Roanoke is about dead center in this range, and is the defining point between the northern blue ridge, with the shenandoah valley to the west, and the southern blue ridge, with a broader plateau to the west. Finally, Roanoke is the largest city that is located directly in the Blue Ridge mountains. See the map below.

Edited April 4, 2006 by mclawsdrive

[StevenRocks]

I'll buy that.

[bmedguy]

I agree that Roanoke has more in common with old industrial towns of Pennsylvania than it does with "The South" as most people understand it. Capitol of the Blue Ridge might not work for folks in Asheville? Are they in the Bue Ridge Mountains as well? I know you can take the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way there. Anyway, it is fine with me and probably more representative. An alternate suggestion is Star City of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

[mclawsdrive]

Yes I believe Asheville is within what would be called the blue ridge. But despite their intense growth as of late, Roanoke is still a considerably larger city. Asheville's growth is centered around tourism and wealthy retirees, but in a regional economic sense, it is far less important as a provider of services. It is not a hub like roanoke.

[mclawsdrive]

While not retracting the statements made in my last post, I saw that Asheville's MSA is larger than Roanokes. IMO this proves that Roanoke is being short-changed by the census bureaucrats when it comes to deciding which counties are included in our MSA. Lynchburg stole Bedford county from us. WTF? Lets split Bedford county into two counties; west Bedford and east Bedford. Then west bedford would certainly then be included in the Roanoke MSA.

[mclawsdrive]

This google map (which I tagged with some spraypaint, shows Roanoke's MSA in red and Lynchburg in blue. I drew a line across Bedford county. I think Roanoke is undeniably the more important city in areas west of the line. make sure to click on the image to see the full size.

The city of Bedford is obscured by the 122 symbol. Doesn't it look like the lynchburg msa is piercing into the roanoke msa, attempting to break it apart.

Better than splitting Bedford though, hopefully the two metros will combine into a Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical area. Add the New River Valley Metro to the west, and Rockbridge county (Lexington, Buena Vista) to the northeast and we'd definitely surpass 750,000 people. Also why is Craig county in Roanokes MSA? It has less than 6000 people and seems removed from roanoke geographically due to lack of major roads and many mountain ridges between them and the city. The closest parts of craig have to be at least 30 minutes from the city. New castle is farther away in driving time than blacksburg. I would think there would be more justification for having the NRV in the Roanoke MSA than Craig county.

Edited April 5, 2006 by mclawsdrive

[electricmonk]

I think a lot of people from Craig come over to Roanoke to work and were probably making that drive before Blacksburg/Montgomery Co. started to really grow. I work with 3 people that I know of from Craig Co. there's probably more in other departments. There's easily over a dozen people there from Floyd County.

To me the NRV and Roanoke MSA's should be combined. There seems to ba huge overlap. I know people from Blacksburg, Radford, Floyd and Christiansburg that drive to Roanoke to work and I know people from Roanoke that drive to Floyd and Blacksburg to work. Then there's the shopping, business and cultural things that are onl available in Roanoke that people from the surrounding counties come to town for.

[StevenRocks]

The key determining factor in who goe into what metro area is how many people commute to an area from a surrounding area. In the case of Craig County (and Franklin County), over 50% of the commuters travel to Roanoke for work, so they were added to the Roanoke MSA.

Bedford County has slightly more commuters going to Lynchburg and a county population of over 50,000, so it goes to the Lynchburg MSA.

Montgomery County got its own MSA becaue they reached a population of 150,000 when you factor in Floyd, Pulaski and Giles Counties. These people aren't commuting to Roanoke in large enough numbers, so it was not included in the Roanoke MSA

[mclawsdrive]

That makes sense Steven. I think there are a lot of people in total numbers commuting from the NRV to Roanoke, but as a percentage, its not high enough to meet the MSA requirements.

It seems though, that what Electricmonk was saying about cross commuting is also true. The commuting between Roanoke and NRV is not totally one sided. Many commuters are driving to the NRV also. What I think might happen one day is that there will be a consolidated MSA.

I think essentially that means there are multiple urban centers that have some cross commuting between their peripheries... i.e. Washington/Baltimore CMSA. It doesn't mean that people from Baltimore are commuting to DC. It just means that there is a gray area where people are commuting in both directions and neither city is clearly dominant.

I think that example applies to Bedford County. Roanoke is clearly dominant in the west, Lynchburg in the east, but because it is just one entity, the commuting patterns are not dominated by either city. Lynchburg just happens to have a slightly higher percentage of Bedford Commuters, but it is entirely inaccurate to include residents of Hardy, Moneta, and Montvale in the Lynchburg msa and not in Roanoke's.

Edited April 5, 2006 by mclawsdrive

[mclawsdrive]

I'll be back in Roanoke this weekend after a 2 months away from the mountains. I plan on taking some pics and I'm pretty adventurous so if anyone has suggestions for a challenging photography tasks, let me know. Maybe I can break into the crystal tower (ponce de leon) and take some pics of the underground spring, fountain and bar. Perhaps some close ups of the progress at the biomedical center.

[electricmonk]

I had planned on getting out this weekend too and taking some photos but I sliced my hand open last night and can barely hold my camera. Hopefully it won't hurt as bad tomorrow and I can get out some.

[mclawsdrive]

Well, I set out Saturday to take some pics and after just 3 shots of a pileated woodpecker, my camera died. I had of course, left my charger in Richmond. Oh well. I was planning to take pics of the Ukrops construction, construction at the corner of Colonial and Brandon (old channel 7 station... what is being built here now?), biomed center construction and the site of the proposed hotel. The first office building at the biomed center is moving along very quickly. I was also going to take some pics of the HUGE excavation taking place at the future retail area across from Tanglewood, and the projects across 220 from Lowe's that look quite large in scale as well. I don't know whats going on there either.

I met some girls at metro Saturday night, only to realize that the one I was hitting on lives in Richmond. Guess I might have the opportunity to run into her again. She says she loves my big glasses and prominent teeth.

[BGW]

construction at the corner of Colonial and Brandon (old channel 7 station... what is being built here now?),

CVS.

[electricmonk]

the projects across 220 from Lowe's that look quite large in scale as well. I don't know whats going on there either.

A Home Depot.

[StevenRocks]

It's a good time to be in the store and church building business in Roanoke. That's all we seem to get these days.

[bmedguy]

I had planned on getting out this weekend too and taking some photos but I sliced my hand open last night and can barely hold my camera. Hopefully it won't hurt as bad tomorrow and I can get out some.

I was thinking it would be good to get construction photo updates. These are the project I thought of

Civic Center expansion

New firestation at Franklin & Elm

Carilion Medical Center update (going around the entire outside of the building to show the full size and scope of the facility would be very cool)

Fairfax Condos on Jefferson

Ukrops shopping area

New Finks shopping complex

Riverside 1 - the first building in the biomed complex and all the ground prep taking place for future construction

Any new condo rehab projects downtown

The Art Museum - oh yeah, there's nothing there to take a picture of!

Not that you have to get all these. Just thought I would share my ideas. I could get my butt out and take a few pics as well.

[lammius]

One of my classmates posted this photo on my myspace. I find it very sad yet quite amusing! I hope you guys agree! And if any of you guys know this woman, please check up on her child!

[wrldcoupe4]

Man that's sad and hilarious at the same time!

[Jerseyman4]

Nobody was laughing more than Stephanie-Klein Davis

[StevenRocks]

That picture made it to "The Tonight Show"