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What is this?
The new economy
Published Saturday, November 28, 2009
Steve Stewart
A dog-training facility in Walters.
An effort to lure tourists to the back roads of Southampton County and the streets of Courtland to learn about a painful chapter in our community’s and nation’s past.
A coal-fired power plant in Surry County.
None would rate highly in an ideal world of economic development. In Western Tidewater, we face a less-than-ideal world.
Among the many realities to be confronted as the community’s anchor employer, International Paper Co., prepares to close its Franklin mill in a few months is this: The closed-mindedness of the past must succumb if we are to create a vibrant new economy that allows families to prosper and to continue to enjoy the terrific quality of life that brought them here.
Some early signs are encouraging:
* Isle of Wight County supervisors, despite some opposition from neighbors, last week cleared the way for a commercial dog-training facility in an old detention center in Walters that will keep more than 40 jobs in the county rather than let them go to South Carolina.
* Surry Countians, amid a loud uproar from outside environmental groups, continue to keep an open mind about a proposed electricity plant that would create up to 200 jobs in a community starved for gainful employment. When House of Delegates candidate Stan Clark attempted to make political hay of incumbent Bill Barlow’s support of the coal-fired power plant, Barlow trounced his challenger 2-to-1 among Surry County voters.
* Southampton County supervisors this week blessed the pursuit of federal funds for creation of a historic trail to commemorate the Nat Turner slave insurrection of 1831. That’s a progressive step for a board that just a few years ago frowned on a community group’s plan to develop a hiking and cycling trail along the Virginia Beach water pipeline, presumably because of the outsiders who might visit as a result.
The Turner trail, complete with navigational markers, won’t attract a handful of fitness and nature buffs; it will, according to proponents, attract outsiders by the carload and busload.
These won’t be your Midwestern, all-American, Disney-style tourists; they will be Europeans and Africans, long-haired hippies and Ivy League liberals. They won’t necessarily look like us or talk like us.
But they will spend money. They will eat in our restaurants and stay in our hotels.
So-called heritage tourism is big business these days, but it’s not always mainstream Americans who enjoy it.
For six years I lived and worked in the cotton-growing town of Clarksdale, Miss., considered by most historians to be the birthplace of blues music. Throughout the year, blues enthusiasts from around the world make pilgrimages to Clarksdale to see remnants of the ramshackle house where Muddy Waters was born and to visit the “Crossroads,” where, as legend has it, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play blues guitar.
These tourists, many of them foreigners, were conspicuous in their presence on the streets of Clarksdale. A cottage industry of juke joints, inns, memorabilia stores, museums and art galleries contributed to a local economy hit hard by the mechanization of agriculture and the loss of manufacturing jobs over the past half-century.
“The blues is green,” the locals liked to say.
With due respect to Terry McAuliffe, the failed Virginia gubernatorial candidate who, according to The Washington Post, wants to bring an automobile plant to rural southeast Virginia, Western Tidewater is highly unlikely to replace the 1,100 lost IP jobs in one fell swoop, by simply luring another big smokestack to town.
The more likely — and arguably more desirable — road to economic recovery is 25 jobs here and 50 jobs there, from many different sources, resulting over time in a diverse economy that no single corporation can kill.
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Comments
Posted by Timberlake (anonymous) on November 28, 2009 at 3:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thankyou Mr. Stewart for, again, keeping the doors of communication open on new ideas for the new economy, even though fault can be found with all of them.
Posted by griffin (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 9:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Speaking of 2 to 1...Surry Countians spoke out against the electricity plant 2 to 1 at a recent public hearing. Outside environmentalist just made it a trouncing. Miles of eminent domain for pipe and rail (with routes laid out after we approve it) and putting out the welcome mat for the OLF are not going to win many over on this plant...let alone the filth and noise. Ag tourism is where we ought to go.
Posted by Timberlake (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 10:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Griffin, there is not a single solution. Must research, negotiate, deal, and present community with as many specifics as possible on ALL industries we can attract. If we are lucky enough to have viable choices.........then narrow them down.
Posted by griffin (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 2:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Agreed, Timberlake. We are well suited to many endeavors. Wish our politicians would get on the ball and try to attract/build some of them. Failing to plan is planning to fail. No surprise we're being courted for the dregs.
Posted by Timberlake (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 4:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
yes, back at you Griffin
Posted by bunita1946 (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 5:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Enviornmentalists, those slimey little creatures who costs this nation, more lost jobs than all the ethics defict executives on wall street. Just wait until a company tries to locate here, those mangy little creatures will come out of no where, and demand that study after study be made of every possible aspect of that industry. By failing to endorse the power plant, the citizens of IOW, are going to pay ever increasing taxes to pay for ever increasing services. These are the same people, that have blackmailed scientists, under threat of not receiving future grants from the govt., to sign off on "global warming.
