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Old 09-11-2019, 02:24 PM
 
Location: Somewhere flat in Mississippi
10,060 posts, read 12,805,566 times
Reputation: 7168

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Should Lynchburg become Falwellburg? It seems to be turning into a company town.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...y-loans-227914
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Old 09-11-2019, 02:37 PM
 
Location: SW Virginia
2,189 posts, read 1,403,477 times
Reputation: 2016
Well, that was way too much to read. Maybe in time...

I did see something about this yesterday and it seems like if people press him enough, he'll be fighting it with both fists.

At this point and in my opinion, as long as he is doing nothing illegal, he can run it the way he wants to. Sounds like some people there don't like his support for Trump. I say, too bad.
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Old 09-12-2019, 12:28 PM
 
509 posts, read 433,062 times
Reputation: 1539
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo View Post
Should Lynchburg become Falwellburg? It seems to be turning into a company town.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...y-loans-227914
Well that's rich coming from someone from outside of Lynchburg or Virginia. Have you ever even been here to make such an assertion?

Truth be told it is far more complex here in reality than what you may perceive. I have lived in downtown Lynchburg for seven years since taking a professional job here (not related to Liberty FYI). Does Liberty have influence her? Sure. But Liberty is a relative newcomer to city economic development and not as all reaching as the article asserts with four other colleges here as well, most predating Liberty by 80 years. In addition there is a huge nuclear operations sector (BWXT and Framatome are both headquartered her) and financial/insurance sector (Bank of the James is headquartered here, Genworth has a huge presence, and Pacific Life has their east coast HQ here).

There are tons of young professionals moving here from all parts of the US (I have met new transplants from Sarasota, Chattanooga, Cincinnati, and California just in the past two weeks that have moved here in the past month or two) and none are connected to Liberty. Many are moving here for jobs at Centra Health, in the nuclear sector, or just to start their own business as taxes and costs of doing so are very low here making it a very appealing place for creative and entrepreneurial class millennials. The city is pretty evenly split Democrat and Republican (the city went Blue for Kaine in the last election) and five of seven city council members are Democrats. And guess what, both Republicans and Democrats get a long pretty well here, I have friends on both sides as well as friends that support Liberty and those that don't (and everything in-between). There are tons of old money families too that live in Lynchburg that predate Liberty and work around as developers and local restaurant group owners among many other things.

Pretty much everyone I know here personally is not affiliated with Liberty and really don't care for Jerry Falwell one way or the other, but we are tired of all the negative perceptions and groundless assertions the city and its citizens as a WHOLE gets because of this man. Don't get me wrong, Liberty does have influence here and owns property, it is a for-profit university after all. But the whole downtown area is like a different world set away from Liberty with tons of local independent business owners. I am constantly running into students from Randolph or the University of Lynchburg as well as so many new professionals moving here for low cost of living and excellent business opportunities. Overall the economic contribution of Liberty to the areas $10 billion economy is about $1 billion (about 10% of the city's economy). That is hardly enough to say that this city with literally dozens of major companies here many of which that employ as much as Liberty (BWXT and Framtome or Centra Health) and hundreds of local businesses is a company town at the total behest of whatever Falwell does and says. I am not defending Falwell or anything, just pointing out some facts about the city that your claim contradicts.

So until you come here and actually lived here and interacted with people on a daily basis (especially in and around the historic urban core) then I would say you could formulate your own thoughts. This city is much more diverse and complex with much more going on outside Liberty then you give it credit for.

Here are a few videos of the other Lynchburg you probably aren't even aware of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btSu_HAhHm0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlhKg7JaJaA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEqYDEel8No

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbzA_Gg26_o

Last edited by dbcook1; 09-12-2019 at 01:02 PM..
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Old 09-12-2019, 04:23 PM
 
895 posts, read 2,095,688 times
Reputation: 458
Thanks db...very good reply.
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Old 09-12-2019, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Daleville, VA
2,282 posts, read 4,059,032 times
Reputation: 2423
I had my popcorn ready when I saw the initial post!
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Old 09-13-2019, 08:58 AM
 
1,541 posts, read 1,676,393 times
Reputation: 2140
Agree with everything dbcook said. Way more here than just Jerry Falwell and LU.
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Old 09-13-2019, 06:18 PM
 
Location: Daleville, VA
2,282 posts, read 4,059,032 times
Reputation: 2423
The article is really long and I only looked at part of it - but just to be clear it is NOT an article about Liberty’s influence on L’burg but more about Junior’s actions at Liberty. Local media indicates that there is a student protest scheduled. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out. The different temperaments of the two brothers - Jonathan at the mega-church and Junior at the mega-university - are really fascinating!
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Old 09-16-2019, 04:56 AM
 
Location: Roanoke, VA
1,812 posts, read 4,220,428 times
Reputation: 1178
Liberty University is a non-profit university that is tax exempt under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) --- just like many other private universities and colleges.
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Old 09-18-2019, 04:27 PM
 
Location: annandale, va & slidell, la
9,267 posts, read 5,117,199 times
Reputation: 8471
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo View Post
Should Lynchburg become Falwellburg? It seems to be turning into a company town.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...y-loans-227914
Surely there are some historic plaques or statues that you and your pals could pull down.

The local citizens love it when outsiders come into their town and tell them how they do things in Massachusetts.
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