My nomination for the 2024 GOP Presidential run!

[ButchPlz]

Last time I was there me and my dad counted up the number of farms that were in a 10-15 mile radius of ours when I left home, there were 25-30 of them then. Now there are 4. It's not all the fault of the counties liberalization but a lot of it is. They have been successful at changing the way property taxes are structured which did away with much of the reduced rate agricultural land paid. Couple the tax issue with the harassment from the sheriffs department and health department and it's clear Blacksburg/Christiansburg wants the farms out of the rural parts of the county.

Same case just up north, except replace farms with small businesses. The local ECD goes out of their way to attract big national and regional chains that often directly complete with established local businesses, because I assume they believe those businesses generate more tax revenue. That may be true, but taxes are only one part of a small economy.

The most egregious one lately was giving tax breaks and a rent subsidy to Mast General Store to open in the downtown- a block away from an already established outdoor store, a local cookery store, and a small general store. Those places contribute/d to the visual appeal of downtown, employment, and paid a better wage than Mast does, all while paying in the end similar rent (as remember, Mast's huge location has a lot of subsidy both openly and behind the scenes) and contributing inevitably more money into the local economic cycle.

The general store is already out of business. Our friend that's a manager at the outdoor store says they're on the way out. Don't know about the cookery shop.

 

[ButchPlz]

Oh, and a fun example of the general culture of Roanoke, VA now- one of the line cooks that works (now worked) at the restaurant next to our old retail spot, the one that's owned by our old landlord, beat up and shot to death his girlfriend two days ago.

Just par for the course here now though. We're safer than 5% of US cities, up from 4% recently!

 

[hog88]

Oh, and a fun example of the general culture of Roanoke, VA now- one of the line cooks that works (now worked) at the restaurant next to our old retail spot, the one that's owned by our old landlord, beat up and shot to death his girlfriend two days ago.

Just par for the course here now though. We're safer than 5% of US cities, up from 4% recently!

Last winter my brother was spreading manure while there was snow on the ground. Azz hole (VA Tech employee) that lives down the road called the sheriffs to complain and they were all too happy to show up and try to stop him.