A Group Effort for Railroad Tourism

Frankly, it’s been a long time coming. The announcement by six rail-related museums and historical societies in in the region yesterday that the Virginia General Assembly has designated this as Virginia’s Rail Heritage Region has been in the works for some time.

The designation includes C&O Heritage Center, O. Winston Link Museum, National Railway Historical Society/Blue Ridge Chapter, National Railway Historical Society/Roanoke Chapter, Norfolk & Western Historical Society and the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

The effort has not always been fully coordinated and has not always been pointed in this specific direction, but the dream has been there since probably before what is now the Virginia Museum of Transportation was founded in the 1960s. The designation formalizes the group’s ongoing cooperative relationships with the goal of attracting more tourists—and more tourist spending—to the region.

The goal is joint promotion of the region’s significant rail heritage tourism assets: multiple museums, active rail lines, historic sites, and the activities of the historical societies. According to research by the Virginia Tourism Corporation, visitors to museums in Virginia spend 4.5 nights in Virginia, compared to an average of 3.2 nights by non-museum visitors. Museum visitors also spend more in Virginia: traveling parties that visit museums spend an average of $968, more than double the $449 spent by traveling parties that do not include a museum visit.

On the national level, according to research conducted by the U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Commerce, fully 40 percent of all leisure travelers in the U.S. actively engage in cultural and heritage travel, and 24 percent of U.S. leisure travelers (36 million adults) plan to take a cultural/heritage trip within the next 12 months.

As evidence of the national and international draw of the partner organizations: The O. Winston Link Museum reports New York, D.C. and London as its second, third, and fourth top cities of travel party origin. Sixty-five percent of visitors to the Virginia Museum of Transportation originate from more than 100 miles away, with half from out of state or out of the country.

While the Norfolk & Western Railway operated in only six states, the Norfolk & Western Historical Society has members in 40 states and 16 foreign countries. The recent excursions hosted by the Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society included passengers from Canada and many states across the U.S.

Blowing Away the Beauty in the Plaza

This old boy's blowing away one of the prettiest views in the Roanoke Valley^

In a Nov. 3 blog, I promised you a beautiful fall scene on the plaza in front of Fire Station No. 1, as soon as the leaves started falling off the Ginkgo trees. I've waited until now to follow that up with the "Hey! Get down there and look at it" entry because it wasn't ready yet. The leaves seemed to be falling, but my guess that the wind was blowing them away.

As you can see from the photo above, it's not God who's depriving you of one of the prettiest sights in the Roanoke Valley every year; it is the City of Roanoke, blowing the leaves off the brick walkway and wasting all that beauty. With the leaves in place, we have a golden carpet leading to the fire station. With them blown away, we have what we have all the time. A nice little courtyard with a bunch of people sitting at tables smoking cigarettes.

The guy doing the blowing didn't want me to take his picture and I suspect he'd seen the leaves as a carpet in the past and knew exactly what he was doing to this little spot of specialness. But it's his job, so we can't blame him.

Too bad, though, that the city, in all its efficiency, doesn't have a little space in there for a speck of rare beauty.

A Re-thinking of Roanoke's Priorities Organized

Three Roanoke activists who are among the new media leaders in the area have finally jumped into the political fray, but without party affiliation. It’s an effort to create an active citizen base in the Star City and it’s being called rethink Roanoke.

The organization is being led by Legal Aid lawyer and new journalist Hank Bostwick, Beth Deel of MyScoper and upUpPeriscope and Jeremy Holmes of Ride Solutions.

Says Bostwick: "People tell me that maybe at no other time in recent memory have the grassroots and netroots been so active in Roanoke. Every night in the Star City one community group or another is meeting, organizing, entertaining, or educating," says Bostwick. "An energy emanates from our City and people from all walks of life are starting to feel it."

Think Roanoke’s founders stress that they will work across party lines to create an open forum designed to spur creative commitment to civic responsibility regardless of party affiliation; so long as citizens understand the power they have to shape their communities, the group will be a success.

