There are two other City projects initiated and strongly supported by Mrs. Burcham that have not been mentioned but I feel need to be investigated further.
The first is the acreage behind Berglund Auto on Williamson next to VDOT’s road maintenance facility that was to be a new stadium site. This investment totals approximately $3.5 million and has been sitting there for at least seven years with a City sign.
The second is the $20 million of City taxpayer monies the Roanoke Redevelopment Authority has or is in the process of investing in Carilion’s Riverside Complex; all sanctioned and pushed by Mrs. Burcham.
How is this large sum to be paid back to Roanoke citizens specifically?
Is there an agreement/contract we can review between Roanoke Redevelopment Authority and Carilion?
It appears that Mrs. Burcham was the architect of the conversion of this “research park” to a privately owned “medical clinic”. What are the details?
Has the marketing report strongly indicating that a research park would be a waste of money ever been made public?
Why hasn’t the Roanoke Times mentioned they have this damning document? Why has it never been brought to light?
And here I thought that NO city government could purchase more White Elephants than Hampton’s has! My poor home town . . .
“”"I am looking to relocate at some point. I wanted to start a laundamat here or flip a few houses, but this city just refuses to move in a good direction!”"”
The good flips are in the county, the good rentals are in the city (low income rentals/deal with more drama but highly profitable), and the crappier the City gets the better for your laundromat. Remember, your laundromat will thrive in low income areas where landlords won’t put the money into the house for a washer and dryer hookup. Also good in college towns. The key is putting it near people who have no money.
Keep in mind, there is money to be made in all economic conditions. I have not been participating in the recession due to correct positioning.
Mark my words, the next thing we will be dealing with is hyper-inflation due to the government printing massive amounts of money we don’t have. Research businesses that do well in these market conditions now and you will benefit significantly within a couple of years. Investing is all about predicting the future based on historical events as history repeats itself.
Being in the right place at the right time is not luck for an investor.
“”"It’s not that Roanoke welcomes more and more people who are down and out, but that surrounding areas are all too happy to dump them there.”"”
I agree that the surrounding areas are all too happy to allow them to leave and come here to Roanoke. I don’t blame them. I disagree that Roanoke doesn’t want to suck them in.
Look at the Rescue mission for example. Roanoke decided that a good place for it would be right at the down town exit. One of the busiest exits in Roanoke.
Now picture this. Some CEO’s of a major corporation are considering a move to Roanoke. They come here to scope out a location and the first thing they see are bums hanging out on the exit ramp with scam will work for food signs even though they are less than a block from free breakfast, lunch and dinner at the mission.
Then they stroll through Elmwood park and more bums drinking on benches. At first impression they will think all of Roanoke is a crap hole and they would never subject their employees to that type of living condition. End of discussion, on to the next town.
Now, Roanoke did tell the lady who runs the Mission, no more. You built the Mission, now you built the womans shelter which brought lots of drugs into the neighborhood, now that’s it.
At the same time she gets around the court order by having her brother buy the giant church over there and the government is working with them on permits to renovate the place and make another homeless center. We are presently in the process of creating a homeless mecca right at our downtown exit to draw the vagrants in from miles away. A great place to party, use drugs and drink all day and still get 3 free square meals and a place to sleep.
Darlene Burcham…………….
[Redacted.] When are the members of the Roanoke City
Council GOING TO WAKE UP?
This Demon should be run out of Roanoke, yes many years ago.
This woman ([Redacted.]) has demolished this city and at the same time STUFFED her pockets w/tax payers money. I can’t believe we the people of Roanoke have let this happened.
The time is now to “Run Her Out Of Town”. After her departure it will take a generation or longer to repair all the damage she has created. PLEASE WAKE UP AND TERMINATE HER IMMEDIATELY.
Believe Me, we will all benefit when she is history!
It’s not that Roanoke welcomes more and more people who are down and out, but that surrounding areas are all too happy to dump them there.
Investor,
It is happening all over America. We as a whole are becoming lazy, overweight, and less intelligent from the awesome public schooling. It is a scary time in America’s history. There is no changing it either, until the American people have some “real” hardships or we slowly become a socialist society, at which point i may move my family to another country.
Roanoke is seeing more and more people dependant on handouts, and continues to welcome it. You see there is no efforts to get “real” employers in the valley right? Beacuse they would rather be the handout capital of the state, so they can get as much of that federal money they can. You see good old Kaine up there in the mix with his hand out whenever he can.
I am looking to relocate at some point. I wanted to start a laundamat here or flip a few houses, but this city just refuses to move in a good direction!
Thanks for the insite into those wonderful Housing authority people, they are just wonderful for lowering the home value of the neighborhood by placing a section 8 right smack in the middle of what used to be a good neighborhood.
