A new General Assembly will gavel into session on Wednesday with an unprecedented number of new legislators, virtually all of them from someplace other than Southwest and Southside — which raises the question of how much those new legislators from elsewhere know about our part of the state.
In a more perfect world, we’d arrange a tour. In the real world we live in, this will have to do. Here are some things those new legislators might find useful.
1. Southwest Virginia is farther away than you think it is.
Some people are under the misapprehension that Roanoke is Southwest Virginia. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t — the farther west you go, the more objection you’ll get to that. Over the years, I’ve seen many statewide candidates (especially Democrats) who think they’ve checked off the obligatory Southwest Virginia box by making a stop in Roanoke. We call these people geographically impaired. (Some may call them other things but I’m trying to be polite.)
Let’s look at a map. From Arlington to the State Capitol, it’s 107.8 miles, according to the all-knowing Google. From Norfolk to the State Capitol, it’s a mere 93.5 miles. Google says that’s an hour and 45 minutes but Google has never had to drive through the tunnel at rush hour, so I don’t put my faith in that estimate. From Roanoke to the State Capitol, it’s 189.7 miles — a solid three-hour drive, unless there’s fog on Afton Mountain. But remember there’s a lot of Virginia west of Roanoke. If you were driving from Richmond to the state’s westernmost point, Roanoke isn’t even halfway there. From Roanoke, it’s 247.9 miles to the Cumberland Gap. Google says that’s four hours and 19 minutes but Google has never been stuck behind a slow-moving truck on U.S. 58, either. Or in one of the regular slowdowns on Interstate 81. (Our legislators will be more than happy to tell you about how Interstate 81 is a chokehold on commerce in this part of the state. We noticed that last year there was a special appropriation for Interstate 64 east of Richmond but none for Interstate 81. We weren’t very happy about that.)
Now, here’s the really fun part: Most of us in the western part of the state are closer to other state capitals than we are to our own. The farther west you go, the more that number increases. Covington, Danville and Martinsville are all closer to one other state capital. Roanoke is closer to two others. Bristol is closer to six or seven, depending on where you are. But go farther west (and there’s still a lot of Virginia west of Bristol) and eventually you’ll be closer to nine other capitals than to our own. If you think that those of us in Southwest Virginia often feel estranged from state government, this is one of the reasons why.
2. We root for different sports teams, too.
This is another function of geography. The westernmost radio stations that carry the Washington Commanders football games are in Lynchburg and Roanoke. Beyond that — and you just saw how much “beyond” there is — you start picking up stations carrying the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers’ games are on the air from stations starting in Madison Heights, just north of Lynchburg, and then other stations in Lynchburg itself and farther west in Bedford, Salem, Blacksburg and Christiansburg. (They’re on the air through a station in Hopewell, too.) The whole southern tier of Virginia is, in broadcast terms, Panthers territory. I saw people in Roanoke wearing gear for the team long before it took the field.
If you’re a baseball fan, you can listen to Washington Nationals games from stations in Lynchburg and Martinsville. If you’re listening to stations out of Roanoke, though, you’ll get the Atlanta Braves. (I’m a Nationals fan and I’m very much in the minority around here.) But if you really want your mind blown, go farther west, and you’ll find stations in Abingdon and Wise carrying the Cincinnati Reds. From Abingdon, it’s a quicker drive to the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati than it is to Nationals Stadium in Washington. This is why Chad Dotson, the head of the state prison system and a native of Wise County, grew up as a die-hard Reds fan. It’s also why you might find some skepticism about Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to help the NBA Wizards and the NHL Capitals move from Washington to Alexandria. Skepticism about government involvement in sports teams aside, these simply aren’t our teams. The supposed prestige of having teams located on Virginia soil seems pretty distant to us out here. (Now, if you can figure out a way to divert some of the tax revenues to Southwest Virginia, maybe that will change.)
I’ve lived in the Roanoke Valley for four decades and am reasonably attuned to sports, and I’ve never heard anyone mention the Wizards and only a few have ever mentioned the Capitals. If people here want to see NBA basketball, they go to Charlotte to see the Hornets and if they want to see NHL hockey, they go to Raleigh to see the Carolina Hurricanes. When I was with The Roanoke Times, we often surveyed readers about what they were interested in. When it came to sports, college sports generally dominated the list over pro sports — and, of course, NASCAR.
3. Our economy is different, too.
OK, talking about sports is somewhat frivolous — until we have millions of tax dollars involved — but that’s simply an easy way to get at the underlying forces. The reality is that the economies in Southwest and Southside are different. It’s not simply that they’ve been based on traditional industries that are now dead or declining (although there’s that, too), but that their economies are oriented in different directions. A study a few years ago by two geographers who studied commuting patterns mapped this nationwide. We understand intuitively that Virginia has different economies; that’s why there are nine different zones for the GO Virginia economic development initiative (maybe there ought to be 10; Lynchburg still chafes at being lumped in with Roanoke and the New River Valley). This map simply shows that in a different way. The economy across much of Southside is more connected to North Carolina’s than it is the rest of Virginia’s. This is why the legislators in the Martinsville-Henry County area will tell you they really need improvements along that winding stretch of U.S. 220 from Martinsville to the North Carolina line.
