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Another Possible Home For The Food Court Vendors

Posted by Chris Berry on October 10, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

I wrote a brief post last Friday suggesting a number of possible new locations for a downtown food court that would serve the needs of the Market Building tenants and their customers. Relocating the food court vendors would allow them to continue doing business without interruption, and would clear the way for the Market Building [...]

Encourage More Blogging By City Officials

Posted by Chris Berry on October 6, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

Other than election day, ordinary citizens don’t have very many opportunities to make their thoughts known to their elected representatives. Even though the City of Roanoke provides numerous opportunities for members of the public to speak at council meetings and other forums, these gatherings do not attract a true cross section of the voting public. [...]

It’s Time To Consider A New Home For The Food Court

Posted by Chris Berry on October 3, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

The debate over the future of the Market Building has been long on criticism and short on ideas. Even the public input session intended to collect ideas for the future of the building amounted to nothing more than a pep rally for the food court vendors. Other than the initial proposal unanimously rejected by the [...]

Chico Was Not Happy Last Night

Posted by Chris Berry on September 26, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

I attended the public forum on the Market Building last night, and to sum it up as succinctly as possible, I would describe it as a complete waste of time. The session was promoted as an opportunity for the public to share their thoughts with city officials, but since only a handful of council members [...]

Council Makes Another Surprising Decision

Posted by Chris Berry on September 18, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

The headlines following the city council meeting on Monday were all about the acrimonious debates over Countryside and the Reserve Avenue amphitheater site. There were several other items on the agenda that day that received little to no media coverage. Among them was my application for a vacant seat on the Economic Development Authority.
I have [...]

Last Word On The Market Building, For Now

Posted by Chris Berry on September 17, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

I hadn’t planned to write anything else on the Market Building controversy, but I received a nasty dissenting comment on a previous post this morning that changed my mind.
Oh yes Chris, blame the tenants for the disrepair, not the landlord. That makes perfect sense. Yes it is Chico’s fault that the city has shown [...]

Why Chico’s Happiness Shouldn’t Matter

Posted by Chris Berry on September 14, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

Much of the debate over the future of the Market Building has focused on the fate of the existing food court vendors. Our mayor has even gone so far as to state that the concerns of the vendors should take precedence over any other aspect of the building’s rehabilitation. “When Chico is happy, I will [...]

When Chico Is Happy, I Will Be Happy

Posted by Chris Berry on September 13, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

“When Chico is happy, I will be happy”. That was the response from Mayor David Bowers to the recently rejected proposal by the Coalition For The Roanoke City Market to renovate the historic Market Building. The mayor was referring to the owner of Chico’s Big Lick Pizza, a long-time tenant of the food court. The [...]

Who Really Runs The City?

Posted by Chris Berry on September 11, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

I’ve been waiting for an outpouring of anger and disbelief in the editorial pages and the blogs for the last several days, and it’s amazing to me that it hasn’t materialized. Am I the only one who finds it hard to believe that our elected members of the city council recently voted to reject a [...]

More On The Future Of Countryside

Posted by Chris Berry on August 14, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

UPDATE: Newly elected council member Court Rosen requested additional financial information at a council meeting on August 18th, leading many Countryside supporters to believe he supports selling the property. His complete comments are available here. Valerie Garner, President of the Countryside Neighborhood Alliance and unsuccessful candidate for city council in 2008 makes her position clear [...]

It’s Time For A Permanent Resolution On Countryside

Posted by Chris Berry on August 7, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

It appears that Countryside is about to receive a five year reprieve from the threat of development. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, the future of the golf course remains uncertain. The Roanoke Times recently ran an editorial supporting the plan for a five year lease that allows the city to [...]

Farewell To Joe Smith

Posted by Chris Berry on May 7, 2008 in Elections and Voting, Local Politics

Before the Joe Smith ads appeared in local papers last weekend, I had already made up my mind to ignore the endorsements of various organizations for their chosen slates of candidates, and instead select individual candidates based on their merits. While the “For the City” slate that swept the last election was instrumental in finally [...]

Who Is Joe Smith?

Posted by Chris Berry on May 4, 2008 in Local Politics, Roanoke Valley

Let me say upfront that I am neither a supporter nor an opponent of Court Rosen. I know very little about him other than that he is well spoken and has a natural gift for providing eloquent but evasive answers to pointed questions. I also know that Mr. Rosen was recently the victim of a [...]

Council Forum A Flop

Posted by Chris Berry on April 17, 2008 in Elections and Voting, Local Politics

On Tuesday evening, I attended a forum with all of the candidates for Roanoke City Council and Mayor. Actually, all of the candidates save one were in attendance. Brian Wishneff’s decision not to participate was probably related to the fact that he had publicly referred to his fellow council members as slimy democracy hating thugs [...]

Council Follows Predictable Path

Posted by Chris Berry on March 18, 2008 in Elections and Voting, Local Politics

At a time when our city is in dire need of fresh thinking from our elected leaders, the city council has followed the predictable path in their choice of applicants to interview for the seat vacated by Alfred Dowe. Of the twenty-two people who applied for the seat, council apparently only sees fit to grant [...]