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Published: October 18, 2009
Change is a key characteristic of an economy, whether it’s global, national, state or local.
The economy of Central Virginia, like the American economy, has undergone a series of changes and upheavals over the past decades. Once based upon tobacco and manufacturing supported by unskilled labor, the local economy took a high-tech turn beginning in the late 1950s with the arrival of such firms as General Electric and Babcock & Wilcox.
Our high-tech economy is continuing to grow and evolve, and in doing so, Central Virginia is becoming an engineering hub of Virginia.
B&W and Areva are two of the global leaders in the nuclear services industry. Areva’s North American headquarters are in the Hill City; B&W has been one of Lynchburg’s greatest corporate citizens since opening shop in the 1950s.
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And the impact of two developing stories in the news will only add to the region’s strength.
First is Liberty University’s announcement late last week that it will be building an engineering school campus and research park on Campus East.
LU’s engineering school opened just two years ago and already has close to 450 students enrolled. It’s one of the fastest growing programs at the university and one of the biggest attractions for progressive students.
Though it’s still early in the planning stages, the importance of such a development to the region is hard to underestimate.
Nationally, there is a growing demand for engineers, in all fields. The state’s top university engineering programs at Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia, along with Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University, have already ramped up their programs to accommodate the demand. They’ve also partnered with community colleges across the commonwealth, including Central Virginia Community College, to offer distance learning degree opportunities.
For a full-fledged engineering school and an accompanying research park to call Central Virginia home would be a major economic boon.
The second major development is the creation of the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research, soon to break ground on its main complex in Bedford County.
The CAER is the next link in the chain, utilizing the pool of highly trained, highly educated engineering talent in the region. It will serve as a conduit between corporations and major research institutions in the state to Central Virginia.
The spinoffs from LU’s new engineering school and its proposed research park and the CAER into the manufacturing and industrial sectors of the local and state economies are truly limitless.
Though the economic road is more than a little bumpy right now, the future, thanks to these and other initiatives, is beyond bright.
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Reader Reactions
Nature takes stupidity to a new level here.
Go hug a tree buddy and try to limit the profane references—
The fact remains Free2beme and David that as a direct result of people like Imprimus the living is CHEEP here. It’s a great place to move to AFTER you have made your money. I paid more in property taxes in a month than I do here in a year. And, I have a bigger house here!
I’m in favor of keeping things EXACTLY as they are here. There is nobody twisting your arm to go to church. Sunday is a great day to get things done… the roads are empty. What’s the saying?.... Living well is the best revenge.
David posts, to “attract the best and brightest….. Lynchburg will have to…“
Last I checked the best and brightest, didn’t drag in monday morning looking like they’ve been dragged through a knothole.
Lynchburg lacks many of the family amenities young ‘best and brightest’ look for, starting with sidewalks in most communities, or parks, clubs, actually ANY side activity that is not church run, it’s just not apparent here.
Want to volunteer? Go to church. Want to meet with young professionals? There’s 47 different bible studies for you. Want to visit a doctor? Read scriptures posted on his doors and walls as you wait.
Every single doctor and hospital visit I had in Lynchburg came with a health care professional preaching to me. It is oppressive to all but those associated with the official church of the city.
Those of us that bring this up, are branded, haters or whatever. But not mentioning the elephant in the room does not mean he disappears. Lynchburg is oppresive to any progressive, which also happens to be the catagory “best and brightest” usually fits in.
“....How you gleaned that he was asking for clubs to get drunken sex from his post is a mystery to me.“
Mille pardons .. I didn’t get it solely from his post. I’ve gotten it over the last 25 years hiring young engineers to work in Lynchburg. Many of them like the laid-back, non-NOVA, non-Research Triangle family atmosphere, and happily settle here to raise a family.
Others want “nightlife”. They want “action”. They want “things to do”. I know what they’re asking for; I’ve heard them. Where’s the nightclubs? What, no liquor by the drink in the outlying counties? I’ve been places, I’ve seen the crapulous, dissipated look on Monday morning faces ... Getting too old to fool me that way.
Imprimis, one definition of provincialism is, lack of sophistication.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen folks getting drunk and bringing someone home for casual sex, done sophisticatedly.
Maybe I missed something, but i think David’s point was we need more to do than eat and go to church. How you gleaned that he was asking for clubs to get drunken sex from his post is a mystery to me.
Imprimis—they (who) move here by the “thousand”. Again, compared to other areas of Virginia, Lynchburg is the slowest growing Metro area in the state. Check out the census figures released last January by the Census Bureau and compare Lynchburg to other areas in VA. I believe the website is Census.gov. And, yes, there is a lack of night life here in Lynchburg, including bars, concerts—of the classical kind as well as of the popular music kind, lectures, and other intellectual disciplines and endeavors. If you’ve ever lived in places like Northern VA or Palo Alto, you’d find good Christian folk and others who enjoy the best cultural offerings mankind has ever produced. Yes, and maybe they enjoy going out for a cocktail from time to time. Not everyone gets ripped to the gills as you seem to assume by your statement. In fact, getting drunk is probably more popular here than in any city I’ve lived in, simply because there’s nothing else to do. The Lynchburg area has a significant drug problem, higher than in many of the larger metro areas you disparage. Look that up as well.
David says Lynchburg needs something for ... “as well as people who expect more than Cracker Barrel and church on Sunday, or on any day for that matter.“
Yes, we often hear that there aren’t enough bars and “nightlife” in Lynchburg. Not enough places to get drunk in public, and places to pick up some floozy to drag back to the pad for a quick one-nighter.
I think that’s by design. We get a lot of people here BECAUSE we aren’t Northern Virginia or Palo Alto. They MOVE here from there, by the thousand.
FTA: “It’s one of the fastest growing programs at the university and one of the biggest attractions for progressive students.“ Are we really to assume that “progressive” engineers will flock to LU and thus create this diverse and thriving enclave you envision? I think not. LU appeals to a narrow swath of applicants and a few outliers but the mass appeal and credibility required for such a program to thrive are generations away IMO.
I don’t see it happening David and for that I am thankful. My reasons, I admit, are totally selfish. I like low taxes and my children are already educated and doing fine in other, more lucrative, parts of the country. I will be happy to see Lynchburg remain, or even evolve into a kind of “Cultural Preserve” where the earth forever remains 6000 years old, where people see angels on a regular basis and anybody who is anybody hears “voices” from above as a matter of daily routine.
Have you been to the “Research Triangle” lately? My goodness! Mile after mile of developments, thousands of new homes made of ticky-tacky, traffic jams and rising taxes. Educated people demand good schools and good schools cost money. NO THANKS! Been there, done that.
I’m all in favor of frightening as many educated people as possible away from this area. “Up with Football - Down with SAT scores”. [GO LIBERTY!]
You can only hope all this comes about, for the good of the whole community, but Cosmothe24th is correct. Wages in the Lynchburg area are the lowest of all metro areas in VA, and way, way, way lower than those of Northern VA. To attract or keep the best and brightest, wages will have to increase. Otherwise, the best will go elsewhere, as they do now—to the Research Triangle area to our south or to Northern VA. And, to be perfectly honest, Lynchburg will have to shed some of its extreme provincialism by becoming more welcoming to minorities as well as people who expect more than Cracker Barrel and church on Sunday, or on any day for that matter.
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