Sunday, June 20, 2010
Rockledge is about people and vision
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Jay Foster
Foster is the president of SoftSolution in Roanoke.
Rockledge is not about putting a restaurant on top of Mill Mountain. If a restaurant alone could transform our region into an economic growth engine, one would hope it would have been rebuilt 35 years ago. Rockledge is more about how we see ourselves, how others see us and about the type of legacy that results from a bold vision that inspires people.
My wife and I had the pleasure of spending time in Athens, Greece, this past year. Sitting almost in the center of Athens is the Acropolis, a mountain that juts about 500 feet above the historic city. Mill Mountain hovers about 800 feet over downtown Roanoke (roughly the height of a 60-story skyscraper). There are very few cities in the world that have such natural elevations adjacent to downtown. How citizens and community leaders leverage such an asset tells you a lot about their identity and their vision for the future.
From just about anywhere in Athens it is possible to see the Parthenon sitting atop the Acropolis. The leaders of Athens, several centuries before the birth of Jesus, set about to build massive buildings of marble with statues gilded in gold to sit proudly atop their downtown mountain. I see such structures, within any great city, as reflections of the passion and vision of the leaders who brought them about. Had the leaders of Athens set their sights on less ambitious goals, my wife and I may have instead traveled to Troy this past year -- a city that alas, has been buried by the sands of time.
If we assume that the identity and vision of a people can be found in the cities and structures that they create, then what does the current debate regarding Mill Mountain tell us about the people of Roanoke?
I deeply respect those who seek to protect the natural beauty of Mill Mountain. If this issue were about some greedy capitalist seeking to build a Taco Bell beside the Star, I'd be the first in a long line to protest and prohibit such a disgrace of our wonderful mountain. I don't know of anyone engaged in Roanoke leadership today who sees Rockledge primarily as an opportunistic business venture.
Rockledge is not about capitalistic gains or even about building another great restaurant in Roanoke. It is about showcasing one of our region's greatest assets and building our identity as a people. And it can be done in a way that has a net positive impact on Mill Mountain's value to a much broader portion of young and old alike.
Rebuilding Rockledge needs to be part of a broader strategy and an even bolder vision if Roanoke is to gain the reputation as an inspirational city of the new economy. Building a nice restaurant does not go far enough; let's also bring back the Mill Mountain incline at Crystal Springs as part of a more comprehensive plan for the future.
Bringing back the incline to transport people up the mountain with the least environmental impact possible is an example of a larger strategy for ensuring long-term success and again conveying a message of who we are as a people that believe in smart, carbon-neutral economic growth. If the land for the incline is put into a conservation easement, this public transportation option to access Mill Mountain will be lost -- forever.
I know that my two teenagers and their friends from Patrick Henry High School would enjoy taking the trolley from downtown to the incline to meet their friends on top of Mill Mountain -- which today rarely sees a diversity of visitors beyond the rather small, vocal group that claims primary use of this amazing community asset.
As Roanoke-based corporations and institutions such as SoftSolutions, Carilion Clinic and the new medical college continue to grow, there will be an even larger group of outside partners, customers and visiting families coming to the region. Imagine the impression that will result when taking public transportation from the Hotel Roanoke up to an environmentally friendly restaurant to have drinks or dinner while taking in one of the most spectacular mountain views on the East Coast of the U.S.
Integration of public transportation, an environmentally sound building and spectacular vistas of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains will communicate more about our identity than any other economic development brochure or marketing spin I can imagine. It will also help us attract the type of highly skilled, creative-class professionals who are the economic engine of a knowledge-based economy.
If community and business leaders within our region are not willing or able to get 100 percent behind such a broader vision for showcasing and accessing one of our greatest assets, then no one, from the Fishburn family to city council, can bring about the Rockledge that Roanoke truly needs to build a long-term strategy for growth and success.
