Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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A friend of mine came to Roanoke from Greensboro on Wednesday afternoon.

She had never been here, but she needed a break from everyday life, and her friends had told her a little bit about it.

Two things, actually -- that the Hotel Roanoke was impressive and that antique shops existed in these parts.

My mission was to show her around. My goal was to get the reaction that she, as a first-time visitor, had to our place.

Her name is Cris, and she has an advanced academic degree, has taught at a university and works in health care.

The first thing she told me when I saw her was that the Hotel Roanoke is definitely cool.

From the car, I pointed out the nearby H&C Coffee and Dr Pepper signs. She loved them.

The new Art Museum of Western Virginia caught her eye. She thought it a tad close to the Roanoke City Market, but the architecture didn't bother her.

At the market, she said, "Greensboro needs a place like this."

Unknown gem

In Grandin Village, Cris admired the Grandin Theatre and listened closely to the story of the neighborhood's revival.

Dinner was good.

Afterward, we rode through Raleigh Court, and she asked me about housing costs.

It was plain that Roanoke seemed a bit of a marvel to her, more so after I described the downtown condos and apartments that lately have appeared and conversion of the old Norfolk & Western Railway general offices to other uses.

And that was before we reached the piece de resistance.

Cris had already seen the Mill Mountain Star from afar. A closer look dazzled her.

"This is amazing," she said. "I only live two hours away. How come I've never heard of it?"

How come, she wondered, she knew so little about Roanoke?

More questions followed: Who comes to Roanoke, why do they come, and, again, how come she didn't know about it?

Guessing game

The first question threw me. Who comes here?

Uh, people traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway, I said. Virginia Tech fans during the football season.

Race fans going to the Martinsville Speedway.

I was really stumbling.

Hikers, I said. Bikers.

Soccer kids.

Hell, I don't know.

The second question threw me, too. Why come here? I couldn't come up with a main reason.

Why didn't she know more about us?

Finally, a question I could sort of answer. The Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau has only so much money in its budget.

The next day I called Dave Kjolhede, the bureau's executive director.

"We know there is a market for us in North Carolina," he said, "and we kind of reach that market through some regional publications, but we've never really targeted it because we haven't had the money."

Most of the marketing is print-oriented and focused more to the north than the south.

"If you don't have the bait," Kjolhede said, "you've got to fish where the fish are."

The bureau's budget for the upcoming fiscal year may reach $1.25 million.

By comparison, Asheville, N.C., has an annual budget of nearly $6 million. But it's funded differently.

Asheville has at least one major destination: the Biltmore Estate. Maybe the new art museum will be ours.

Meanwhile, we're presented as a family place with lots of cool stuff, including outdoor recreation.

Cris and I walked around the City Market the next day. She loved it just the way it is.

I briefly mentioned the poorly conceived plan to alter it in some way.

Cris Flynt is just one smart person who has been around enough to have an opinion.

She is a tiny sample. But I would bet that, if asked, few out-of-towners would advocate changes to the market as we know it.

Our leaders need to chew on that.