"We want participation," says Holmes. "We understand that, at the local level, party politics play a very small role. At this level, our leaders are also our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends and family members. They should be chosen because they are the best qualified to address the problems and opportunities that face us. But first, we all need to talk about and decide on what those opportunities are."

To get that discussion started, reThink Roanoke is organizing its first Star City Summit on Tuesday, December 1, 2009, at The Water Heater, 813 5th Street SW in Old Southwest Roanoke.

Those attending should begin to gather at 7:45 p.m. with the forum to start around 8 p.m. More information is available at rethinkroanoke.org, reThinkRoanoke.org or the reThink Roanoke Facebook group.

Joe Dashiell Takes a Look at The Roanoke Times

WDBJ7 television in Roanoke has been running promotions for respected journalist Joe Dashiell's impending reporting on The Roanoke Times and I'm eager to see what one of the best news reporters in this region's TV history comes up with.

My guess is that The RT will try to explain its dramatic circulation losses during the past two years with explanations of "penetration" and "readership," both good gauges, but neither a true balance for combined circulations losses of 11 percent between Sept. 30, 2007 and Sept. 30, 2009 (the drop is from 88,267 to 77,816, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations). The Times has lost 9,000 readers in the last year and 4,000 in the last six months combined total circulation.

"Readership" (the number of people reading the paper as a whole, and there are often more than one per subscription) is down 3.3 percent weekdays and 4.4 percent on Sundays, according to ABC, representing the loss of 13,213 sets of eyes on Sunday.

The numbers online are better, up 12 percent during the past 30 days from 104,000 to 111,000. That seems to be a saving grace for many papers. I hear complaints that The Times' site is difficult to navigate and that it doesn't run certain stories. The difficult navigation, I have dealt with and on occasion I can't find a story that I know is in the paper version.

We (Valley Business FRONT) did two long pieces on The Times this past February (by Alison Weaver, who once worked there) and you can find them here and here. The first is an interview with Publisher Debbie Meade and the second a look at the paper's impressive losses among experienced personnel under Meade's regime.

Watch for Joe's story. He'll do a good job with it.

Another Good Friend Loses Her Job

The layoffs and firings just keep striking and many are hitting close. My dear and long-time friend Sue Lindsey, who once saved my life, has been separated from* her job with the Associated Press. She ran the bureau in Roanoke from 2005 to Tuesday and AP apparently will close it.

I haven’t talked to her today, so I don’t know what’s up next for her, but Sue and I are the same age—63—and options for our age group are limited in a job market. She’s one of the most talented writers and editors I’ve ever known and one of the bravest, most compassionate and very best people in my experience.

She has been a journalist, it seems, forever, including 19 years with The Roanoke Times. She was a reporter and editor and wrote a column for the editorial page for a while. Sue has always been private and was never totally comfortable with the high profile of an editorial columnist. She finally gave it up.

AP says it plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce across the globe and blames much of its problems on the fact that newspapers, who pay for its services, are suffering. Revenue is down six percent, it reports.

Sue’s job loss is the third among people I call friend that I’ve learned about in 24 hours. Last night at the VB FRONT Open House, a friend who is in public relations for a local college says she is a victim of budget cuts and my old pal JoLynn Seifert, who worked with us in ad sales at the Business Journal, has been severed by The Roanoker Magazine.

On a better note, our office manager at the Business Journal, Susan Cousins (one of the most competent people I know), went to work today for the Creekmore Law Firm, which is getting a dandy in Susan.

But Sue. I’m really sad about this one. And, no, I’m not going to tell you how she saved my life because she would object. But she did and I’m forever grateful to her.

(*I say "separated from" here because I don't know what technical term AP used, but it's all pretty much the same. She won't be working for AP. A few weeks ago my pal Elizabeth Parsons was told by the Blue Ridge Business Journal that she was "laid off" on a Friday. The following Tuesday her replacement as editor was announced. Not sure how that fits in with "layoff.")

Is TV Trying To Kill College Football?

It is becoming evident that television's insatiable thirst for "content" is having a serious detrimental effect on college football. just minutes ago, I flipped the TV by a game between the University of Miami (Ohio) and the University of Buffalo, attended roughly by the population of a small dorm at Roanoke College. It was sad to see.

