Joe Cobb, Roanoke’s new mayor, describes himself as a “calming presence.” He’s entering his seventh year on the Roanoke City Council and has served on a number of committees and boards in the city, including the Gun Violence Prevention Commission, the Council of Community Services board of directors, the Greater Roanoke Transit Company board and the Roanoke Valley Sisters Cities board of directors. He’s a chaplain at Hermitage Roanoke, a senior living community in Northwest Roanoke.
Cobb talked recently about the “fresh experience” brought by a diverse council and about working with the new city manager, Valmarie Turner. He also discussed the controversial citywide rezoning, which he remained steadfast in supporting during his mayoral campaign, and how his life experiences got him to where he is today. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Question: There are a lot of firsts on council now, with Phazhon Nash being the youngest councilman in Roanoke’s history and Nick Hagen the first Republican elected to the council in more than 20 years. What kinds of changes do you expect coming from these new demographics on the council?
Answer: Fresh experience. When I came on council six and a half years ago, I certainly brought very different lived experiences. I think different skill sets and different temperaments in terms of how we approach issues and how we discern together, not only how each of us individually approach particular issues, but how we as a collective body approach those issues.
I already sense a very collegial spirit. There’s good synergy amongst us, and I’m encouraged by that. I really believe that everyone — and this has been true, certainly in my experience with every council configuration that I’ve been a part of — everyone is really thinking about what’s best for the city.
Not only are we elected at large, but we have to think about the wholeness of our city, and not only what can move our city forward in a positive and healthy way, but what particular issues do we need to address that may not always be popular, or may be met with a lot of resistance, but ultimately we believe are to the benefit of the city. How do we best move forward with those? I’ve been impressed with the hard work that new council members are already putting into this.
Question: You are the city’s first openly gay mayor, and there are also two openly gay men sitting on the council. What do you think this says about Roanoke?
Answer: It’s so interesting to me. I just so rarely think about that, because it’s a part of who I am, but it certainly is not the key identifier of who I am. But what I think it says is that Roanoke, historically and currently, values people’s humanity and values the wholeness of who we are as people, and sees — whether it’s our sexual orientation, our gender identity or whatever — sees that as a part of what makes us special as people. It really was not an issue that came up during the campaign. If it came up, it was probably more on the periphery. To me, it’s an exciting time to see.
I’ve always loved that since I’ve been on council, we’ve had a pretty diverse city council. That diversity has shifted somewhat, but it still reflects who we are as a community in that, you know, we’re a welcoming city. We’ve worked really hard to grow our score on the Human Rights Campaign Municipal Equality Index, and for the second year in a row, we’re over 100. For people that are looking to locate in a place that’s welcoming and inclusive, that’s a pretty strong indicator.
Somebody contacted me, I was at a visitation for someone who had died, and someone came up to me and said, “I just want to tell you that my 87-year-old mom was voting in the city, and she wanted to know about the mayoral candidates, and I told her a little bit about each one, and I did mention to her that you were gay, and she kind of looked at me and she said, ‘Well, I don’t care who he loves, vote!’” That’s refreshing to hear. One of the reasons it’s refreshing to hear locally is because so much has become polarized and divisive on the national scene and sometimes even across the state. But when we can live in local communities that really honor the integrity of people’s lives and their loving relationships, that’s a really strong value for this place. It’s something that I noticed early on when I moved here, 24 years ago, and it’s just continued to deepen.
Question: What are your priorities, and how do you envision the first steps in accomplishing them?
Answer: My top two priorities are working closely with the council to bring us together as a team. As I mentioned before, we are seven unique people. We are all elected. We bring different life experiences and professional experiences, but it’s absolutely critical that we work together as a team, even when we don’t agree on everything. Having a cohesive council is important for our city because it conveys that not only are we committed to the roles we have been elected to and the responsibilities we have to our citizens, but we take those seriously, and we do everything we can through this relational work to work out our discernment and decision making and then have clarity about that when we’re making those decisions on the dais.
