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. [...]
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 [...]
The recent controversies surrounding the Market Building have brought a great deal of attention to the fate of the food court vendors. While they have received constant media attention and the obvious sympathy of the mayor, the plight of another downtown business owner has gone virtually unnoticed by the public or by city officials. The [...]
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 [...]
If you’re not already familiar with the Miller’s Hill redevelopment effort on the 400 block of Day Avenue, please check out my previous post to get up to speed on the basic facts. I’ve been in contact with a couple of Miller’s Hill homeowners since that article appeared, and I had the chance to spend [...]
I had not planned to write anything else on the Market building for a while, but there is one nagging point that I feel the need to address. The rodent infestation issue has been covered pretty thoroughly by the Roanoke Times and the local TV stations, and the more we learn from these sources, the [...]
Even though I have been unemployed for the past six months, the idea of leaving Roanoke to seek opportunities elsewhere has rarely entered my mind. In my younger days I was always prepared to pack up and relocate to take advantage of an opportunity for career advancement. This quest led me to a number of [...]
I’ve watched with great interest over the past couple of years as downtown Roanoke has undergone the beginnings of a renaissance. The return of two-way traffic has brought Campbell Avenue back to life, and a number of high profile projects are transforming the Jefferson Street corridor from the railroad tracks all the way to South [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]