2005 State of the City
Mayor C. Nelson Harris
STATE OF THE CITY 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Roanoke Academy of Mathematics & Science
Good morning, members of City Council, city administration, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens.
It's always an honor as your Mayor to come before our business, neighborhood, educational and governmental community to share in the good news about the state of our city. You are among the many who contribute their time, talents and resources to the city – thank you for gathering today to hear about our shared successes and give careful consideration to the challenges ahead.
At this time I also I want to acknowledge my fellow members of City Council with us today. Please join me now in thanking them for their tireless service.
Since I met with you a year ago, we have seen Roanoke continue on a course to prepare us for future growth and development. With our most recent achievements, more people are discovering what we already know: that Roanoke, Virginia, is a thriving community comprised of a rich tapestry of residents, students and small businesses.
It is a pleasure to be here at the new home for the Roanoke Academy of Mathematics & Science. When the students and staff moved here in May, they walked together from the old building just down the road to this beautiful new facility, Roanoke's first new elementary school in 29 years. It was an exciting and symbolic time for them – as it is for us as we celebrate new developments throughout the city and continue to recognize ways that we are moving from the old to the new, honoring our past and making plans for the future.
Those plans include a vision for our housing stock and neighborhoods, for economic growth and a world-class school system, enhancing our municipal services and embracing our cultural diversity and more. Plans that can be turned into action and reality as we all join together to shape Roanoke’s future.
Housing & Neighborhoods: Trends, Challenges & Development
In the area of housing and neighborhoods, we are continuing to seek creative and strategic alternatives to provide a mixture of diverse quality housing. As many of you know, like most mature cities in Virginia, Roanoke has little land available for development of new residential neighborhoods.
We also are well aware of the housing trends in Roanoke: the decline in the number of housing units, our aging housing stock, low ownership/high renter percentage, a declining population, and the high concentration of low and moderate income housing.
To help combat these trends, the city has developed a Strategic Housing Plan, which includes a goal for Roanoke to have a balanced, sustainable variety of housing choices in all price ranges and design options that encourage social and economic diversity throughout the City. To accomplish this goal we will have to develop strategies to increase homeownership, reduce substandard housing, increase the value of housing to meet the regional average, disperse low and moderate income housing and expand our market-rate housing.
Work has begun on the 23-acre Colonial Green development that will add 220 single-family houses, condominiums and apartments, plus a small commercial district, to the mix. Those market-rate homes are scheduled to go on sale before the end of the year.
The city is providing funding to the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority to purchase 17 properties in the 400 block of Day Avenue in order to create market-rate home ownership opportunities and help to further revitalize the neighborhood.
The city’s option to purchase Countryside Golf Course pursues that goal by creating new land use opportunities, providing a broad range of housing choices, and continuing to grow our tax base.
More opportunities exist downtown. Several historic buildings are being renovated as condos, lofts and apartments to help meet the needs of those who want to live in the city’s urban and cultural center, a trend that is occurring across the nation. Right now there are more than 125 housing units downtown – including our home. A study has shown that there is room for about 600 units downtown and more people will move downtown in the coming years.
We will continue to work with those developers who want to encourage city living. I thank our partners at the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority for their help. We now are in the process of assisting the Authority in moving to the municipal building downtown, which will allow the Authority and city administration to work together more closely and in a centralized location that will better serve everyone.
The transformation Roanoke has undergone this year shows that we are a city of specific plans for our neighborhoods. Last year we celebrated the launch of the Cradle-to-Cradle Housing Competition, which has been a unique opportunity to showcase our city. We have since recognized the winners of that competition and broken ground on the first home in Gainsboro in June. C2C shows the commitment to high-quality, environmentally friendly, and affordable housing throughout our neighborhoods. Staff is working to identify ways to further emphasize C2C principles in our housing strategies.
