After the Parade

So, yesterdays St. Pats weekend Parade went off wonderfully. Turnout was astounding, and I only saw the crowd by the Wachovia tower. I can just imagine how packed Jefferson was for the length of the parade.

Special nods to the Kazim Shriners, who brought an astounding arsenal of motorized equpiment. Those guys make Monster Garage look weak.

So yesterday was a great day for a parade. What a way to kick off the spring. Although Im thinking they need a bigger space for the Celtic Festival part, as in Elmwood Park or even Wicktory Stadium. Wachovia Plaza just isn't big enough, besides - what happens when the art museum is built? We then lose all that space behind Billy's Ritz. Wheres the party going to go? First Fridays? All that. Unless they close Norfolk Ave. from one end of the Wachovia to the other, theres no space there large enough to accomidate. Just my 2 centavos.

On to the weekly update on Forgotten-Roanoke. Been a busy week, and havent had much of a chance to get down into town again and shoot endless amounts of photos. Well, not true - all the photos I took were of the Parade. (posted later) But that has not stopped my research. I am beginning to discover that the end of passenger rail in Roanoke, the Virginian and even Amtrak, might just have been the best thing to happen to Roanoke.

As I delve through map upon map at the Digital Sanborn Archives, acessable to those of you who have a library card I am finding Roanoke of the past seemed a very transitional town. Plenty of hotels, boarding houses, apartments everywhere. Now I did hear a couple of the old timers at work talking about how some company owned every house from Campbell Ave. north, and all you could do was rent from them.

Ownership is the biggest key to keeping an area liveable. People who take pride in their lawns, keeping the streets clean, even decorating on holidays - that all adds up to making an area unique. And with the amount of apartment houses, former homes turned duplexes, boarding houses, and the like I see on these maps going back 50-100 years - I can see why there is such pride in Roanoke, and why there is such a mish-mash of neighborhoods. One thing I am noticing as we go looking for a house. There might be 5-6 houses in a row all looking nice. Out of those 45-6 houses, 2 might be duplexes. 1 might be a full apartment house. Leaving only 2-3 houses in a row with continual, constant ownership and upkeep by those who live there.

For those of you who know the Apartment complexes of Roanoke, think of the Cloisters.

Boy - I found that place by accident. At the end of a street, behind a row of hedges, down a 1 car wide path with a mirror at both ends so you can see if another car is coming, and situated right next to 581. Windows thinner than your computer screen and twice as wide.

I mean hell, you really are cloistered. I understand some people might like that - but this entrance is in the middle of a neighborhood. Yet hidden. Im sure under normal circumstances, no one would even think of building like that - with such a strange entrance, and located almost ON the highway.

And then, in the same neighborhood, I began to notice that half the houses werent houses. They were offices. Office, office, house, duplex, house, office.

It gives the neighborhood a very transitional, imperminant feel. Roanoke seems to have quite a few mixed-purpose neighborhoods. I remember reading some time ago that Amtrak was supposed to be back in Roanoke in 2007. Hardly likely at this point, but with the Trans-Dominion Express (damn I love that name!) on the drawing board, your going to see more commuting from outlying areas to Roanoke for work -the travel time between Roanoke and Lynchburg will be approx. 1 hour, which will make one of the two a major city. It will increase the number of people moving through the area, both short and long term. Roanoke has no shortage of temporary housing, Roanoke needs a plan to create perminant housing, long term communitys, and re-zone neighborhoods solely for single family housing. Move the businesses to enterprize zones, the apartments to transitional zones.

A perfect example is Old SW. Franklin Rd is lined with offices, businesses, a lovely church. Good. Go a block back, you have still more businesses, offices - yadda yadda. Fine. But 3 blocks in and now you've got peoples houses, businesses, offices, and apartment buildings. That puts a strain on any area - no matter how long its been that way. An address on a residential street should not be considered a "desireable business address."

Just my 2 cents.

Forgotten-Roanoke will have parade pixs later today, and be back to normal updates next week. Easter Sundays are always great days to get out an explore.