Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Editorial: Decline a new incline
Nostalgia is integral to Roanoke's identity, but so is Mill Mountain. Let's not rip up the mountainsides to rebuild a failed rail line.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Roanoke's old Mill Mountain Incline ended up on the scrap heap back in 1930. That's where the idea for a replacement incline railway should go, too.
What had been a big public draw when it opened in 1910 already had lost its allure by the 1920s. The automobile may have killed it off -- people eschewed the ride for the convenience of driving once a road up the mountain was built. Even before that, though, the incline had been operating at a loss for years.
In the 21st century, a small incline railway up a small mountain would neither wonder nor thrill.
It would have a big impact, though, on Mill Mountain.
The city would degrade what is truly charming about its mountain park: the forested slopes.
Any of three proposed paths for the incline would deforest a swath of land up the mountainside, through what is supposed to be a protected zone meant to preserve the flora of the Southern Appalachians.
Roanokers who like their mountain sitting serenely in their midst would look instead upon nature hacked away for a rail line, the re-creation of a relic from the Industrial Age brought incongruously into the Information Age. Where it is meant to ... what?
To draw masses to the mountain, without having to provide places for all those people to park, says Bev Fitzpatrick, the city councilman behind the idea. But Roanoke shouldn't want to draw masses to Mill Mountain. To the valley, yes. To the art museum, the City Market, Explore Park and other public attractions that wait only to be discovered by hordes of tourists bearing dollars to spark the local economy.
Mill Mountain's great value is as a passive recreation area where people enjoy quiet pursuits, away from crowds.
Its easy accessibility should be attractive not so much to tourists as to that coveted creative class of professionals looking for a good quality of life. The people we want to stay.
The mountain is hardly a wilderness preserve, nor even wholly public property. Homes are built partway up the mountainsides. And the park has proper amenities, plus a big neon star on top. But the star is the only visible sign of the park from the valley.
Rather than sacrifice the forest that buffers the park from the development below, the city should put a conservation easement on it, and save it from inclines and other lesser dreams.
