Southwest Virginians can take notes from effort to define ‘Southern Virginia’

I very much appreciate Cardinal News efforts to better define what is “Southwest Virginia.” Through experience, I have learned that if a region does not take the lead in defining who they are, then outsiders will define them. The region then is at their mercy to do as they wish. That is not a winning strategy.

During the years when the Lake Gaston Pipeline was the dream of Virginia Beach, I vividly remember the former public works director of Virginia Beach defining the construction upgrades as a highway (58) going through nowhere to get to nowhere.

The idea of renaming the region came to my simple mind when I first started paying attention to how we were going to grow tourism and experience events in our part of the commonwealth. Twenty years ago, I looked at the Virginia Tourism map that at the time had no designated area for our region. We were split between Tidewater, Richmond and other regions. When I raised the issue of why King’s Dominion was prominent on state maps, but absolutely no assets in the Southern part of the state were even rated with a mention, Virginia Tourism had no response.

Our part of Virginia, however, is rich in history and natural resources. We are home to more freshwater fishing and water sports than most of the state. If the state continued to refuse to promote these assets, then how could we possibly grow that portion of our economy? I never envisioned this as anything more than an effort to be more than a tourism issue.

I’m glad that the leadership of Virginia Tourism understood my concern. They begin developing a plan. The plan, however, could not be successful if we were simply defined as Southside Virginia. That one word, though often used, has far too many negative connotations. Nationally, one thinks negative thoughts about Southside Chicago, Southside Boston, Southside Philadelphia. Likewise, in Virginia when someone from Richmond used the term Southside it was usually as a slur to that part of Richmond south of the James River or the Petersburg area.

No, if we wanted to attract tourism, we had to have a better term. Therefore, I proposed “Southern Virginia.” That term gives a warm feeling of home and comfort. Virginia Tourism agreed. In 2011, it rolled out a comprehensive tourism plan our region has successfully been able to use to promote history, outdoor nature activities, trails such as wine, education, rails to trails, beer, distillery trails as well. Many more positive events and experiences such as music and other such things are now part of regular events.

Early on, there was pushback in the business community. Many thought I was crazy. Soon, business leaders such as Ben Davenport of Chatham realized the power the term had not just for tourism, but also to change the mindset that low-end manufacturing was our future. He understood that if we were to compete for world-class jobs, we had to change our thinking of who we are and what we can be.

I commend all the local leaders who understood that we can and must work for a better region. They have taken the ball and run with it throughout Southern Virginia.

Returning to the issue of defining Southwest Virginia, I don’t believe anyone from Mecklenburg County, Botetourt County or any other region should be making decisions about how to define Southwest Virginia by interest or by shape. We can only encourage those of the traditional Southwest to take action on their own.

Frank Ruff is a former state senator from Mecklenburg County.

The post Southwest Virginians can take notes from effort to define ‘Southern Virginia’ appeared first on Cardinal News .