I can't find the official attendance at this point (the game's still being played), but the crowd is tiny on the side we can see and quiet on the side we can't in 30,000-seat Yeager Stadium. My guess the numbers are in low four digits.

Schools in Division I must average 15,000 per home game every other year if they are to stay there. That's a one of a number of requirements to be at that top level. In 2007, three MAC teams, including Buffalo, averaged fewer than 15,000 customers. Kent State was at 9,000. Last year Buffalo had a good team and went to a bowl. Those averages were without Tuesday games.

These are a couple of also-ran Middle American Conference teams that would draw decent crowds to their Saturday day games, but have no chance at large attendance on a Wednesday, school-night in a northern climate.

Earlier this season, the University of Memphis, which plays in the 62,000-seat Liberty Bowl, has a student body of more than 20,000 and is in Conference USA played before about 4,117 people in a Tuesday, rainy home game that was made for TV. Low attendance helped get Memphis' coach fired. (In an unrelated matter, UM's president is my former sister-in-law, a lovely woman named Shirley Raines.)

With college football on television virtually every night of the week now (Mondays seem to belong to pro football, but I'm not sure that will last), the product has become extremely thin and uninteresting, especially to the fans of the schools involved in many of these second-level games. The Tuesday and Wednesday games are especially sad and my guess is they're detracting from Saturdays because of saturation.

It would be lovely if television would exercise a little bit of thought and caution before televising these games, but that would certainly be a first.

A Stiff Sentence for Drunk Drivers in NY

I'm not sure how much of a threat the law has to present before drunk driving is curtailed, but New York seems to have taken a pretty serious step in the direction of dulling the enthusiasm of the imbibing crowd. The NY House today passed a bill that would make it a felony to drive drunk with a child in the car. That could mean four years in jail if it passes the Senate and is signed by the governor.

There's more to the bill: A first-time conviction requires that the drunk driver install a device in his car that would measure his booze intake before the car would start. Other states have that stipulation, but usually after two or more convictions. The felony is virtually unheard of. A felony is a serious crime (think murder, rape, robbery) and to my mind it is proper in drunk driving cases. Virginia classifies drunk driving as a Class I misdemeanor with maximum punishment at $2,500 in fines and a year in jail (rarely imposed). You also lose your driver's license. That's serious, but it's not the hammer presented by the NY law.

New York would join Arizona if it passes a law classifying driving drunk with kids in the car as a felony. Statistics have shown that the alcohol-level device installed on cars reduced repeat offenses by 65 percent, according to the NYTimes.

As one who used to regularly drive drunk (I'm a recovering alcoholic, as I've said before), and one who has driven drunk with children in the car, it is my opinion that I would not have driven drunk had penalties been as harsh as the four years in prison for a first offense that New York is considering. My guess is that most drunk drivers are good citizens otherwise who simply don't think about what they're doing. They'd think a little longer if they knew they were going to the clank for four years or more.

I don't normally believe that draconian sentencing does much beyond overburdening prison populations, but in this case, considering the offenders, my guess is that it would work much more readily as a deterrent.

There's no excuse for drunk driving. No logic for it. No explanation for it other than mindless, thoughtless stupidity. The prison sentence would serve as the 2X4 between the eyes that got the mule's attention.

A Genealogy Lesson at the Library Saturday

The Virginia Room at he Roanoke City Main Library on Jefferson Street, which every researcher in this region worth his salt knows well, will have two classes on genealogy Saturday, 1:30-3:30 p.m.

The classes are: "Beginner Genealogy" and "Finding Your British Ancestors Across the Pond." Experienced genealogists Don Vaughan and Karen Kappesser will teach. The Virginia Room staff will help conduct your research. For more information, e-mail varoom@roanokeva.gov or call 540-853-2073.

A Driving Literary Force

Your favorite editor (center) with Sharyn McCrumb and Adam Edwards^

Novelist Sharyn McCrumb, who lives in Roanoke County, and NASCAR driver Adam Edwards were well received last night with their presentation about working as co-authors at the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge's monthly Writers Workshop event.