Our city staff is in the process of completing the final neighborhood plans as part of the city's overall Vision 2001/2020 Plan. We are continuing to focus attention and resources on revitalizing neighborhoods to boost property values and appearance in those neighborhoods. The Parks and Recreation Department staff has planted almost 700 trees to further develop the city's urban forest and tree canopy, and developed an action strategy with residents for recreation opportunities and potential partnerships in the Villa Heights community. There has been a 77% reduction of accidents on Williamson Road since the completion of those traffic improvements. Staff is now taking on plans for traffic improvements along Huff Lane, Aviation Drive/Towne Square and other corridors in the city. We have also re-dedicated Eureka Recreation Center – which has expanded opportunities for hundreds of residents – and opened the new Ridgewood Park, which residents helped plan, design and construct. Later this month, the Roanoke Youth Commission will formally dedicate the renovated Preston Center that the youths planned and designed themselves. The Police Cadet Program began this past year as a joint program of Parks and Recreation and the Police Department. The program strengthens the Police Department’s recruiting efforts by targeting those young men and women who are interested in full-time law enforcement careers.
We are set to soon adopt a much-improved Zoning Ordinance, which will establish better planning and design in the city, aligning future development with the Comprehensive Plan. Both the new Zoning Ordinance and the city’s Housing Plan illustrate our goal of placing our city on a solid foundation for the future.
Education: A New Administration, New Direction
Schools are closely linked to the vitality of our city and our neighborhoods. The state of our schools is perhaps one of the most important issues in our community, and we are fully committed to work with new Superintendent Marvin Thompson and the School Board to help our public schools achieve their goals.
With the City of Roanoke’s FY05-06 $223.8 million general fund budget, 24 percent – or $54 million – was contributed to Roanoke City Schools confirming our strong belief in the importance of excellence in education.
I have met several times with Marvin Thompson and he has our full support to lead Roanoke Public Schools and help shape our city by improving their achievement, providing safe and effective teaching environments, enhancing the management and efficiency of the school system, implementing programs and procedures to promote, train and retain staff, and promoting strong community relations.
Additionally, he and his staff have developed an impressive list of priorities for the upcoming school year. They include:
- Implementing a specific process to close achievement gaps and assist schools that are not accredited in meeting these requirements;
- Creating an Office of Accountability, Accreditation and Assessment – to establish goals and measures to meet division-wide standards, as well as to monitor and guide planning for the school division as a whole and for individual departments;
- Creating an Office of Curriculum and Staff Development – to increase best-practice opportunities to align our instructional practices with standards that students are being taught division wide;
- Creating a Leadership Academy to develop the next generation of principals, assistant principals and administrators who will lead this school system;
- Improving career and technical education programs;
- Developing accountability standards focused on instruction; and
- Conducting a curriculum and management audit – to identify strengths and weaknesses as we aim to become a world-class school system. This audit provides Roanoke Schools with a national perspective on where we can excel across all schools.
In addition, we going to continue to hold the monthly breakfast meetings that I initiated for myself, Marvin, City Manager Darlene Burcham, and School Board Chair Kathy Stockburger – as a key way to build and maintain strong school and City Council relations.
Construction at the new Patrick Henry High School is proceeding phenomenally well, on budget and on schedule, and in some areas ahead of schedule. Students, teachers and staff are scheduled to move into the completed Phase I building after the winter break. Having met with citizens for their input, we are planning to proceed with the development of the new William Fleming construction in 2007.
I firmly believe that with these goals and with this new direction, Roanoke Public Schools will continue to move forward into an era of great achievement and success, vaulting individual programs and the school system to an unprecedented level of excellence.
Economic Development
Roanoke is open for business. That has been evident with several new business announcements, such as the welcome addition of the new Ivy Market and Ukrop’s development, as well as major rezoning actions for Rockydale Quarries, Fairfax Condominiums and a new Home Depot.
