City needs more action, less talk

The News Virginian / News Virginian
Published: February 3, 2008

Southern Living magazine last month published readers' picks for the best scenic driving routes in the South. The roads at the top of the list were predictable and familiar: No. 1, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and No. 3, Skyline Drive.

Twenty million people travel the Blue Ridge each year, according to the National Park Service. Another 1.4 million annually visit Shenandoah National Park, through which Skyline winds.

For a town tucked at one end of both of these spectacular routes, those travelers represent potential visitors. For restaurants, shops and other businesses in this town, those visitors are potential customers. For the city and businesses alike, those travelers represent opportunity - and money. The question for Waynesboro officials and business owners is, how can the visitors be lured here-

The question is one we have asked before in one form or another. There are answers aplenty, in officials' rhetoric and piles of paperwork, programs and blueprints for plans that never seem to inch off the pages on which they are printed. We are interested in answers of a different sort, answers that take their form in action rather than words.

Rumors are as abundant as the mountain pines about developers eyeing parcels along the South River. Since we are not in the business of publishing rumors, we will not elaborate. In any event, developers can surely be found who can turn that desolate section of town into a bustling riverfront. In addition to its natural amenities, Waynesboro offers one of the state's most favorable tax climates.

What is not favorable about Waynesboro is a spirit of quiet inertia among some people both in City Hall and outside it. This is represented in a willingness to accept the city's current state and a hesitancy to press forward, like a soldier pinned down in his foxhole by enemy fire. It also is reflected, whether by intent or not, by the City Council, which seems content to dither over minutiae.

We can do better.

All we need are leaders, and by this we mean genuine leaders not just those who bear the moniker in name only. Leaders would find those developers, real or rumored, and push until blueprints are turned into buildings. Leaders would forgo debate over trivial matters and pursue big-picture visions, rallying others to the cause. Leaders would act.

Spring and the May elections are just around the bend. We suggest that as voters contemplate who should fill three open seats on the council, factions should be forgotten, personalities set aside and banal bickering ignored. Leadership is what our city needs. Those who demonstrate it - and by this, we mean action - should be given charge of our city. Those who do not should be sent home.