4. We’re reinventing our economy.
It’s easy to use shorthand, such as referring to part of Southwest Virginia as “coal country” or Southside as “tobacco country.” Those abbreviations are true, but not the whole truth. Yes, there’s still coal mined in Southwest Virginia, but only in a few counties and even there it accounts for a relatively small percentage of the total employment. In some counties in Southside, there are now more acres of solar farms than tobacco farms. (That’s also a sore point for some people, who don’t like seeing good agricultural land taken over for energy production.) More broadly, though, all these regions are in some stage of reinventing their economies. If you think of Danville as a textile town, you’re more than two decades out of date. It’s now an advanced manufacturing hub. The Richmond-Petersburg area recently won federal designation as a technology hub — good for them — but an alliance of the New River Valley and Danville won a secondary award for their work with advanced materials manufacturing. Whatever the passing issues of the day may be, the primary challenge for all our communities is reinventing their economies. Northern Virginia doesn’t have to look at the world that way, but we do. Speaking of Northern Virginia …
5. Northern Virginia thinks it has too much of something we think we don’t have enough of.
Data centers have become quite controversial in parts of Northern Virginia. State Sen.-elect Danica Roem, D-Manassas, recently told a Washington radio station: “I oppose the existence of all data centers in western Prince William County — period. And the ones that are there currently need to be taxed to match Loudoun, if not exceed it, and if someone wants to pack up and leave because, oh no their data center tax is too much, I will personally put a big yellow ribbon around it and ship it to Tazewell County where they’re happy to have it.”
That’s true. Tazewell would love to have some data centers. In fact, many localities in Southwest and Southside would. They’ve been literally begging for them, but haven’t been able to get the industry’s attention. They see an opportunity to create tech jobs and expand their tax base. Here’s a potential opportunity for two very different parts of the state to work together.
6. Not all localities in Southwest and Southside are losing population.
Most are, to be sure. But some have now seen a reversal and are gaining population. Furthermore, the population declines in many parts of Southwest and Southside have slowed, because now more people are moving in than moving out. That’s just overshadowed by deaths outnumbering births (and people moving in), a consequence of an aging population. Let me repeat that: Many parts of Southwest and Southside now have more people moving in than moving out.
You know who is losing population? Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. If these figures come as a shock to you, they shouldn’t. We’ve been writing about Virginia’s changing demographics since our launch. We’ve collected all that coverage on our demographics page, so you can catch up on how Virginia is reshaping itself. Anyway, the immediate point here is that Southwest and Southside isn’t in as dire a condition as it’s often made out to be.
7. Martinsville has the fastest wage growth in the state
Here’s another statistic that seems counterintuitive but is true. From 2019 to 2022, the fastest wage growth among Virginia’s metropolitan or micropolitan areas came in Martinsville and Henry County — 24%. True, that area started from a lower base, so it’s easy to get a big percentage increase. But that also reflects the growth of advanced manufacturing in the region, and how that, combined with the labor shortage, is driving up wages there. This ties back to what I said earlier about Southwest and Southside reinventing its economy.
8. Some places still don’t have broadband.
In Falls Church, 100% of the population has access to broadband, according to Broadband Now. In Fairfax County, the figure is 98.6%. Some parts of Southwest and Southside are quite well-connected, too. Bristol is at 99.6%, so more connected than Fairfax County. Washington County is at 95.7%. Tazewell, where Roem would like to ship some data centers, is at 93.8%.
In other places, though, broadband is still something that other people have. The lowest figures are not in the mountainous parts of Southwest but in flatter parts of Southside. In Charlotte County, the figure is 38.6%, something we at Cardinal experienced firsthand when we covered the recent Republican mass meeting there to pick a candidate for the state Senate. In Brunswick County, it’s 37.6%. In Greensville County, it’s 35.2%. Federal and state money is on the way for all this but for now, this is the situation. I live within commuting distance of Roanoke, and broadband — through the Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative — is still a novelty in my household.
9. Our schools are subsidized by the state.
In Northern Virginia, most school funding comes from local governments. In Southwest and Southside, most of it comes the state. This is a function of the relative affluence (or lack thereof) of different parts of the state. Arlington spends $17,746 per pupil in local funds alone, according to an annual state report. That’s more than the total per-pupil expenditures in most rural localities. Arlington’s total per-pupil spending is $23,341, just 7.9% of that coming from the state. Giles County has the state’s lowest per-pupil spending, at $10,914, and 58% of that comes from the state. The median household income in Giles is also less than half what it is in Arlington.
Giles isn’t even the poster child for rural schools in need: Prince Edward County is. That county has an elementary school where three rooms are unusable because of water damage from a leaky roof. The county’s tried to get permission from the state to raise the local sales tax to generate enough funds to fix the building; that request was voted down in last year’s General Assembly. Del. Tommy Wright, R-Lunenburg County, will bring that measure back this year. The picture above is why.
Students in Southwest and Southside often score quite well on tests — the SchoolDigger site ranks St. Paul Elementary in Wise County as the third best school in the state. However, as Del. Israel O’Quinn, R-Washington County, recently told a group in Roanoke, Southwest Virginia has overperforming students in underperforming buildings.
10. Don’t believe the stereotypes.
Ours is an easy part of the state to stereotype. Some of those stereotypes are true. We do love bluegrass. We do love NASCAR. Yes, a lot of people own guns. But there are a lot of other things that are true, too, that paint a more complicated picture than people have come to believe. Roanoke, a city on the edge of Appalachia, has three gay men on city council — and not a single straight white male. Granted, Roanoke votes Democratic, but Pulaski is very Republican and it has a gay mayor. Lynchburg is known for Liberty University and Liberty is undoubtedly a major economic and cultural force in the Hill City. However, Lynchburg is also a lot more than Liberty. Want to go to a Gothic League dance party? Lynchburg’s your town.
So, there are 10 quick things to know about our part of the state. For more, how about coming out for a visit? You now at least know how far away it is.
