Lotzothoughtz

This is going to be short.

The Roanoke Arts Festival that was planned and bankrolled by the city was an abysmal failure with most venues not even selling half of their tickets.  However in true Roanoke fashion the City Manager Darlene Burcham and the City Council are already hot on their heels to plan the next one.  Of course we get the usual excuses as to why it wasn’t a success, not enough advertising, kinda thrown together, no youth oriented shows.  All the the usual BS with the City trying to cover their butts while they waste our tax dollars on one more useless festival that is used simply to mask the fact that City leaders never accomplish anything of consequence.

Your tax dollars at work folks, well spent?  Eh I don’t know so.

In a healthy society opposition to whatever power/government is ruling is healthy.  Regardless of what opinion of are of a ruling government having opposition to that government, even if it is your ideological government, is necessary in order for a government to remain successful.  

This almost sounds contrary at first, but when you consider it you see it is indeed accurate.  It seems contrary because we often thing “If we had a Congress, A judiciary, and an Executive of the same ideological ilk than surely they could work together to achieve more, without opposition and fighting.”  However this completely wrong because when a government goes unchecked all its ideas, good and bad, have free reign to do their good and bad wills.  Only in a world ruled by perfect people could a completely ideologically homogenous government be successful.

What a healthy opposition does is maintain a marketplace of ideas.  In order to maintain power a ruling government/ideology must continually put out feasible, understandable, workable, and good ideas for the betterment of the nation, of the people.  Basically, it competes with the opposition for power and in doing so is forced not to stagnate.  

Revolution is such a novel idea, to most Westerners it means little. It brings up nifty ideals and memories of past events in our shared histories yet in our modern world view its meaning is relatively lost. In America, and in other Western and “Modern” countries I suspect, we are incredibly complacent in our governments, in our lives.  However, we complain and yell and gripe about Pres. Bush, about Congress, about Iraq, about PM Blair.

Here in Roanoke I have often been part of a similar chorus of socio-political commentators and whiners. Do not misunderstand me, I intend to continue on with this despite that fact I do see the comparative futility of such endeavours.

All I am saying and all that any other such people, like the Roanoke Found blog, are saying are in the end only ideas. They are social and political ideologies that without action possess no power, when all you have is reaction without any tangible element involved then how in any instance can you truly create change? Without both aspects, a physical attempt (like working in a political campaign) and an ideological attempt (arguing your political wants/needs/etc that caused you to join that campaign), then you cannot expect to reach an end that is totally and wholly what you desired.

This is a huge epidemic that has taken hold in the US over the passed couple of decades, a whole nation big on complaints and thoughts but so short on action or tangible result. What happened to make us such a nation of dullards, of people content to be told what is true and what is not, what to do, what to believe. When did we stop thinking as a whole, instead all we do is maintain our lives as we know them never going outside of our safety because in that lies something new…….something perhaps less safe. But that is just it, this state keeps the U.S. and other Western nations in a kind of bubble, as revolutionaries fight in South America, terrorists and nationalists fight in the middle east, and pirates (yes pirates) navigate the seas in Asia we sit at home watching American Idol.
The world is big yet our world is quite small. And within that world we are content to be as happy dogs, doing as we are told, believing as we are told to believe.

Someone, somewhere once said “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and I truly believe this applies to the new building currently being built for the art museum in downtown Roanoke.  This building is seen by some as an elegant ode to modern design with graceful swooping metallic wings and by others as a tragic, hideous, and gigantic piece of shrapnel.  Which ever belief you ascribe to you cannot deny one key issue: the structure will forever alter and shape downtown Roanoke.

 Downtown Roanoke isn’t known for its architectural deviants or revelations, as far as small city downtown’s go it’s fairly on par with similar ones trying to revitalize themselves.  However, there is a general architectural unity to the downtown area.  At the economic and social core of the Center in the Square there is a modern meets quaint colonial-like feel, as the downtown spreads out that is quickly replaced by a sometimes dreary modern, utilitarian architectural feel.  Closer to the Center in the Square core than not the new art museum building promises to resemble nothing downtown.  As an art museum I assume the Art Museum of Southwestern Virginia believes it should take asthetic risks with its interior and exterior building design.  After all good art is always controversial, art sometimes seeks to destroy your preconceived notions and to hopefully open up your mind to the new possibilities that it seeks to confront you with.  So with this building the art museum no only becomes just an art museum, it becomes art itself.

