Sucking the Juice out of Downtown (05/16/09)

Blacksburg, Radford and Christiansburg form their own research triangle of sorts in Montgomery County, Virginia. And although by far not as successful as their counterparts of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill in North Caroline, this Virginia triangle is no dozy when it comes to sprawl.

Only two of the Virginia triangle towns have a university but the third, Christiansburg has an active freight rail line and in the past even passenger service. Although located in the impoverished southwest of Virginia (New River Valley), this triangle is by no means desperate; instead, it is thriving on its universities and associated research centers. And with this economic pulse come the problems. Blacksburg, visioning big, and, possibly, dreaming about beating Duke research parks, and maybe also their football crowds by building a gigantic football stadium on the grounds of Virginia Tech (the Hoakies) decided that route 460, the poverty trail connecting southwest Virginia with the even poorer eastern Kentucky, needed to be a freeway. The interchange with interstate 81 easily lives up to LA standards, so with the result that even a crowd of 60,000 fans streaming from a game would flow away without a hitch and that the rest of the time a sea of deserted asphalt and superfluous lanes is marring the mountain scenery.
This bypass around Blacksburg was not only to provide access to the ballgames but also to the research park, the airport and to Christiansburg. Naturally, the next thing was that mall and shopping center investors snapped up the area near an exit from 460 which sits closest to the middle of all three towns, i.e. in the middle of nowhere. Somehow the malls, big boxes, Lowes and Searses could not quite decide which corner of an intersection between Peppers Ferry Road and a local street they should snatch up. Maybe there had been already an ill fated attempt of a suburban mall outside of Christiansburg that predated the bypass, at any event, today all four corners are occupied with different generations and incarnations of the same disastrous concept, the idea of shopping in the green fields where land and hence parking is plentiful and cheap. The overall paved areas for parking and enclosed for shopping exceed by far the total footprint of all the three downtowns of the triangle towns combined with the obvious result that these three downtowns are now not only outsized but also outperformed and basically dead as doornails. Streetscape attempts and façade beautifications especially sumptuous in Christiansburg can do little to cover up this sad fact. And what is even sadder is that the outlying shopping dinosaurs are not fairing all that well either. Older parts are all but deserted while people are flocking the latest addition of a new multiplex movie theatre or the latest pad restaurant addition. Olive Garden, the beautifully Italian looking restaurant with all the clay tiles, stucco and lush landscaping to evoke Tuscany, this island of pastiche architecture, sits also surrounded by cars, pavement and asphalt completely unapproachable on foot and devoid of any outdoor seating, in spite of all the trellises and greenery.
Walking anywhere in any part of these stranded dinosaurs of consumption would be as appealing as on- foot drink service to the audience of a drive in movie theater. But even driving presents a challenge now as the shops are divided up into the four quadrants around an intersection which became a nightmare from all the lanes and bloated roadways. Essentially one needs GPS to find the other big box to visit.

Enjoying the natural beauty of the nearby landscapes adjacent to the Jefferson National Forest while residing in the sylvan cabin, I am dreaming of three lively towns nearby, with vibrant downtowns, bookstores for the literati and healthy food for the educated college classes. But all I find when coming down from my hill, are gas stations with convenience stores full of chips, beer and candy as well as rowdy student beer bars in downtown which are surrounded by empty stores or shops that sell nothing but Hoakie knickknacks. Blacksburg has an architecture department, couldn’t they teach “place-making” to the local planners?