It is not just our neighborhood that wants to retain Countryside as a golf course. City and surrounding area golfers want it retained. The airport hotels want it retained for their guests. It is golf for those not so well off as to be able to join a Country Club. There are PGA Pros that started on Countryside in their youth. The only reason you have homes of higher value in this Northwest city area is because of the golf course. Ed Hall the City’s agent in the purchase back in 2005 played a roll in obtaining the property as the link to the memo in 2002 shows. The shape the golf course is in … well what would you do with only a year to year lease? Again another unmaintained City asset. You can’t give the land away for development with all the problems, which includes asbestos irrigation system, airport flight path noise and restrictions. That is why it is a golf course. A golf course is one of the FAA’s recommendations for landuse adjacent to a runway.
As far as the debt well that is “Queen Darlene’s” fault and MY taxes also go toward paying this debt. So much of the upfront interest has already been paid on the mortgage it would be silly to refinance it and start all over paying more interest. Almost 5 years has already been paid on the 15 year loan.
Selling it off piece by piece would leave the city with a big chunk of unusable land the city would then have to maintain (expense) AND it would not pay off the debt.
Make the best out of it now and make it an attraction. There is a nice chunk of property where the pool and tennis building are that can be used to generate revenue and bring in visitors. One idea was an indoor competition pool since it is next to William Fleming High School and adjacent to airport hotels.
Speaking of real estate development, yesterday at the tax sale there was a sweeping victory of purchases from the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority who is the same group that does Section 8 and public housing. They are an arm of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Quite a significant amount of tax money is flowing through that place. They bought up lots galore in places like Rorer Ave and Loudon. They paid top dollar to the tune of 4K per lot or more. Normally at the tax sale these types of lots go for $200 to $1,500 max.
It just so happens that the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority has a large public housing program that they provide housing to “moderate” income families who really don’t have the money to do anything more than rent. The money would be better off spent in education and job training than giving them a loan that they will default on.
Well, what is the government going to do with lots on the worst roads in Roanoke? Especially in areas where the zoning is NDD which unlike H1 and H2 zoning, it allows for modern building materials to be used. The issue is it requires basically the same style of house to be built as what was in the neighborhood. Well, new construction of a comparable house would be $250,000 to $300,000.
Now lets think about this. Build a 250-300K house, and sell it to a low income family for its fair market value which would be comparable or slightly higher than the other houses in the neighborhood (20-40K). Does this sound like a typical government program? They at this point made the house “affordable” due to a theft from the tax payer. A transferal of wealth from those who work a 40 hour week to those who are suckling on the tax payers tit.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with helping those who are less fortunate. That includes handicapped people over the long term and those who are down and out for a very short period of time. This is not who Section 8 helps though. I know, I am a Section 8 landlord.
My typical tenant is a healthy non working family. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them with exception of a huge laziness problem. The female is the only one on the lease as she has to show no to low income to get on the program. The boyfriend lives in the house as well and is just there for the free ride. It often takes 4-5 months before I am sure the boyfriend is living there.
She often has a kid or 4 and along with the $600-$700 of free rent, they also collect $500-$700 of food stamps.
A typical discussion prior to moving in includes something like this. “I got the money for the deposit but can you hold off for a couple of days because I want to go down to the RAM House and try to get them to pay my deposit. ”
They also have their places to go to help with utilities deposits and unpaid bills.
Keep your eyes open people, watch the government closely, pay close attention to what happens to tax dollars when taken from you by the government. Then decide whether or not you should resist taxes or just turn your back and let them work you over, time and time again.
Then think of things like this. How would you feel if every Friday you walked out of your work there was a tax man standing with his hand out and a big smile on his face. You were not allowed to leave without paying your dues to him. Then tell me what is different from that and what actually happens every Friday.
I second that opinion, but until the people of Roanoke city finally get good and tired of having our mayor, council, and manager leans towards their career moves and pet projects; nothing is going to happen. I love the old clip from the original Batman movie with Jack Nicholson as Joker “This city needs an enema!”
Have you been to a council voting? The turnout is horrible!! Nobody cares who runs their city, but are the first to complain about it. Make sure you tell your friends and family about the upcoming ones, because the only people that truly get the word is the “GO TO” voter areas where these guys get the votes they need to get in their, and the true middle class families that produce the tax revenue to support the city are the ones that suffer. And they eventually end up moving (ex. decrease in population) to an area that they can see their tax money benefiting them and not some council member’s or manager’s wet dream of an amphitheater.
The city purchased countryside to develop. They paid way too much for the property and now the taxpayers are saddled with the debt and the high cost of maintaining a golf course . I recently played the course and the city has two choices:
realize that they made a huge mistake and properly develop the property; taking a loss or,
continue running this as a golf course and putting millions more into the property to bring it up to standards.
This second option will result in the taxpayers having to subsidize the course each year and with all the debt, it could be close to $700,000/yr.
Council needs to stand up for whats best for all citizens and not just the adjoining neighbors.