[Second,] bringing on our new city manager, working through that transition, making sure that she has all the support she needs, that we’re clearly communicating with each other. She is going to have a lot on her plate, but as council members — and as her supervisors, if you will — we want to make sure that she knows that we have her back, and that we are going to do everything we can to support her success here, and that we are a part of a team. A lot of it is about that initial work of leadership and team building.
Then, in addition to that, making sure that we’re hyperfocused on continuing to reduce gun violence, continuing to reduce homelessness and continuing to reduce overdoses, not only episodes of overdose, but overdose deaths in the area. That’s going to look different because each of those are kind of unique challenges.
In addition to all of that, I would say we have a number of really exciting and substantial economic development projects underway, and we want to keep that momentum going because that’s going to help us address not only growing our tax base, it’s going to help us address our housing challenges and create more housing opportunity with a range of affordability. And in the long term, it’s going to not only help us address some of our most imminent challenges, but it’s going to help us grow our city and our region.
Question: All of the candidates who ran for the three open seats in November openly opposed the citywide rezoning from the summer, but you stayed consistently supportive of that. Do you anticipate any efforts to repeal it?
Answer: I don’t. I’m certainly not supportive of that. I think that we have a solid monitoring mechanism in place and regular updates on not only proposals that are coming through but impacts of those proposals. As long as we’re monitoring that closely, I feel good about where we are. [I’m] certainly not seeing or hearing anything detrimental, and if there were, then we would need to evaluate that and make any adjustments to that. But I, to this point, have not heard any energy about repealing them, and would certainly push for just continued monitoring.
You know, it’s as with anything, if we don’t pilot something and try it on, and give it some time to see how it can benefit our city, especially related to our housing deficit, then we may never know the benefits of that. And I believe long term, there are more benefits to the changes we made in zoning amendments than there are detriments.
Question: Was it hard to remain supportive of that throughout your campaign when it was used against you by one of your opponents, and it was something that all the other candidates disputed?
Answer: No, it really wasn’t, because through all of my research, and particularly through the report that the planning department and planning commission shared in the last iteration of our approval, there’s so much good data there that’s not just about local impact, but it’s about what you know is being seen in other communities. And from what I hear, other communities, really, are wanting to learn more from Roanoke about how we addressed and navigated that process. To me, that’s a good sign.
I am not a fear-based person, so I don’t buy into narratives that are trying to stoke fear about something. If there’s actual data, and whether it’s beneficial or detrimental, then I certainly want to hear that. But if it’s just somebody’s upset about it, or they don’t think it’s the right thing, that’s not enough information for me, because I think about this as a whole for the city. As I mentioned during the campaign season, this isn’t just about creating more housing availability and a range of affordable housing for low-income households. This is about having a range — people want to move to Roanoke, and they want to afford to live in Roanoke, and until we create more inventory, we’re not going to see increased housing options. We’re not going to see a major shift in the market. So all of those things have to work together to benefit the greater good for the community. And as we’re doing that, the last thing I want to do is reduce our sense of livability in the city, because that’s one thing that is a common thread of Roanoke: We love living in Roanoke.
The cost of living has gone up, and to the degree that we can kind of keep that in check, I want to make sure we do that. I think the council wants to make sure of that. But I also don’t want us to be a reactive city. When we created the 2040 Plan, this whole notion of creating more of a range of housing, especially missing middle housing, was a part of that plan. And this was all part of helping implement that plan. I am hopeful that one of the things we can give even more attention to as we move forward is making sure that we are broadening and deepening our engagement with the community, so that even as there is diversity of opinion and agreement or resistance, there’s not a lack of information.
Question: How do you anticipate working with the new city manager, and what do you hope that she knows about Roanoke, or understands about Roanoke?
