What if you get pegged as a cheap date for old folks?
Posted on June 14, 2007
Kiplinger magazine recently named Roanoke one of its top five cities– if you are a retiree. For a city trying to attract young professionals, this kind of designation does little to contribute to the image we would like to create. Some might say any media is good media. But, it’s especially troubling that the designation is based primarily on low cost. As a rule, using price as your primary competitive advantage is not the way to build a strong brand that is attractive to young, affluent professionals.
The two million monthly readers of Kiplinger now see Roanoke as an affordable place to live. 81% of those readers are male and 57% of them are over 50 years old. That’s over a million men nearing retirement age who may seriously consider Roanoke when they finally decide to call it a day. After all, there are plenty of doctors, public golf courses, relatively low crime and inexpensive houses. What’s not to like? Ironically, Roanoke’s 65 and over population has declined by more than 11% since 1990.
In 2003, Money magazine also ranked Roanoke as a top place to retire. In that profile, the magazine described Roanoke as the perfect place for “halfbacks,” people who had moved from New York or New Jersey to Florida and decided they wanted to be closer to their northern roots. These would-be snowbirds don’t routinely bring much creative culture with them. In fact, the county that accounts for the most new residents in Roanoke in recent years is Pasco County, Florida. More than 300 people have moved from Pasco County to Roanoke to escape the escalating costs in and around Tampa. Again, positioning Roanoke as a cheap alternative to Florida is not a long-term strategy.
So, how do we turn the best place to retire into the best place for young professionals? One thought would be to combine the best of both worlds into a positioning that appeals to each audience. What if Roanoke was the best place to retire early? That’s one of the basic dreams we share in America. Aside from winning the lottery, we all have some idea in the back of our heads that would allow us to cash in and live a life of leisure.
As it happens, Money magazine actually ranked the Best Places to Retire Young in their April issue. Two of the top five cities are our college-town neighbors, Charlottesville and Blacksburg. The Best Places to Retire Young all had to satisfy seven basic criteria:
• Positive growth since 1990
• Within 100 miles of a major metropolitan area
• Median housing cost below $350,000
• No more than 20% above national cost of living index
• Unemployment below 4% and job growth above 10% for the past five years
• Close proximity to highly competitive college or university
• Recreation, arts and culture score in the top third of peer cities
A quick look at Roanoke’s numbers makes it pretty clear why the city did not make the list. Roanoke has lost population since 1990. The city is pretty centrally located, but not within 100 miles of any major metropolitan area. Roanoke’s median home price is only $102,000, which fits with a low cost of living index of 92. While the unemployment rate is currently only 3.6%, the city has fewer jobs today than it did ten years ago.
But keep in mind that these numbers apply to the city. If you look at the metropolitan statistical area, or MSA, the numbers look entirely different. Roanoke’s MSA includes the counties of Roanoke, Botetourt, Franklin, Craig, and the city of Salem. Within this broader area, the population has grown 24.4% since 1990, or a healthy 1.5% per year. Among the young retiree age bracket, between 45 and 64, the population in the Roanoke MSA has grown almost 72% since 1990. Which brings us to the crux of the issue. Collectively, the Roanoke area looks a lot more attractive to the outside world than the city does, especially when you’re just looking at the numbers.
Too often, our current residents become mired in the details of living here to think about what we look like to people thinking of moving here. There are decisions about schools, taxes, quality of life and other variables that we all consider as we move through life in our valley. Each of our chosen homes in the valley comes with its own flavor of civic pride, as well as its own stigma. But, that’s what makes us unique as a whole. And, that’s what we should capture and sell to the rest of the world.
If we really want to share the rewards of a vibrant community and a viable economy, we’ve got to package our strengths. Rather than putting Roanoke on the radar as a low-cost alternative for would-be snowbirds, we can put our metropolitan area on the map as a progressive region in one of the most beautiful natural environments in the country.
The Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership and the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau do their best to bundle everything we have to offer into an attractive package for businesses and tourists. But it’s going to take a much higher level of cooperation to turn the Roanoke Valley metro area into something greater than the sum of its parts.
So, just for a moment, forget that you live here. Forget about the school districts, tax rates and all the other day-to-day issues. Forget about the declining population and flat economy. Pretend that you live somewhere else and are looking for a place to move. Now, find one thing that is really appealing about each county, city and town in our metro area. Google these places and see what comes up. Discover a few things that you never knew existed. Search some real estate listings. Then add it all up and see what it looks like. Make a list of the things that really attracted you. And make another list of the things that really turned you off. This is what people see when they are considering moving here.
Let’s start the dialogue right here, right now. Send us your lists. Be sure to include the entire metro area. Then let’s paint a picture we can all be proud to call home. And let’s invite people like us to move here– no matter how old they are.
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