In June, we broke ground on the new Riverside Centre for Research and Technology in conjunction with Carilion and the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
Riverside represents the continued revitalization of the South Jefferson area as well as growth in the city's business and biomedical sectors. With that, we also have been able to welcome Luna Innovations from the New River Valley to Roanoke as one of Riverside's first clients, helping to strengthen our market and increase the diversity of businesses located here. Riverside is set to further complement the $100 million expansion underway at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
The arrival of FreightCar America to Roanoke's East End shops brings not only a well-regarded national company but also 400 jobs to the city. It also is proud reminder of Roanoke's rich rail heritage.
Anyone driving on 581 can see the Phase II construction at the Civic Center, which will provide for a new 45,000-square-foot exhibition hall, loading dock, restaurant facilities and other extensive enhancements. The Civic Center also celebrated a banner year with the renovated and renamed Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre. A welcome addition to the Civic Center is, of course, our new hockey team, the Roanoke Valley Vipers, as part of the United Hockey League. It has been a great pleasure to bring professional hockey back to Roanoke, as promised.
More people are recognizing the benefits of doing business in the city. This year there has been a substantial increase in the number of building permits. For the past fiscal year the city issued nearly 6,100 construction permits valued at more than $200 million. And as you may have heard recently, we are eager to identify ways to enhance the heart of our city, the Historic Market with a comprehensive study that will look at the future of the City Market Building, downtown parking; the mix of businesses, streetscape signage and overall appearance.
And, of course, we are continuing to support the art and cultural opportunities with the new art museum downtown, which will also increase tourism and more development to our city. With the continuing popularity of the city’s traditional and diverse festivals, again we are experiencing a dynamic mix of the old and the new.
The city is not letting recent disappointments delay us in pursuing good business opportunities. In the wake of Essilor’s decision to leave Roanoke, myself and members of city staff have made additional contacts to fill that void.
This week, the City Manager and I traveled to Buffalo to meet with officials about their strategies to obtain a low-fare airline. This is an issue that we are going to continue to go after since we know that a low-cost carrier would be a tremendous benefit to our entire region.
Developing long-range plans to secure Roanoke’s economic future remains a key goal for us as a city.
City of Roanoke Services & Regional Cooperation
Our financial condition and award-winning service delivery has remained remarkably strong:
- We are a safer city: Geographic policing, which was implemented in 2004, has been a resounding success. Officers have had increased individual contact with our citizens and have greater ownership of issues that occur within each Zone. The system has also provided an increased emphasis on school safety by involving all officers, not just the School Resource Officers. Roanoke citizens have benefited from this “one stop shop” arrangement for police services.
- Last year we had a record low number of working fires at 87. This is down from approximately 250 fires ten years ago.
- We have increased the development and use of technology for city functions.
- The prestigious International City/County Management Association will formally honor Roanoke next month at its annual conference with the Program Excellence Award for Innovations in Local Government for the city's overall health programs for employees, including the Occupational Health Clinic.
Last month we celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Western Virginia Water Authority, which has been a sterling example of what regional cooperation can accomplish to the benefit of all of citizens. As in the past, the City of Roanoke is continuing to look for ways to embrace greater cooperation within the region to enhance services in the Roanoke Valley and beyond.
For example, Valley Metro’s SmartWay bus, which just celebrated its one-year anniversary, had nearly 23,000 paid rider trips from people using it to travel between Roanoke and Blacksburg. Valley Metro also is linking our colleges to the city with express services to Ferrum College, Hollins University and Roanoke College.
This year the city entered into a new automatic aid agreement with Roanoke County that is designed to improve Fire-EMS services to the Valley. It's a great benefit to both of our jurisdictions and especially to our citizens to be able to provide this enhanced operation. Last month land was purchased for a fire station on Williamson Road to replace the station at the airport that will be shared by city and county staff.
And in the past year, building officials from the city, county, Salem and Vinton began holding regular meetings to discuss ways to improve customer service, such as by standardizing submittal requirements, and developing a mutual aid agreement among jurisdictions, to provide assessment or inspection assistance if one locality were to experience extraordinary disaster damage such as a massive flood.
A Multicultural Community
As a city and as a region, we must continue to adapt to the evolving needs of our fellow citizens. It has become increasingly apparent that our population is changing and becoming much more diverse.