Posted by JusticeWhite (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 6:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Griffin, exactly what is ag tourism >? (wonder if bunita knows)
Posted by griffin (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 7:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ag tourism is "agricultural tourism." Things like pick-your-own farms, petting farms, hay rides, farm tours, farmers' markets, vineyards, etc. Being uniquely situated next to more urban areas (Hampton Roads, Williamsburg, Richmond), there's a nice opportunity to get "city folks" out to the country and let them enjoy some of the riches and experiences. We have some very successful places already, but we need a land use tax (tax break for farm land). This would be a terrific opportunity for Surry to keep its rural way of life, generate revenue, and support our farms and farmers. The tourists are already here----they love the ferry----we just need to find ways to help them spend their money.
Posted by JusticeWhite (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 7:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
thanks, griffin ..... I would rather take the nat turner tour, but I see your point.
Posted by Timberlake (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 9:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was thinking more along the lines of helping farmers develop more progressive commercial farming, local produce to consumers and restaurants, truck farming...more marketable crops, moving on the concept of everyone eating within 60 miles of production (the new thing,) organic, and so forth.. but still big commercial farms. Hay rides and petting farms, that's peanuts, no pun intended. Pumpkin patches and the like are found in south Virginia Beach. I am not a farmer but I think they might be helped with research to see what the modern and future market is for big crops for human and animal consumption. we might lead the way...cotton, soybeans, corn and peanuts are not the only things our land will grow. Hunting is a market too but you can't crowd the woods with city people and guns, that will destroy the hunting culture around here, we have to be careful but I still think we need to explore any and all of the possibilities.
Posted by JusticeWhite (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 9:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
oh no...... not more deer harvesters !!!
Posted by Timberlake (anonymous) on November 29, 2009 at 9:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What? I thought hunting and fishing were the biggest part of the tourist draw that people are referring to, even bigger than Nat Turner.
Have I misunderstood?
Posted by griffin (anonymous) on November 30, 2009 at 7:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think what you are suggesting, Timberlake, is spot on. I'm thinking ag tourism could piggy back on that. CSAs and farm shares are so popular now. Along with all you mention. And all that doesn't mean we shouldn't pursue things like retirement homes with urgent care facilities attached (talk about jobs) or building our Main St. communities. But none of that is happening. We just keep hearing how overwhelmed our part-time legislators are with basics like water and trash. Our County Admin. just got a $20,000 yr. raise and we created an assistant to the Assistant County Administrator position. It's madness. If the coal plant doesn't come here, there is no plan B. Before the coal plant proposal fell in their laps there was no plan A.
Posted by grantsara83 (anonymous) on November 30, 2009 at 1:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Justice White, bunita once told me that ag tourism, was inviting out of towners to our area to enjoy the beautiful rivers, the quietness of our forests, the chirping of our many species of song birds, and simply enjoying the solitude of a simpler way of life. Bunita has signed off from future posts, at the behest of some person named sweetwater. This I read this morning on the off duty police shooting site. Shame on sweetwater.
Posted by SilverBullet (anonymous) on November 30, 2009 at 9:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was being facetious. The 'sport' of deer hunting morphed into the ecological necessity of 'harvesting' with its politically correct spin on the killing. Now its gonna be an economic issue labeled as tourism. Bad-a-bing; what will they think of next.
This area does have resources that could attract visitors. Hiking and biking trails along the rivers and through logging trails would be enjoyable to me.
Posted by grantsara83 (anonymous) on December 1, 2009 at 10:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A novel idea, would be to hold an annual deer hunt, without the dogs. Let each hunter track, and if he or she can, bag their deer. Sitting at the field's edge and have dogs chase their quarry to them is sorta boring. That's the type hunting I grew up with in Wyoming.
Posted by minkybut (anonymous) on December 1, 2009 at 11:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I sure wish bunita would come out with me on the river so I could demonstrate just what a slimy creature is all about. Give me a call bunita, I'm at 562-5173, I'd be glad to show you what an REAL environmentalist is all about. I think you would really be great out there and I will certainly show you just how you can also help our animals, fish, turtles and other creatures when I introduce you to them. Once you are out there I can assure you that you will never feel the same, look the same or smell the same. Just think how nice that will be, you and the wildlife will become one.
And God will be happy you finally were served a true purpose.
BURP!
Posted by bludogdem01 (anonymous) on December 1, 2009 at 8:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with bunita, that most of the mainstrean and all of the extreme enviornmentalist organizations are adamently opposed, to almost any form of human involvement, when it concerns industrial activity. Some of the most anti industrial groups, I believe, includes but not limiterd to, Peta, World Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Earth, Coalition for World Order and Greenpeace. Their names I have found belies their true mission, politics, which is for formulation of a new world order. The same concept that Geo. W.H. Bush spoke of in the early 90's. The FBI even has an eco terriorist on their most wanted, Donald Andreas San Diego. They, the groups, are even receiving millions in taxpayer money by sueing the Justice Dept. for not speedily prosecuting actions for the EPA. This was reported by CNN. These are not enviornmentalists, but over zealous organizations trying to help in the destruction of our way of life. I still remember Bill Clinton's prosecution of a farmer in California, who killed a snail darter and almost lost his farm. Never under estimate there true aims. Just my thoughts.
Posted by sweetwater (anonymous) on December 2, 2009 at 3:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Shame on me? Bunita certainly did not leave at my behest. I enjoy jousting with Bunita and would never ask him to leave.
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