http://fairtopartlymoderate.blogspot.com/2012/03/stop-truck-stop-in-meadowview.html
My post about the proposed truck stop has brought about the most comments of any post here on the blog, which is great! Thank you! Since the topic is drawing so much heat, I thought I would address some of the comments made, and offer a rebuttal. I will do this is a point/counterpoint manner to keep from digressing too much.
Point
Loves has grown over the past years. It averages 15 new stores per year. How can you not say it is sustainable
Counterpoint
Growth and sustainable growth are two different things. Growth is good! Sustainable growth is even better. Growth lasts for a short period of time, it may even hurt. Sustainable growth may well last for a long time.
Too think about where the attention of Love's front office will be after the truck stop goes in at Meadowview? Will it be Meadowview or the next of the 14 new stores it has to open in order to beat last year's growth?
Point
Much of the opposing opinions have centered around the idea of jobs and job creation. Those who have mentioned jobs have talked about the need for jobs in Washington County, and jobs for those without jobs.
Counterpoint
Job creation is very important to the Washington County Board of Supervisors. The type of jobs created is even more important. The jobs that a Loves or McDonald's create are not the types that lend to sustainable growth, which has been the goal of leaders in Meadowview. The aim of any community committed sustainable growth is a job that provides a wage which allows the earner long term security and a means to increase wages over time. While a job at Loves or McDonalds is a job, one must consider several factors when preaching their gospel. What kind of wage is this job going to pay those who take on the job? Is it enough to keep food on their table? Will it provide for the wage earners children if they have any? How much room for growth will that job provide for those that take the job? Is the growth going to require additional education? If so, how will the person obtain that education? While not every job can answer these questions in the affirmative (even sustainable one cannot in some cases), they still need to be asked.
Point
This whole thing is about the wealthy of Washington County
Counterpoint
If anything this is about the poor of Washington County. The jobs created by a Loves or McDonalds do two things, neither of which are good, both of which fly in the face of sustainable growth. First, jobs created with low wages attached do more to keep those in poverty....in poverty. Low wages lead to less education, a false sense of financial security ("I've got a good job" or" I can always get more hours."), and research shows continues poverty. This does not mention the long term effects on health, nutrition and development cause by the over abundance of bad foods associate with truck stops and fast food. Secondly, it takes jobs away from those who already have a job. Say a McDonalds does go in at Meadowview. Suddenly the Meadowview Cafe has to compete with a dollar menu stuff with food that is simply not good for you. What happens to those that count on their jobs at the Meadowview Cafe, when hours have to cut for lack of income? Yes the option of going to work for McDonalds is there, but most of the initial jobs created by McDonalds have been filled.
Point
Meadowview needs to wake up and needs a truck stop or McDonalds to do so.
Counterpoint
Consider Glade Spring as an answer to these comments. While Glade Spring proper is a beautiful spot, it's downtown struggles under the wait of exit 30. While business is attracted to the exit, it moves away from a struggling downtown. Tourist that may well stop at Chevron and buy a famous Chevdog, think they are in Glade Spring, when they are in fact not. There is far more to Glade Spring than Chevron and the truck stop.
The leaders of Meadowview's revitalization have realized that a strong downtown is the key to growth. (If this falls on deaf ear perhaps research on America's fastest growing cities will show that strong downtown revitalization programs are underway in all but a handful) If the truck stop were to locate where it is proposed, the downtown would suffer. A truck stop in Meadowview will lead to more competition where competition is not a good thing, plus the travelers that do stop will simply stop for a Coke and a candy bar, hop back in the car and miss all of what Meadowview really has to offer. All the while thinking to themselves "Eek Meadowview, Virginia. Who'd wanna live there?"
I offer two quick examples of why a truck stop in Meadowview is not a good idea. The first (being a historian) is history. Those of you who are familiar with small hamlets and towns no what they used to look like. If you do not know the old town from experience then you will from pictures and stories. What did "old" such and such look like? Did it have a truck stop, and fast food? Where did people gather? Where did they spend the money they had? Where did that money go after it was spent? Once you have answered those questions, think about what that community looked like on a typical Saturday or Sunday? My guess is, it was busy.
Finally think about the options you have when you are hungry. You have lots of things to chose from. Candy bars full of sugar and empty calories that taste great. Fruits that are also full of sugar but provide calories that the body and process easily. Maybe you chose a full meal with all that goes with it. Which of those both fills you up, and gives you energy that will last? Obviously the meal or the apple is an option that requires more of the eater, but it also provides more benefit. Meadowview has simply chosen to eat a full meal follow the analogy. It has chosen a long term solution to a long term problem. Meadowview did not decline over night, nor will it bounce back over night..even with a Love's, McDonalds. Those who argue against this approach need to realize that not every problem can be fixed with a quick/ easy solution
Love's has a tire service as well. Those guys are technicians that make a good wage, I would think. I did some checking and the nearest Love's pays well above minimum wage. This location would need several salaried managers to run it and I am sure that there are some local candidates that would qualify. And the local vendors (Frito-Lay, Pepsi, etc) would pick up additional commissions from the increased sales of their product.
ReplyDeleteThe additional tax revenue would have come in handy when the tornado devastated the area too.
That sounds like what? 40 or so new jobs? A drop in the bucket to solve the area's financial woes. I guess it is a start, but will these 40 new job descriptions include the responsibility of keeping the hoards of prostitutes from hanging out on the school lawn, like zombies, waiting for our children to go on recess so they can pull tricks for the children's lunch money?
DeleteCan these new jobs prevent all the kidnappings that truck drivers are prone to do? They can fit a lot of our children into a 53 foot trailer. Maybe the whole school's population!