Answer: Well, I have to say, when we interviewed her, the decision was unanimous. That even included two of the new city council members, which said a lot to me. I was impressed with how much she already knew about our city. In fact, I told her that it’s like you’re already here. She was referencing any number of plans, specifics about those plans, things she was already aware of about Roanoke. She’s certainly been to Roanoke a number of times, but I could tell in her spirit and demeanor that she was excited about our city, excited about working with citizens, with our employees, championing them, working with our nonprofit sector, our business community. Really the way she approaches local government work, that local government is a partner agency. It’s not a standalone. It has its unique role, but when it comes to addressing challenges that we have as a city, let’s figure out ways to do this together. She brings a lot of experience in doing that.
Her work in affordable housing in different communities is very exciting to us. I think she’s very tuned in to the importance of economic growth, which we have a lot of momentum in that area right now. I think she’s very growth-oriented, which is exciting to me. And she’s very personable. She describes herself as a transformational leader, and I think the key to that is not only how you envision yourself engaging with those that you work directly with, but also how you engage with your community, how you communicate with them, how you approach the work that we do together. All of those things are really exciting to me.
I know that we will meet at least weekly and by phone whenever we need to. I anticipate that all of the council members will be offered the opportunity to meet with her monthly, and I will encourage that. I think she will be very transparent with us, and anticipatory as a leader that these are some things that we’re working through. We want to make sure you know about this, and then let’s strategize together how we want to work on these issues.
Question: The council is close to making a decision on an appointment to fill your vacant council seat until the end of 2026. What qualities are you looking for in a new council member?
Answer: Someone who’s excited about serving our city, someone who believes in the values that our city holds. Who is excited about our future. Someone who brings experience of working in the city, whatever capacity that may be, whether they have previous experience on council, or whether they’ve been engaged in the community in different ways. I want to see evidence of that community engagement because that conveys to me that they have worked with a variety of people in the community. They have good communication skills. They’re a collaborative spirit, willing to work with other people to be a part of a team.
[They] have knowledge about how local government works, and that’s something that can be learned fairly quickly. For a position like this, that’s really less than two years, having some knowledge of how local government works is pretty critical, because this person, whoever it is, could certainly choose to run for election in 2026 for the next four years, or they may not be interested in that. I’m not saying that would have to be a hard and fast decision for them, but I want to know that they want to do this because they understand the role of being a public servant and that they really care for and value the long-term health of the city.
Question: What life experiences of yours come to mind as the most valuable to now serve as mayor?
Answer: Being a calm presence is really important to me. It’s a quality that I learned from my parents, most especially my dad. The reason I think that’s important is that when you’re a leader and you’re working in a place that has a lot of diversity of lived experiences and opinions, there are lots of complexities. To be able to dwell in the midst of those with a peaceful spirit — that doesn’t mean you can’t be passionate, I have to react and be responsive. But to me, it’s like being the eye in the storm, because all of us could identify in our lives lots of storms going on around us, and if we get caught up in those storms, we’re not effective to anybody. If we don’t care for ourselves as individuals, we’re not going to be effective for anybody. So we have to honor who we are as individuals but realize we dwell in community, and how we are present in community can often determine how other people are able to feel present with us.
I have just found in my life that if I can be a calm presence in a situation, that can be a real gift. It can break through some of the chaos. It can turn an argumentative or adversarial spirit into one that’s more peaceable, where everybody’s kind of listening more carefully to each other and finding those threads that we have in common that can get us to a place where we never thought we could get. That’s important in local government leadership.
To me, it’s always been important to show up and to engage throughout the city, and I will continue to do that. It’s just how I function. I’m able to do that in a way that doesn’t exhaust me, but that honors the diversity of things that are happening in our city and the effort that people put into things, whether it’s a nonprofit organization doing a special event for kids, or a business that’s been a dream for years that’s finally opening or expanding their business. Or a school that’s just finished making improvements. There are so many different aspects to our community, and to be able to celebrate those and acknowledge those is celebrating the people who are involved in them, and the people who make Roanoke so special.
I’m really excited. I love this city. We have so much potential. And I’m looking forward to working with everyone, to see where we go from here.
