Sunday, April 26, 2009
What's next for BURG?
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
- Money flows freely to local candidates
- Candidates contemplate a little big-box store
From the RoundTable blog
What does an anti-Wal-Mart group do when there is no more Wal-Mart to fight? That is the dilemma confronting Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth.
The group formed to fight a big-box store at First & Main and won.
Typically, groups like BURG fade away after their victories. BURG could hold one more fundraiser, pay off the remaining $3,950 it owes to its attorney and then retire, a job well done.
And it was a job well done.
Those who portray BURGers as zealots intent on imposing their alien views on the New River Valley at best have sour grapes and at worst completely misunderstand what happened.
BURG imposes nothing; it used the democratic process. Its members lobbied, spoke before council, rallied and campaigned for their ideals. That is how the system works.
It is not BURGers' fault that residents with a different vision did not play the political game as well, if they played at all.
BURGers mobilized a segment of the community, and now they hope to channel that momentum into something else.
About two dozen of them, including Councilwomen Susan Anderson and Leslie Hager-Smith, met a week ago at the Blacksburg Library to plot a course forward.
Daniel Breslau, one of the group's leaders and a professor in Virginia Tech's Department of Science and Technology in Society, spelled it out. "[We want to] channel those energies into new and other important kinds of work all related to the BURG mission of promoting smart growth, preserving and enhancing our downtown [and] environmentally sustainable growth in Blacksburg."
Ideas flowed: a downtown recycling program, bike-friendliness and good use of the rugby field now that it will not become a Wal-Mart. There will be vigilance, too, lest the First & Main developers try to pull another fast one.
The big idea, though, is something else entirely. Breslau built up to the climactic revelation. What noble cause would BURG champion next?
The group wants Tech to start collecting town meals and lodging taxes.
Your thoughts
That sound you hear is a balloon deflating.
In fairness, it is a noble cause. Tech's eateries not only receive an unfair competitive advantage over restaurants across the street, but the school also enjoys town services it does not pay for. That goes double for the Inn at Virginia Tech, which is a campus institution in name and little more.
Yet the town cannot compel Tech to collect the taxes, and our local delegation to Richmond, which for now includes Tech employee Del. David Nutter, has never seemed particularly keen on fixing the rules. BURG is going to have a hard time changing that.
Besides, it is much easier to mobilize people against something than for something. The threat of a monstrous commercial development looming over a school and a neighborhood easily fires up people. Arcane tax rules are another story. The connection to town residents is more nebulous.
Yet if any group might do it, it is BURG. Not the BURG of yesterday, not even the BURG of today, but the BURG that could hit its stride next year.
A half-dozen town boards and committees have vacancies, and Breslau last week urged qualified BURGers to apply. If they get the jobs, they could soon decide town policies about zoning, recreation, sidewalks, bike lanes and design review. Plus they will be building resumés for even higher offices in the future.
There are also council and mayoral elections in November, and BURG is gearing up for them. Three people -- incumbent Anderson, Cecile Newcomb and John Bush -- gathered signatures at the meeting to get on the ballot. If all three were to win, progressive, smart-growth advocates would have a dominant majority on council.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if it will upset you, get on the ballot yourself and give voters a choice.
