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(Originally published in the now-defunct Twin City Sentinel.)

I don’t think Roanoke is at the top of anyone’s “must see” list. And that’s too bad. This Virginia city offers an old school urban feel with a mountainous backdrop, but without the annoying “granola factor” of, say, Asheville. It’s a great place for a day trip or a weekend visit.

Roanoke was sort of iconic for me as a child. It was the first city we passed through on our semi-annual trips to the horse races in West Virginia, and I was fascinated by the giant Tudor-style Hotel Roanoke. I once persuaded my parents to take me there for what turned out to be a very expensive (and not very good) lunch when I was ten or eleven years old. I’ve been told the food has improved. I hope so.

Like Norfolk and Richmond, the population of Roanoke proper has been stagnant or declining for the past fifty years or so. What this means is that Roanoke feels in many ways like a much bigger city than it actually is. It was built up as a bigger, denser city in its early days, and the physical evidence remains, even if many of the buildings are now empty.

Downtown and Environs

It’s a fascinating place to explore if you’re a fan of the urban form. While urban renewal was not kind to certain ares of the center city, the downtown area retains a string of beautiful commercial buildings from the decades surrounding the turn of the last century. And there’s some evidence of a renaissance, with new tenants moving into many of the abandoned storefronts. The area around the City Market is lively and healthy, if not necessarily thriving just yet.

The downtown area is also surrounded by numerous interesting older neighborhoods, including the Old Southwest historic district. Again, urban renewal resulted in some very noticeable clearance, particularly to the north of downtown and in the areas around Williamson Road and I-581, but there’s still a lot to see here.

Williamson Road

Speaking of Williamson Road, it’s one of my favorite strips in Roanoke. Also signed as US Highway 11, it was the primary northern route out of Roanoke before I-81, and it’s a treasure trove of commercial architecture dating from the 1930s to the 1950s, including some surprisingly well-preserved old motels. Some stretches can be a little dicey, with telltale signs of prostitution and drug-dealing, but it’s not really a particularly scary drive, even at night.

Williamson Road also houses the best (and worst) eateries of my most recent trip. The New Yorker Delicatessen is a wonderful thing, with huge sandwiches and a setting that is something straight out of 1968. They close for the sabbath, so don’t expect to grab a Saturday afternoon meal there.

The Williamson Road Pancake House, on the other hand, is from hell. It draws a big crowd, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. The food is expensive (for what it is) and not very good, the service is slow, surly, and bordering on nonexistent. And the place seems absolutely filthy. I nearly lost my breakfast in the men’s room due to a stench which came from general neglect rather than one person’s, ummm, activity. And lest you think I’m a  prima donna, understand that dumpy (and sometimes even dirty) old diners are generally some of my favorite places. But not this one.

Random Things to See

The trek up Mill Mountain to the big lighted star (and the nearby overlook to see downtown) is a must, as is a stroll through downtown.

For a good cross-section of the city, I’d recommend following the route of US Highway 11 west of downtown, along Campbell and Memorial Avenues, Grandin Road, and Brandon Avenue, and then into neighboring Salem, which is also worth a look.

Before visiting, you might want to check out the  wonderful Old Roanoke website, which provides an amazing photo history of the city, through postcards and vintage photos.

Photos

Roanoke skyline as seen from Mill Mountain.

The old City Market now houses a food court and several retail stores on its perimeter.

A row of old commercial buildings in downtown Roanoke.

Neon signs in downtown Roanoke.

Roanoke skyline.

The old meets the modern in downtown Roanoke.

Classic supermarket, Winborne Street, Roanoke.

Little Chef Restuarant on Willimason Road.

I’m watching the 5:00 news, where I’m closely following the important breaking news that, after five days, Wake Forest basketball coach Skip Prosser continues to be dead. His ongoing mortality has been the subject of about three quarters of all live local news coverage since last Thursday.

It’s as if the whole news team at WXII is hovering over the corpse on the offside chance that Prosser might suddenly decide to get up and dance a little jig. If it happens, Cameron Kent will be there waiting with a camera, by God.

I had my birthday six days early on Saturday night, since Mark will be in The City of Doom on Friday. I got a tripod, and some really good books, a Wait Till Your Father Gets Home DVD (or four), a cool set of fake plastic food, and a Pizza Elmo, which is one of my favorite Elmos so far.

Sunday being the hottest day of the year so far, we had also managed to plan a road trip to the hottest part of the state: the greater Rockingham-Hamlet-Laurinburg metropolitan area. That whole chunk of the state from Fayetteville south is so incredibly bleak and depressing. Rockingham and Hamlet remind me of Pixley and Los Banos in California, the former being a place where all hope seems to have vanished and the latter apparently exisiting only as a highway stopover and home to the area’s obligatory Wal-Mart Supercenter.

At least there’s a Piggly Wiggly in Hamlet, but it’s closed on Sunday. We had to visit the Food King instead. It’s a cool store, and it used to be a Piggly Wiggly (and before that, an A&P) but I was a little disturbed to note the mold growing on one of the cakes they had displayed. I was even more disturbed that the cashier didn’t really seem to care when I mentioned it to her.

We circled back through Charlotte, which is not really on the way unless you drive the way we do, and visited some friends and passed out tomatoes. We have lots of tomoatoes.

All in all, it was a good weekend.

Notice how their layout doesn’t even allow for the possibility of three-digit temperatures? That’s because weather this hot is just wrong.

Am I supposed to be surprised and impressed that the proceeds from a package of cheese will go to dairy farmers? Maybe I’m hopelessly naive, but where the hell else should I expect them to go? It’s not like dairy farmers are some impoverished charitable organiztion holding a benefit concert; they’re businesspeople who produce and sell dairy products for profit. Which, contrary to popular belief, is not inherently evil.

The idea that every single commercial transaction must include some random bit of philanthropy (on both sides) is wearing a bit thin, especially now that it’s such a cliché that it’s now being used to the advantage of the very “evil” corporations it’s presumably designed to be a reaction against.