As a community that prides itself on celebrating that diversity, we recognize the growth of other races and ethnicities here in just the past 15 years, with the growth and popularity of cultural celebrations such as our annual Local Colors event, Hispanic Festival and more. Between 1990 and 2000:
- The number of residents who are Native American increased by more than 15%, and those who identify themselves as other race or of multiple races increased by more than 1000%
- The number of Latinos and Hispanics has more than doubled.
- Roanoke’s Asian population has grown by more than 56%.
- According to 2003 census estimates, our libraries are serving nearly 2,000 patrons whose primary languages include Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Laotian, Vietnamese and Spanish.
These trends suggest Roanoke will continue to become a more culturally rich community, with more diverse businesses, places of worship and leisure events. Our city is dedicated to making sure we represent and serve all our citizens – regardless of nationality. That is why I launched the new multicultural initiative this past spring to ensure that we are helping to meet the needs of those residents.
The initiative already has been met with amazing success with the creation of the Multicultural Advisory Committee, multi-language kiosks in city buildings and plans to teach our city employees different languages such as Spanish, French, Vietnamese and Farsi - to help meet the needs of our non-English speaking citizens.
This shift in the makeup of the region's population will change in some ways how we conduct business in the City of Roanoke. Diversity will be part of our government culture and I encourage all of you to find ways to do the same, to help develop and implement opportunities for our diverse community and to meet the needs of your customers, fellow business owners and next-door neighbors.
A personal highlight for me in this past year was the Sister Cities exchange program with Wonju, Korea. Last fall several of us traveled to Wonju, then reciprocated by welcoming students from Wonju to our city last winter. This experience has opened many doors for sharing ideas and cultures, and I am especially proud of our middle-school students and their families. This is an exciting program that heightens interest in both the cities of Wonju and Roanoke. Plans are underway for Roanoke students to visit Wonju next spring.
And we cannot forsake the rich history that already exists in Roanoke in such places as Gilmer Avenue, which was the home to many prominent Roanoke citizens, such as the late Edward R. Dudley, a civil rights activist, judge and an ambassador to Liberia who passed away earlier this year; physicians J.B. Claytor and J.H. Roberts, co-founders of Burrell Memorial Hospital, and Oliver Hill, a renowned civil rights lawyer. Oliver Hill’s home stands as a symbol to an undeniable part of Roanoke history. I am asking Council members Alfred Dowe and Sherman Lea to head up efforts to get the community behind restoring Mr. Hill’s childhood home, which can be a focal point on Gilmer and in Roanoke.
The Challenge of Involvement
That is what we need as a community: citizens such as yourselves taking an increased ownership of the city and finding continuing ways to contribute to the greater good. Get involved with the decision making of the city both where you live and where you work; become partners in the process of creating and executing plans for our city. It takes more than talking about what you do not like – it requires action to cause what you do like to happen.
Right now, we have but a small handful of people who are actively involved with civic affairs. Join our boards, commissions and committees. Look for new ways to fight against some of the issues that continue to plague us as an urban city.
In meeting the challenges we face as a city and as a region, I wish to challenge the business community today to become involved politically. The recent series of local government elections have centered upon issues that, candidly, have little relevance to our future in Western Virginia. The larger issues of job creation, population growth, economic opportunity, and sustainable expansion of business and industry have been plowed under by hot-button, emotional issues. I invite the business community to become more muscular and intentionally involved in being political candidates, recruiting candidates and helping shape a forward-thinking agenda for our city and region.
It is truly very satisfying to reflect on all that has happened in my first year as Mayor, and I eagerly await the opportunities in the upcoming year to meet with you and continue the dialogue about what we can achieve together.
I conclude by again thanking all of you for your contributions and support of our shared home, this great City of Roanoke. Your willingness to participate in the hard, but rewarding work of building such a unique place has been and will continue to be the key ingredient that enables us to achieve the goals necessary for the continual growth and prosperity of our city.
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