RATE OF GROWTH:FAST
I see new cities and towns being born all around me even while the number of towns and cities is said to be declining.
We are in a phase in our particular area in which there are towns in the form of strip - assortments of buildings - strewn along almost every highway near a large city. It doesn't take such a settlement long to evolve into being a part of that nearest town village.
In our particular area, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, south of Harrisonburg in Rocking ham and Augusta Counties , we have witnessed such filling-in an stabilizing of strip communities. The city of Harrisonburg has been expanding in all directions for the past decade or so and, even new, seems monstrous to anyone who might have been away for a decade or so.
It is on the north-south Interstate 81 corridor, one of the most heavily traveled interstates in the nation, which is now facing urgent needs of modernization and widening plus any other steps required to make it serve existing traffic - much less anticipated needs. Historic destinations run more or less beside I-81 through an area rich with tourist lures.
The city is also athwart the main highways from West Virginia – US 60,US 33 - into the northern Virginia and the Washington-Baltimore markets which s another demanding pressure for commercial traffic. Just to the south it crosses it crosses Interstate 64 which digs into the heart of the mid-west from Tidewater Virginia.
The high range of mountains prevent to much growth toward the West but Harrisonburg is steadily pushing Eastward to ward Elk ton,Va. on Route 33 To the south west on US 42 Bridgewater, Dayton, and Mount Crawford have more or less grown together a one solid unit and all have become appended to Harrisonburg on both the Dayton and the Mt.,Crawford ends of the arc on varied types of construction -new housing and commercial developments. Two Universities, and second four-year college bring the business associated with twenty thousand of so student and relatives beyond exact accounting. These town have already planned for the future by joining in seeking better ways to offer unified government,utilities, transportation, streets,lighting, gas waste management - and other such trade able items which will enable each of them to grow stronger together as they grown larger.
Harrisonburg is stretching south on Route 11 and I-81 to, as well. I live in Weyers Cave, Va which has been oriented toward Harrisonburg for years. Day by day the area between us is filling in as Weyers Cave and Mt.Sidney grown closer to each other.
The area is suffering a slight setback at the moment due to a ban on area poultry in - of all places China - largely because of the world-wide Avian Flu scares of recent years. That will,in time, pass and Valley poultry will again be Asia's favorite.
It is encouraging to see Harrisonburg, Mt.Crawford, Elkton, Weyers Cave, Bridgewater, Dayton,and other area communities working together in associations designed to help provide services with less expense and greater efficiency under central control . The area has had other notable advantages too,as I see it They have long had a stable,consistent and well-managed daily newspaper and a strong radio and TV presence in the Valley area. These, along with an ability to see the need to build a bit ahead of actual times of need – roads, schools and churches, in particular.
Much of America could look at this area and see a example of a good way to to become a better place in which to live and prosper. We are not going to avoid become bigger, so let's do it right as we go along instead of tumbling head over heels in desperate, costly confusion. If, indeed it has to happen, the natural way is so well illustrated here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
A.L.M. June 25, 2004 [c882 wds]