And what about the fumes that will work their way through our own bus and car fumes? Doing a molecular slalom, weaving though the toxins that we create locally, to instinctively find their way into an open schoolhouse window in search of the weakest prepubescent lung to disrupt.
I for one, will look through all the good that it can bring because the bad far outweighs it... if the trucking industry and its supporters, live up to the stereotype.
Salaried Managers. I never thought of that. Wonder if they have 401K, medical & dental insurance, bonus potential, and advancement opportunities?
DeleteMy brother is a fuel delivery driver and he said the Love's will need about 4 drivers to "keep them wet" with fuel. He makes really good money since his Commercial Driver's License includes the delivery of potentially hazardous materials.
So that could be another substancial employment opportunity that is more career oriented as opposed to a job as a hooker on a school playground, (which sounds to me carries no possibility for promotion or advancement).
I also have an old college buddy that is a home improvement specialist, a handy-man if you will. He has his contractor's license, and is fully insured. He told me that the current economy has created a stronger DIY (Do It Yourself) environment and has really hurt his business. I believe him, because I changed my own brake pads by watching a youtube video on how to do it.
This travel stop will need a local electrician, plumber, paver, landscaper, HVAC tech, lighting and signage company...the list goes on and on.
There will always be broken down cars that need towed and repaired,cooler/freezer issues, HVAC concerns, various electrical and plumbing issues, and constant handy-man opportunities for local licensed and skilled people to fulfill.
I am excited to know that there are several employment opportunities that can spawn from such a business that we really are unaware of. Until we peel away the layers of the typical day-to-day functions it takes to run a business of this nature, we will never fully understand the magnitude of employment it can provide.
Bring 'em on...and where do I apply?
Folks,
DeleteThe truck stop itself is not a bad thing. It will bring jobs and it will help the economy, but only in the short run. Meadowview is looking at the long term. It is simply trying to keep from becoming another stop, spend money, and drive on community.
Think about when you travel. You stop in a place to get gas or a coke. You think you're in that town, when often you are nowhere near the real town. Meadowview is trying to be Meadowview, just differently.
I think what many of you are not seeing is the idea that leaders in Meadowview do not want to be know as a truckstop town. It has scraped hard to get the image of a small town that has an identity and is know for something. It is just a different approach. Not everyone wants a truckstop, McDonalds and Wal Mart.
I will leave you with this question. Would you want a truck stop in your backyard? I sure don't and I don't think the people of Meadowview do either.
In the event that your question is not a retorical one, I can't think of ANY business that I would want located directly in my back yard. Except purhaps a unicorn ranch...or maybe a gum-drop tree orchard.
DeleteThe reality is that some folks desire to cultivate and maintain a prestine, pure, and quaint environment from which they can grow old and eventually die. I am one of those folks, but I have yet to see any type of active campaign indicating that we are hard at work to nurture a small town image. Check that...I am seeing it now with the stonewalling of viable progression.
The site location, from my understanding, does not involve any back yards so we can rule out that image. Nobody wants their utopia disrupted, but this is merely an exit ramp off of an interstate system and has nothing to do with a community's image.
Meadowview exists away from the interstate and would likely avoid the stereotypical label of "truck stop town".
To the best of my knowledge the community leaders of Abingdon, Chilhowie, Marion, and Rural Retreat (to name a few) all have avoided any dreaded labels based on the businesses located at their exits and Meadowview will likewise maintain it's pristine reputation.
The truth in this matter is very simple. There are some folks that want Meadowview to remain what it is now...a retirement community. THAT is Meadowview's reputation, and we are doing nothing progressive to avoid the label.... But that doesn't make us bad people.
"I am one of those folks, but I have yet to see any type of active campaign indicating that we are hard at work to nurture a small town image."
DeletePlease visit Tal Stanley at Emory & Henry College or maybe Steve Fisher Emmeritus Professor from EHC and ask them about the active campaign. Make sure you schedule a few hours.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteModerate Nation,
ReplyDeleteI drove home from home yesterday through Glade Spring and Meadowview. For the sake of experiment I stopped in Glade Spring. I found a car with out of stat plates and asked them where they thought the money they had just spent went. Not surprisingly they understood that the money didn't stay in Meadowview. Also I asked them what tehy thought of Glade. They complimented the landscape, even though the tornado has torn up allot. They offered that it seemed too much like a community with a gas station and nothing more.
This is the very thing Meadowview is attempting to avoid. Glade is a wonderful spot, but it seems like a gas station and a few homes from the interstate. Meadowview and Glade both have so much more to offer than gas stations. Why squelch that?
People from out of state exit because they need something. They really don't dig deep into what the community offers and they likely do not really care where the money goes that they are spending for that Gatorade and beef jerkey.
ReplyDeleteWhen traveling, most folks exit to seek the specific services that they need at that particular moment such as: a restroom, gasoline, a meal, snack, fix a flat tire, directions, stretch out, let their pets relieve themselves, seek medical attention, use the fax, fill their radiator, report an accident, seek shelter from a tornado,...the list goes on and on.
Fortunately, for the sake of the this blog topic, there was situation where somebody exited and made themselves available to offer solicited opinions regarding the distribution of the money they just spent and the impression they got from that exit.
They could likely care less what the community of Glade or Meadowview offer beyond their immediate needs at that particular gas station. If additional services or community offerings were being sought, they would have likely inquired about it to a the citizen of the community working behind the gas counter. And hopefully, he or she represented our community in a manner that is acceptable to our leaders in order to maintain the image they are fighting so hard to protect.