The Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership is stretching its definition of “economic development” in its updated plan for the region. Having raised nearly $6. 8 million, the Partnership has identified these uses for the money:
- Business Growth. Recruit new businesses, promote entrepreneurship, and foster the growth of existing businesses.
- Image Building. Deliver good news about the region to change current perceptions.
- Asset Development. Improve the region’s quality-of-life amenities in order to attract young professionals to the area.
Particularly noteworthy is the focus on recruiting “young professionals” to the area. The Roanoke region, unlike Northern Virginia, is not suffering from out-of-control growth. Indeed, population growth is stagnant. A modest increase in the population will not precipitate the negative results — congestion, unaffordable housing, loss of open space, higher taxes — experienced by Northern Virginia.
Said Dan Carson, vice president of Appalachian Power: “We are losing good people to other communities in Virginia that have figured out how to improve their offerings and how to market the whole package of what an area can offer. Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Richmond all are experiencing higher growth. There is no reason we can’t do the same in Roanoke. We have an aggressive plan to use these funds to create a better ‘package’ that will appeal to people and businesses.”
As I have stated repeatedly, there is no value in population growth for sake of population growth. If Roanoke had demonstrated the ability to climb the ladder of increasing value-added economic activity in such as way as to increase the income of the region’s inhabitants, it wouldn’t need to recruit outside business, much less outside people. Unless you’re a member of the local Growth Machine, who cares if the population is growing or not?
However, according to data I published in “Peak Performance in a Flat World,” the Roanoke region has increased its per capita income only marginally faster than the nation as a whole over the past four decades. Given the world-class research taking place in Virginia Tech only 30 miles away, Roanoke has tremendous potential to reinvent itself as a dynamic, knowledge-based community. The inability to recruit young professionals — could we be talking about Virginia Tech graduates here? — limits the ability of entrepreneurial start-ups to grow. That’s not exactly what Carson said, but that’s what I’m reading between the lines.
The essence of the “Economy 4.0” economic development paradigm is shifting the focus from recruiting business to creating an environment in which businesses can recruit and retain the creative-class knowledge workers they need to maintain a competitive edge. That’s the direction Roanoke is moving in. Bravo!
