Lynchburg’s bright future.
I was both a witness and, to a limited extent, a participant in the revitalization of Charlottesville downtown in the early 90s. When I was a kid — 14 years old — I remember spending entire weekends sitting in front of the boarded-up Paramount Theater, noodling around on guitar and reading comics. The Downtown Mall was empty, with maybe a few brave souls on each block. Miller’s, C&O, and Eastern Standard were the hubs of evening and late-night activity, but Live Arts and Fridays After 5 weren’t yet factors. Those storefronts that were occupied were decidedly low-rent operations.
But there was a magic to the whole thing. Such a great space could not remain unimproved. With so many fellow true believers, many of whom were working very hard to improve the area, it was inevitable that the Downtown Mall would become a jewel of Central Virginia. And so it happened. A decade later, downtown Charlottesville is the financial, social, and artistic hub of the area. I feel (entirely irrationally) as if I willed this into being. I saw what could be wonderful, wished it to be so, and so it was.
Such is my feeling about Lynchburg. Our neighbor sixty miles south, this corroded industrial town is best known for Jerry Falwell and…well, and that’s it. Kids who grow up there move someplace better. I’ve only been there a couple of times and, damnit, this is a town that’s going places.
A good chunk of the town is built on the steep slope leading down to the James River, making the arrangement Pittsburgh-like in its layout and viewshed. (Hence the nickname of the “Hill City.”) It’s huge — 50 square miles — or five times the size of Charlottesville. They’ve got a daily paper, a local TV station, and a minor league baseball team. Though there’s no major university, it does have a community college, Lynchburg College, Randolph Macon and Falwell’s Liberty University, which ain’t a bad lineup. Its fallen position as a late 1800s/early 1900s industrial powerhouse has left it littered with run-down industrial buildings that cry out for conversion to art galleries, live/work loft spaces, and occasional late-night dance party spaces. Property is mighty cheap, making the area attractive to 20-somethings looking to start businesses, make art, or just live cheaply.
In today’s Lynchburg News & Advance, there’s a story about plans to revitalize Fifth Street, a particularly rundown section of the city. Two of the folks getting involved are Oliver Kuttner and David New, both of whom I know from here in Charlottesville. (Oliver is a developer and David is the founder of Root 66 and the Starlight Express.) Oliver is involved in a multi-million redevelopment project down along the river, a result of a collaboration between him and a Lynchburg local.
Good things are afoot in Lynchburg, but I think that there’s much more to come. If I had any money right now, I’d be investing in Lynchburg real estate. And if I were more portable right now, I’d both invest in Lynchburg real estate and move down there and start a few businesses. A coffee shop, an art gallery, turn a warehouse into some loft spaces and rent ‘em out cheap, maybe throw weekly late-night dance parties in an old warehouse. Build up the hipster base, throw a few things at the wall and see what sticks, and gradually ratchet things up for the next 10-15 years.
I’ll be honest: I’m excited about Lynchburg. I may be the only person in the world who gets a little giddy at the thought of the place. I don’t see any way that I’ll be a participant in the city’s inevitable climb upward, but I consider myself as an eager cheerleader, if nothing else.
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