Sunday, April 19, 2009
Blacksburg has great potential
New River Forum
Recent media coverage of the Montgomery County League of Women Voters forum on downtown Blacksburg and Christiansburg has been excellent ("Panel offers suggestions for downtown," April 1 ). It is clear to see that there is a great deal of interest in the vitality of both of these downtowns.
Unfortunately one remark used repeatedly -- that downtown Blacksburg should "focus on events that sell a lot of beer" -- is being taken in isolation.
The larger, and far more important, point was to say that the economic engine driving Blacksburg today is Virginia Tech; not only with its students but also with its faculty, its special academic, cultural, and athletic programs, its alumni, its future arts facilities and its fans of all ages who still reside within this region of the state.
An opportunity to redefine a downtown with a major university like Tech as its anchor is an opportunity most communities of similar size throughout America would covet -- and in no way just for the beer sales.
From Athens and Savannah in Georgia, to Charlottesville, Chapel Hill, and numerous other college towns around the country, the degree of success of a downtown adjacent to a major college campus is only limited by the degree to which the university and community work together toward a common vision that has something in it for both constituent groups.
In Winston-Salem, the single largest downtown project underway is the Piedmont Triad Research Park, under the direction of the Health Sciences Department of Wake Forest University. Long range plans call for several million square feet of new buildings and upwards of 30,000 new high paying technology and life-sciences jobs. With that comes the demand for more housing, dining, entertainment, retail, cultural activities and nearly all the things that typically are found in a successful downtown. The research park is clearly a top priority for not only the university, but also for the city and for the community's economic health going forward.
This is but one example of how everyone wins when "town and gown" truly establish a common vision where, as the old saying goes "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
Great things can happen when the goings on of the university infiltrates the streets of downtown Blacksburg. That will also be the case when the church music programs, bake sales and rummage sales team up with antique dealers on the streets of downtown Christiansburg.
Jack Steelman was the downtown development director for 15 years in Winston, N.C. He is a commercial real estate broker for The Meridian Realty Group.
