The Johnson Farm
One of my earliest and fondest childhood memories is sitting by the fireplace in my grandparents’ farmhouse, watching my grandmother’s skilled fingers creating what would become an heirloom patchwork quilt…
Club Selection: Ever a Better Time?
A recent issue of Golf Digest puts the national picture for private golf clubs in blunt perspective: Clubs are “slashing initiation fees, dropping monthly dues, turning a once-elaborate screening process into a mere show-me-the-money formality.”
Taking Your Child into the Wild
When Glen Cove Elementary School second-grade teacher Chip Donahue read Richard Louv’s “Last Child in the Woods,” it confirmed his feelings that the present generation of children has what the author calls “nature deficit disorder.”
Trail Blazers
It’s early Sunday morning. The thermometer reads 27 degrees. A brisk wind is blowing. A heavy fog covers the landscape. And a few snowflakes are falling.
Roanoke Walks: Hoop Hole
The snow! The rock hops! The blue sky! They make Hoop Hole a winter treat.
Roanoke Walks: Tinker Mountain
Tinker Mountain is familiar, and unmistakable, to those who drive I- 81 north from Roanoke into Botetourt County.
We Shrink, They Grow. Why?
Five North Carolina cities have at least doubled in population since 1960; five Virginia cities have all contracted. What’s going on?
Green Ridge Rec Center: Fiscal Success or Financial Failure?
If you’ve been watching the news, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the roaring success of Roanoke County’s latest venture, the $30 million, taxpayer-funded Green Ridge Splash Park in north county.
Roanoke, the “Industrial Core?”
“Industrial Cores,” the Brookings Institute calls metro areas like ours. Cities with aging populations, slow growth, lack of higher-education facilities and attainment, and low levels of diversity.
Whither The Amphitheater?
A wise man phoned our offices the other day from another town, and began talking about the SWOT process for analysis: Strengths. Weaknesses. Opportunities. Threats. The context was Roanoke’s downtown…