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The "vision thing" has come up again in Radford.

Recently, a cadre of government, business and civic poo-bahs gathered to outline eight "visioning principles" that will improve the city's eyesight to 2020.

Wait, check that! They will improve the city's vision by 2020, as in the year.

That is an admirable goal. Who knows if any of us will be around in 2020, or if Radford will even exist or if this manifesto will end up forgotten in somebody's desk drawer. The exercise is a noble pursuit, nonetheless.

According to news reports, Radford's future will be built upon the eight pillars of commercial business, natural beauty, sports and outdoor recreation, diversity, effective government, a strong relationship between Radford University and the city, education, and preservation of heritage and historic buildings.

If you think you've heard this before, well, you have. Radford, like every other municipality in the commonwealth, embarks upon extended bouts of hand-wringing over the future. Children grow up and move away, the population grows older, life moves faster, and no one knows what tomorrow may hold. A plan! We need a plan!

I have lived in and around Radford long enough to have seen many of these plans unveiled. Consultants consult. Planners plan. Speakers speak.

The plans always look great and sound exciting. I once sat in on a meeting during which a highly paid consultant revealed a grand plan to bridge the gap between Radford's idiosyncratic east and west business districts. That was in 1999. I have no idea whether any of the consultant's ideas were implemented.

Like most localities, Radford asks many of the same questions and fights many of the same battles year after year. I found this passage from our computer archives:

"Downtown retailing is alive and fighting here despite taking some heavy punches from new competitors.

"Within the past few years, officials have taken drastic measures to save the downtown and have begun an overall face lift to give area businesses a boost.

" ... With the additional effort being put into the local retail business, officials say Radford will survive the economic crunches it has experienced. They don't feel defeated, only that the downtown needs modernization to keep up."

That was published in the New River Current on April 5, 1990, but it could have been last week.

On the one hand, you could get depressed when you realize that these battles are never-ending. The stuff our leaders talked about 16 years ago is still being talked about today.

Then again, the fact that interested parties keep coming forward to discuss matters of great importance and attempt to plan Radford's future is a good reason to remain optimistic. Do these "visioning plans" always produce the expected results? No, they do not. Do they get shunted aside the next time a new survey or consultant's report is released? Yes, they do.

But the conversation has to continue. Hopefully, action will follow. I have lived in Radford for many years and have heard more talk than I've seen action.

If I can give any piece of advice to the leaders who are much smarter than I am when it comes to the "vision thing," it would be to not overlook the obvious answers or make the problems seem larger and more insurmountable than they are.

Radford is the only Virginia city on the New River, so the possibilities for becoming an outdoor mecca are obvious. Radford is a college town, so the economy and culture are dependent on a vibrant Radford University. The potential is there for the city to do and become great things.

Of course, I also wrote that in 1999. Some good things have happened since then. It would be nice to see many more positive changes, long before 2020 gets here and I am too old to enjoy them.

Ralph Berrier Jr. has been with The Roanoke Times since 1993.