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I think Wheeling has the potential to be a reborn great city (not town). Access to the major trucking routes, water and rail service- a great extension of the Pitt metro area.
I for one would see the definite benefit to the state if some of the older industrial 'cities' were made vibrant and working again.
Population centers, large ones, have cost advantages over smaller towns and could serve this state well. Attract some business, light industry, maybe actually try and keep some of the brightest grads from moving elsewhere (like Pitt, DC or NC.. )
A little bit of Raleigh-Durham WV style would be fantastic in my book.
Sure- let's hope our 'towns' like Elkins and Grafton and so-forth remain small (but vibrant) and not lose their style, but for goodness sakes- to not have any hope for some real commercial base outside of coal or some other extractive based industry is nothing but the same 'ol thing and it ain't gettin' this state nowhere. Give me some diversification in the tax base any day. It'd be nice to see a high-tech park actually filled with private-industry folks rather than a damned casino.
(And for the record- I think Wheeling IS the best city in WV, hands down )
Raliegh-Durham was built origionally with tobacco money...a lot of it private money...David Duke as a KKK leader...but...but...It is the most vibrant tri-plex east of the Mississippi.
What did they build it around?
Education...
Chapel Hill, Duke, NC, and the others...somebody with a brain had a plan for that area...
I was a kid when their tobacco industry was destroyed. The result has been a statement of everything that can be good.
I'm weighing the possiblilties in my mind for Wheeling and the state at large...and (with the exception of Morgantown) coming up short.
I don't see us as a new Las Vegas or even a Jersey Shore...gambling gives you a certain set of things, mostly negative...perhaps, there is some education in that..might be 50 years away...hopefully.
We let them screw us quick and cheap. All those empty promises for education and services...where did that money go?
And as Raleigh-Durham was once supported by but now weaned off of tobacco, so should this state seek the same path. Use the severance taxes from coal and the ill-gotten booty from casino revenue to help support an infrastructure boom and investment in diversified commercial enterprises.
Of course none of that positive shift will happen unless the legislature stops pandering to the lowest denominators of the state. You've got to look forward and past this nonsense. Look past coal, gambling and the welfare driven voting bloc...
But our legislature comes from various professions...gambling interests, coal mines and unions, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers...did I say lawyers and teachers and teachers unions...and a few business people who provide the guard-rails for the entire state or paint the white/yellow highway lines for the entire state, or provide the ankle bracelets and blow & go's for the entire state...(that list is endless).
When others ask about our diversity...we have it in profusion, it's mostly negative.
What a contrast in irony that a place can be so beautiful, have the very best and most honest people in the world and be led my non-convicted (and the convicted) criminals?
The real answer is to go to Raleigh..I have a best friend there, finishing up her years at Duke...and it's like an old home to us....but it's jsut too urban...She's always asking us to 'come on down.
I want a place about 20 miles from the ocean near Savannah...something that looks like the bayou in Lousiana...moss dripping off the trees...flat, sandy and laid back...with crawdads in the creek.
The one son is looking at Jacksonville with a big florida house with two guest suites...If we build that for him, I'll charge him the little cabin near Savannah for the get-away place and live there with a Red Bone coon dog...heat with a wood stove and get back to the basics...
When I cross Wv's border for the last time, I want to feel like I gave her everything I had...
Last edited by David Kennedy; 07-21-2009 at 06:48 PM..
Oh I've been to Raleigh-Durham. Yes- it's big. But for some that is a mecca. Someplace to go and work, live and shop, but then drive to the mountains or coast to play.
We don't really have that option here.
Having a few metropolitan bases are just as important as having preserved wild places or nice quiet towns. Metropolitan areas drive money, fuel tax bases.. Unfortunately our quiet towns don't provide that (all that much).
Some imagined corridor H to become a mechanism that would fuel growth- opening a corridor to reach the metro areas quickly.. Phhsh.
Places like Wheeling are already in a position for access to that area, yet they slowly decay and let an already in-place infrastructure go to pot.
I've wondered why the push from Pittsburgh is in our direction and does not include Wheeling.
And I believe the answer lies in a future potential need to seal off the area.
Geographically, we are a long crooked finger...from Pittsburgh to Weston, with the towns of Waynesburg (because of its prisons and the potential future need for them) and Uniontown (critical military armament) being included.
Wheeling's claim to fame was the old turnpike travel for almost 150 years and being the great riverboat freight depot until after WW-2. It's only a junction now and commerce routes and transport modes have changed.
Corridor H did open up the Potomac Valley for growth and farming...then government restrictions have stepped in to hamper that industry.
The expensive answer lies in cleaning up and re-habing prior locations...Mr. MoJo did that in Fairmont with the Exxon Corporation, had them pay for the new water park site cleanup..It's always a money trail.
Glen-Mark did that with their mini-mall at the Pierpont Exit...that was a worthless strip-mine site....used their own money and gained the public trust with that effort...
Who, on the bigger mall scale, would have built a mall for the Cheat Lake community?
Nobody...it was too small.
That area of shoppes had dictated the area growth into Fayette County as well.
What I'm saying is this, in time a person sees the future potential and needs of a place..they make it happen...
Wheeling has the gambling interests controlling it...that cycle will have to be exhausted before any other solution happens for that area.
With the present economic down turn in place...it may take a hundred years...our country may be gone by then.
Charleston is the number one in my heart.
I live just North in the small town of Clendenin. Although I've never been to Dowtown Beckly, I have visited every other town/city in the state.
No city has the views, culture, infrastructure, atmosphere, or city llike qualities, like Charleston has. With a beautiful Downtown, filled with lots of Historic and Modern Buildings. Also home to the Clay Center, Cultural Center, Village District, East End Main Street, West Side renovations, and not to mention the WV state capital. It is loaded down with diversity, and charming characteristics.
Now, You can't just count Charleston "Charley West" in this.
The whole Metro area is part of the sucsess indeed.
South Charleston, Saint Albans, Dunbar, Cross Lanes, Nitro, Pinch, Elkview, And so on. Not to mention Putnam County.
With the look of a Champion, Charleston out does any other!!!
Martinsburg. It's a fast growing area that is economically sound and provides many opportunities. The population is diverse and the schools are good. It's proximal to D.C. which is good for anyone wishing to work in the metro area. Martinsburg has friendly people, shopping, plenty of restaurants, and it's close to Maryland and Virginia. There are plenty of lovely, safe neighborhoods as well.
I loved living in Lewisburg! Its not to big so that its impersonal, and its not so small that you have nothing to do. Lots of business, restaurants, movies, bowling, etc.. It even has an airport and is minutes away from the world classs Greenbrier Hotel. It is also home to a medical shool. You should check it out.
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Charleston
