ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Roanoke parks and greenways planner Donnie Underwood paid a visit last month to a section of the Roanoke River Greenway to be constructed in the Norwich neighborhood of Roanoke.

STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

The Roanoke River Greenway that parallels Bennington Road Southeast is one of the newer sections of the greenway. It winds with the river and ends near the wastewater treatment plant.

ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Roanoke City Engineer Luke Pugh (left) and parks and greenways planner Donnie Underwood walk a section to be built in Southwest Roanoke's Norwich neighborhood.

A mixture of hope, concern and curiosity usually greets the arrival of an outsider into a tightly knit neighborhood.

The impending expansion of the Roanoke River Greenway into the city's Mountain View and Norwich communities over the next two years is no exception. With the construction of bridges and more than two miles of new trail set for completion by the end of 2012, residents there aren't sure what to expect.

They're hoping that an influx of bicyclists, runners and walkers will bring new blood and revitalization, but at the same time they harbor concerns about providing a new route for outsiders into the community.

"We see some new development coming in there, but we don't know when," said James "Ronnie" Stanley of the Norwich Neighborhood Alliance. "You can see the handwriting on the wall, but you don't know what it's going to be."

The long-term effects remain to be seen, but based on interviews with those who live along the extended area of the greenway in Southeast Roanoke, there already have been positive changes. The stretch of greenway from Ninth Street to the east bears some similarities to the proposed route through Norwich, as it generally runs along industrial areas while occasionally bearing near houses.

The greenway's stretch through the center of the city at Wasena Park, Smith Park and the River's Edge Sports Complex remains its heart and most popular piece, but with a recent influx of federal money, city officials are working to expand the paved path at both ends. To the east, a mixture of stimulus money and other government funding will help pay for a bridge and path around the wastewater treatment plant to connect the Tinker Creek Greenway with the Roanoke River Greenway where it currently ends at 13th Street.

To the west, construction already is under way on a bridge to link Wasena Park with the newly opened Vic Thomas Park (the former Hannah Court trailer park), and officials received bids this week to extend the greenway west to Bridge Street.

And even though the bridge to Vic Thomas Park won't be complete until later this summer, Gregg Ervin, president of the Mountain View Neighborhood Association, said he's noticed some changes.

"We've already seen an increase in bike riders in this neighborhood," Ervin said. "It is drawing new people into the neighborhood."

Certainly, that's what city officials would like to see. They've spun the emerging greenway system not only as a source of recreation and alternative transportation, but also as an asset that can assist long-stagnant neighborhoods with revitalization.

Roanokers appear to have embraced the concept: Greenway construction is one of the few capital projects that most seem to agree is worth the cost, and an ever-increasing number of users make a habit of visiting them regularly.

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Ron McCorkle and Mark Petersen are both Southeast Roanoke activists who bought houses near the new extended stretch of the greenway. Cycling enthusiast McCorkle said he noticed a significant increase in people on bicycles even before the stretch of greenway along Bennington Street opened in early 2007. He said that he expects the greenway to slowly change attitudes about Southeast Roanoke.

"Most of the people who use it live in another part of the city. They have an opinion of Southeast, but now they're getting to ride through and see it's a really great neighborhood," McCorkle said. "What happens is that people will see it's a great neighborhood with great value and houses that are affordable. And they'll start to move in. I've already seen it start to happen."

Others said the neighborhood hasn't changed substantially, but blamed that largely on the slumping housing market. Some said it's still too early to expect large-scale results.

"I think we would look for those improvements to stabilize neighborhoods first," said Assistant City Manager Brian Townsend. "Then over time, once that stabilization happens, you see investment and improvement."

What folks do agree upon is that more people than ever are out using the greenway, and many of them live nearby.

On Wednesday evening last week, Doug and Kathy King, who live a short drive from the 13th Street trail head in Southeast, said they've made walking the greenway a near-daily routine since Kathy was diagnosed with diabetes several weeks ago. Others from nearby Garden City and Vinton rode bikes along the paved path.

"As far as neighborhood use, we have a lot of kids who are going down and using the greenway," Petersen said. "I've seen pedestrian traffic on the greenway pick up just in the last six months. Every Saturday afternoon, if it's a nice day, you can't find parking on the 13th Street trail head."

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Those crowds have brought activity and a new atmosphere -- and they've created some inconveniences for the greenway's neighbors, too, some say.

Richard Artutis owns 3 acres of land that sit along the greenway by Deaton Road, which serves as an access point for some users. The problem is there's no place to park, which has at times led to conflicts between greenway users and tenants in Artutis' houses.

"I've had to fight the traffic of people wanting to get here," Artutis said. "I've had people park in my yard, drive through at a high rate of speed."

Artutis said he considers the greenway a city resource "for all the different walks of life to get out and say hello to each other." But he said he's also heard groups of "wanna-be thugs" passing by at 2 a.m. or later.

"Too much havoc could happen on that greenway," Artutis said. "It would make an excellent getaway for a thug. I guess it just depends on how your mind works."

Artutis said he wondered, too, if the city's homeless population might be using the greenway as an open-air shelter, but Petersen said he hasn't seen it.

"The biggest thing we anticipated when they opened the greenway was the loitering of homeless people under the bridges, but that's not happened," Petersen said.

In fact, most of those interviewed along the greenway in Southeast said they hadn't noticed an uptick in loitering or crime in general. Aside from some burglaries here and there, crime appears to have gone down since the greenway opened.

"Having more people use public space increases security," Townsend said. "Show me an area that's got a lot of activity, I'll show you a safe area. Show me an area that doesn't have a lot of activity -- that's where bad things are going to happen."

Still, it's not entirely clear that it's all because of the greenway.

David Ten-Eyck, who lives in a house just across the street from an exposed stretch of greenway, said he's noticed a drop in suspicious-looking people passing by. He attributes that not to the greenway, however, but to the increasingly sporadic hours of a nearby convenience store. The store's owner and an employee were both killed in unrelated incidents less than a month apart in 2005, and managers since then haven't kept regular hours, Ten-Eyck said.

For all of its benefits, the greenway has also brought some disappointments, too.

Ten-Eyck noted that it was built as part of the Army Corps of Engineers flood reduction project, and city officials have crowed after recent flood events that the project is working. But Ten-Eyck complained that he still pays flood insurance.

Petersen said he is disappointed that the city hasn't maintained the greenway's trees and landscaping since 2007. Many of those trees have died but have not been replaced.

Artutis grumbled that the concrete at the end of Deaton Road had crumbled since the greenway was put in.

Still, Artutis said he has enjoyed the greenway since it was opened, and he is hoping to see some financial benefit. He is trying to sell his 3 acres -- which sit next to an electrical substation at a point with easy access to both the greenway and the Mill Mountain Star Trail -- for $2.5 million.