Still Deciding

Our local Roanoke elections are Tuesday this week and I'm still deciding who to vote for. During the last election cycle in 2006, there was a large, contentious issue (for Roanoke) on the table: the disposition of Victory Stadium. It was razed and turned into athletic fields - a decision I was 100% in favor of and benefit from because that is where we have our girl's lacrosse practices and games.

Since that pivotal issue has been dealt with, we are faced with a more nebulous campaign that is more about the general approach that should be taken to solving the city's problems. In my opinion, the most pressing problem is the state of public education in the city. We have a 57% graduation rate in the city and, by some measures, have high schools that are ranked 298 and 299 out of 303 in the state. This is a complete disgrace and needs to be rectified.

I appreciate that we have a new superintendent who seems very qualified and dedicated, but she is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Many of the problems are fundamental to the structure of the schools. For example, they are too large to be effective. Why is Patrick Henry 1900 students when most research indicates that schools with 800 or fewer students are better (pdf link)? If it is a matter of money, raise taxes and address the infrastructure issues.

In the absence of a sea change in sentiment and direction, our schools will continue to flounder and fail. Sometimes, that requires doing things that are outside of the mainstream. A idea I saw recently was a school district that was offering to pay the college tuition for any graduate of the high schools. Why not? This gives kids an additional incentive to finish up with school because they have something to do after they graduate. Plus, the skills imparted by a high school education are inadequate for the kind of jobs that provide a decent wage. A bold and innovative program like that would certainly attract attention and contribute positively to the reputation of our city.

Second, is establishing Roanoke as a place that people want to be and that takes good jobs. Economic growth has been a problem. By encouraging people who grow up here to stay here and getting "creative class" people to consider moving here, we can improve the vibrancy of the local economy. In some ways, this is a chicken and egg problem where you need to have the high value jobs to encourage people to come here and you need to have the high value people to start the businesses with the high value jobs. It's a tough problem to solve.

For people with school age children, this gets addressed somewhat by the education issue. When we moved here from Seattle in 2000, I remember thinking, "Roanoke is a nice place but the schools are pretty lousy" and it made the decision to come here (vs. say NOVA or Charlottesville) more difficult. Showing a serious commitment to education changes the perception of our city dramatically.

However, there are other ideas that could help cut the Gordian knot of kickstarting economic growth. Things like the new art museum help by getting some notice and appealing to people who value culture. To attract the attention of people that would otherwise never consider living in Roanoke, we need to pick something and be the best at it. We aren't going to be able to have the best climate or professional sports teams, but we can find something that becomes the "hedgehog concept" for the city and make it happen.

To me, something that makes sense would be to take advantage of the natural beauty, relatively mild climate and head start we have already with the existing greenways and endeavor to become the best small city for cycling the East. Why not? This would attract attention of the creatives that can contribute to economic growth, but would give us something we can take pride in and hopefully encourage people in our area to live a little healthier (you can get out and walk on a nice bicycle path as well as ride on it). This would cost money and take a lot focused effort, but is a much better use of limited resources than an amphitheater that would sit idle and empty most of the time and contribute little to our citizen's day to day lives.

A city with great schools and bike paths combined with a growing creative economy, natural beauty, a reasonable cost of living, a decent climate and Southern hospitality? Wow. That sounds like an excellent place to live.

After that rant, I still need to pick who I will vote for on Tuesday. Nobody seems that bold or innovative and it might be a bit much to ask of a city that took years to decide whether or not to demolish a dilapidated relic of a stadium, but hope springs eternal. In that light, I'll read up on the candidates carefully and try to pick the best people who might have a fresh vision of what Roanoke could be and have the courage to ask question "Why Not?"