Joe Kennedy

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

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Those poor people in South Roanoke.

Their influence has come under scrutiny in recent months.

This is unusual for Roanoke's classic, upscale neighborhood.

In a way, the stronger focus began when the Roanoke School Board extended its application period in a search for more economic and racial diversity.

South Roanokers have traditionally held seats on the board.

That won't change, but the point was made: A broader dissemination of power is overdue.

Then the Roanoke City Council, with several South Roanoke residents in its ranks, decided to institute a $2 night and weekend fee for downtown parking in municipal garages. This ignited a firestorm among the hoi polloi accustomed to parking for free.

Playing for time, the council has delayed implementing the fee.

Then came the sharpest shiv of all -- the charge that some of South Roanoke's most promising young people were caught with alcohol or drunk from alcohol at Patrick Henry High School's prom, and that their original punishments were reduced after parents, including lawyers, raised havoc with the school principal.

Meltdowns

It's no surprise that school officials would share no specifics.

But the parents, friends and neighbors of the alleged offenders -- who have not been named publicly -- went into full uproar mode even before Shanna Flowers, my sister columnist, wrote about the subject.

Since the matter became public, people who live elsewhere in the valley have taken pleasure in knowing that even for the creme de la creme, things can turn sour once in a while.

Only human

All of these developments nudge us toward certain observations:

First, in every town, city and county, some people have more influence, money, power and privilege than others.

Second, those things may be used for the good of all or of a few, depending on the circumstances.

Third, while we often agree that diversity of race, class, gender and the like are worthy goals, we seldom surrender influence, money, power or privilege willingly.

America is the wealthiest nation in the world. Oddly, hardly anyone ever admits publicly that they belong to anything other than the middle class.

Thus it came as a shock when, with the community outraged by the new parking fees, Roanoke Vice Mayor David Trinkle, a South Roanoke-dwelling psychiatrist, declared in a public meeting that he had lunched at the upscale Metro restaurant in downtown Roanoke.

The Historic Market District was bustling, he said, and he doubted that a $2 night and weekend parking fee would prove ruinous.

He apparently did not notice that the sidewalks were full of working folk, some heading for the Roanoke Weiner Stand, where $2 is about 40 percent of the cost of a filling lunch.

Councilman Alfred Dowe, who lives in Northwest Roanoke but is welcome in the corridors of power, allowed that a $2 fee wouldn't keep him from feasting at elegant Alexander's.

A few days later, addressing another subject, he mentioned Carlo's restaurant in Roanoke County as another of his stops. Neither will ever be confused with a Burger King.

Trinkle and Dowe handed their critics what they needed: evidence that they were out of touch with the masses.

But, for sheer cluelessness, nothing outstrips the behavior of some of the defenders of the Patrick Henry partiers.

As Miss Manners would say, the way to defuse a controversy is to proceed as if it didn't exist. Rude inquiries should be met with a simple, "Things are not as they seem."

Going ballistic strengthens the suspicion that something is rotten in SoRo.

With only rumors to go on, we must fall back on wisdom:

Everybody of a certain age knows that, at times, something is rotten everywhere.

It's humbling news, from which some not-so-humble SoRo residents apparently take no comfort.