 Is this the type of building that downtown Roanoke needs?  Well, maybe.  Perhaps this innovative design will spur further innovation downtown, which seriously needs some help.  Maybe it will attract interesting new businesses and spur creativity in the region, acting as a catalyst to some new, shiny, metallic future.  Who knows how this could affect the future development of downtown, in 10 years times maybe it will be a show piece of modern, “green”, innovative architecture and businesses.  Or maybe not.  What if this seemingly innovative building turns out to be failure, what if people don’t flock to the museum but avoid it because they disagree with the building.  Maybe it would be considered an eyesore and something the community will come to dislike and make fun of.  Which in turn would mean no similar development downtown, keeping it on it’s present somewhat unoffensive and kind of boring track.  Which in all likelihood would lead to stagnation at some point because people, let’s face it downtown Roanoke is an economic hub but it isn’t some packed, bustling urban core.  And that, in the future, will be a key to Roanoke’s development: urbanization/modernization or key areas of the valley.

So in the end the building of this museum, despite if it fails or flies, reminds more of what Roanoke has to be in order for it to remain relevant.

The youth of Roanoke are fleeing Roanoke as fast as they can graduate (or drop out) of High School. Those that don’t leave often do not go on to college, thusly they don’t make as much money, can’t spend it, can’t buy homes and when they do its on the cheap, and generally are apathetic to the political process because they‘re too busy trying to live. These are generalizations, not rules. Factor in the influx of people aged 50+, and you’ve got yourself a horrible situation: old people requiring services, uneducated workers filling in the service niche, with relatively educated few doing the work that requires a formal education (both college and technical educations).

If you are under, under 25, why live in a place surrounded by Graybacks and whose City Government seeks to cater only to the wealthy and the old. For up and coming college kids out of school living in Roanoke is a risk. Finding a job here is hard, harder than in most other place that size of Roanoke and larger. Why is it harder? Because all this city seems to want are medical students to keep the Graybacks alive, everything else is just so many details. There is no other large business sector in Roanoke for college educated workers other than the medical field. If you are a Computer programmer, you go to Blacksburg or out of state. Want to work for Government? Go to NOVA/DC or Richmond.

Roanoke few good opportunities for college educated young people and for young people in general. And who am I to say all of this? I’m just a college educated youth living in Roanoke. Aside from the jobs in Roanoke another huge reason the youth are fleeing Roanoke is it’s social atmosphere. To give you an idea of the City Government’s priorities that add to the social environment I’ve made up a little check list that I think the City Council keeps in their heads:

-Appease soccer moms [check]

-Make sure rich people are doing well [check]

-Seek to give Roanoke City a disproportionate amount of old people [check]

-Ensure nothing ever changes downtown that would be for the benefit of the people [check]

-Don’t rock the boat, we got a good thing going here on City Council [check]

The social atmosphere in Roanoke is dedicated to 30somethings and 50+somethings. Coffee houses, inoffensive restaurants, family friendly chains-rinse and repeat if desired. No I’m not listing a certain area in Roanoke City, I am listing the entire city. There are no decent places for young people to go, no true nightclubs, no affordable yet modern restaurants, no internet cafes, nothing cutting edge, nothing taking a risk; an aspect which often attracts young people. And its not for lack of trying, in large part its because of zoning restrictions, lack of financial incentives, as well as a lack of ability to get the word out there about new and interesting places. And in Roanoke you have to get the word out, no one discovers anything (movies, restaurants, etc) without being told about it first. Or so it seems most of the time.

The City of Roanoke seems to think that it can rest on its laurels while making small overtures to the youth of Roanoke. That in the end those “kids” will come back to Roanoke as it is, unchanged, static. It’s easier to remain the same but if Roanoke continues for much longer hemorrhaging young people, then it is over for Roanoke as a viable urban area. Let’s review:

-The City seeks to draw people aged 50+ to Roanoke while making near useless attempts to keep the college educated young-or even the young period. -Roanoke City doesn’t diversify its social offerings by rezoning areas or offering any decent incentives to open up businesses that young people would utilize. -And generally the City Council loves to sit on their butts and do nothing of any true consequence.

