Economic Vitality in the Charlottesville Area

This week's session of Leadership Charlottesville focused on economic vitality and housing. It's ironic that this week marks one year since we decided to move to Charlottesville and began looking for a new home. With median house prices at $255,000, we were a little concerned that we would not be able to find what we wanted within our range.

For anyone living in or around Charlottesville, the issues regarding economics and housing are well-known. We're a growing community of "haves" and "have-nots" where affordable housing is needed. There's a need, too, to attract a diverse workforce for the area. We can't attract the middle-income jobs if those performing the jobs cannot find a place to live. We need nurses and teachers. We need construction workers and service providers.

Our economic and housing issues fall on deaf ears. Who really wants to help the Best Place to Live in America become even better? Does this community really want to attract more working class people? Are we elitist? Do homeowners in the region want to see their property values decrease? Is our population growing too fast, to big? It's a tough sell.

The issues raises a lot of questions among my classmates and throughout the community. Unlike poverty, healthcare and education, it's not the most emotional, compelling issue, but it's real, and of immediate concern. This area is looking at an estimated 3-4,000 people relocating here in 2008, and that's just from one employer expanding in the region. As one of our speakers said during the session; "we need to stop talking about it and start doing something."

What that is, we're just not sure.

Where do your thoughts lie on the economic issues facing Charlottesville, Albemarle and the surrounding counties? What do you think about our housing problem?