The pair worked together in writing Faster Pastor, which is due out in the spring and we'll have a complete account of how they worked together in the January issue of Valley Business FRONT by David Perry. It's a good read (David's already turned it in, bless his heart; editors love early copy). Betsy Ashton will also have a review of an advance copy of the book.

A Not-So-Subtle Message

Back in the old days of the Blue Ridge Business Journal when our publisher Jim Lindsey was driving me crazy on a daily basis with a degree of micromanagement unknown in the annals of man, I came up with the above poster and put it on my door. I thought the hint would be meaningful and it was to the degree that Jim said of it, "Oh, I know people I'd love to say that to."

Sometimes the message is just marvelous, but it misses the target audience.

These days I'm dealing with several different projects where approval of a wide variety of people is necessary and I'm on the verge of suicide again, so I thought I'd re-acquaint my peeps with Clint's not-so-veiled threat. Won't do any good, but, hey, I'm trying. Sanity is a good thing.

Suppertime and the Meatless Table: Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut squash soup adds a seasonal balance to the meal^

Major life changes mean challenges that are, as often as not, quite pleasant. Becoming a vegetarian of sorts (fish excepted on occasion) means considerably more attention to what I'm cooking and how it goes with the rest of the meal. Getting those whole proteins and all the other vitamins and minerals I need is the goal and it's hard to meet at this point, while I'm still learning.

One of the dishes I've run into in the past few weeks that adds a lot of nutrition and a good bit of pleasure to dinner is butternut squash soup. I served it tonight with too much other food (salad, steamed squash and onions, grilled salmon) and it'd make Homer Simpson salivate. Mmmmmmmmmm, butter-nut squash sooooooooup.

Here's how you do it:

2 pounds butternut squash (one good sized squash; organic is best, but it's twice as expensive)
4 medium apples
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 onion
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Cup of cream
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 cups of vegetable broth (or fat free chicken broth if you're not a veggie boy; truth is, the chicken broth tastes better)

Sweat the onion in butter; cook the squash until it's tender; and do the same with the apples.

Put all that cooked food and the spices into a blender with the cup of cream and blend it smooth. Pour that into the simmering broth and let it all cook at that temperature for about 15 minutes.

It's good stuff, especially this time of the year.

My Favorite Movie So Far This Year

We now have the movie bar set for the year. It's "Pirate Radio" and it's funny, likeable, has marvelous music and plays to a crescendo of an illogical and perfectly delightful ending that leaves even the sourpuss smiling and saying to disbelievers, "Hey, shut up; it's a movie."

It's a movie the bad guy steals (Kenneth Branaugh, who plays a sinsiter government official with the task of, in effect, killing rock 'n' roll) and in which an ensemble cast is so thoroughly entertaining that it doesn't matter which of several plot lines is being followed, you'll be engaged. Bill Nighy and Philip Seymour Hoffman (with a delightful cameo from Emma Thompson) are the names in the cast (nobody else was familiar to me), but the Brits were perfectly cast as a motley crew of guys (and one lesbian allowed on what would normally be a single-sex boat). Into this happy home enter various white boot, mini skirt clad young women and all the while the music plays (with great shots of people excitedly listening).

At the baseline is a true story (though this is a thoroughly fictionalized version): the British government banned rock 'n' roll from official radio for a period in the 1960s when the country was the leading force in the music. Branaugh's character represents the government view and the overkill here is hilarious. The music, of course, is forced offshore--and outside British authority--and it is Branaugh's task to figure out how to turn it off.

The selection of tunes from 1966 is just about perfect and when, near the end, we see one of the DJs trying to save one album from disaster, it is the Joplin vinyl, "Box of Pearls" (says my pal Fred Campbell, who keeps up with things like that). Joplin sings over the closing credits, so my guess is Fred's right.

It helps some if you're a 60-something, unreconstructed rocker, but it is not required in liking this movie. It's genuinely funny for the reasons anything is funny and if you're a kid, go see it. You'll see yourself somewhere in here.