The Youth of Roanoke are the Future of Roanoke. If you drive away your youth, if you make life in Roanoke substandard for youth that stay, then you drive away your future.

I look around at my generation and shake my head. The early 20somethings (20-24) are a lost generation. We don’t understand how to survive in the real world, ruined by our often too forgiving baby-boomer parents. We are a generation of followers looking for our next leader, going from fix to fix. Parents, teachers, bosses, God; these are those who we look to in order to tell us what to do, how to be, what to be. We can’t be left alone to our own devices as most of our natural initiative has been thwarted by an over scheduled walled in world.

From what I’ve seen growing up for the passed 14 years in
Roanoke VA it seems to me that politics here are unfocused and often general in nature.  What I mean is that the political parties in
Roanoke seem weaker than, say, individuals who run for office.  Which I guess shouldn’t surprise me, on the local level I guess it would be easier for the individual to “connect” or at least give face time to enough people to circumvent the need for stronger than not political parties.  Not that the political parties don’t exist in
Roanoke, I’ve just never come into contact with them myself, which in itself says something.

            As a very politically aware person I have always been disappointed by
Roanoke’s citizens’ apparent lack of enthusiasm for involvement in their government.  Sure you have your subset of individuals who feel the civic calling vocally complain about everything from taxes to trash pick-up.  However, overall people in
Roanoke are somewhat apathetic to the political process with a surge in general political concern on election days.  Local elections are admittedly not as sexy as Federal or even State politics often times because the issues are huge issues of national or statewide consequence.  Instead local elects deal much of the time with mundane issues that really don’t excite passion and debate but do have much more of an affect on an individual’s day to day life and experience.  Interaction is the key to ending this attitude of relative apathy inRoanoke
City in regards to politics and government policy.  The relationship between citizens and their government is a two way street and I really don’t see the City of Roanoke going far out of its way to engage it’s citizenry.  One way to do this is to embrace technology by holding virtual online town hall meetings where the citizens can directly address the city council, providing a place for those who can’t attend the physical City Council meetings.  Secondly

In in the recent past political elections have too often been made based on single issues, which to an issue’s credit does provoke political passions.  Despite this single issue candidates are typical of do not make for good long-term policy decisions and thus are not good for the overall city government.  I’d rather have a political genius who disagrees with me on a perceived important issue on the City Council than have idiots on the City Council who agree with me.  Additionally single issue candidates often only represent a local and vocal minority, factor the low voter turnout at local elections and shortly you might find yourself in a city governed for a minority of people rather than the majority.

Both this seeming lack of political unity and organization plus minorities who out scream each other for power in the city spell a bleak outlook for the current and future leadership of the city.  Recently the political scene has gotten a bit murkier with the local Democratic party ousting the Mayor and others for supporting the newly elected “Independent” candidates that have seen take their place on the City Council, after of course the Mayor attempted a coup of the very same organization.  So one party is fighting among itself, the local Republicans have never been ones to say much, and then the independents who are hard to define as they are to find. 

 For once I wish there would be a singularly impressive political figure in
Roanoke.  Someone who has the ideas, charisma, intelligence, and drive to really better the city without an eye towards their own political career or business interests over the interests of the people. 
Roanoke hasn’t really had this, or rather they haven’t had someone like this lately and right now is when
Roanoke needs it.  Right nowRoanoke
City is in a do or die situation, they need to retain young people while leveraging the cash of the retirees that are flocking here like ladybugs to a screen door..  Additionally they have to boost graduation rates, ensure that companies on the technological edge in medicine and consumer electronics find some niches here, all the trying to maintain and improve everyone’s experience of living in Roanoke City (as any city does).  So go on, wipe that sweat off of your brow, because we’ve gotta get busy. 

 Actually we, as citizens, have to make sure we know who we are voting for, avoid becoming victims of our passions and vote based on a single at-the-time-important issues, and try to find and retain our youth who will inherit and ultimately build on, create, and maintain Roanoke City.