The 'burg as funky? Who knew?

When it comes to the tourism game, semantics are everything.

Take Lynchburg, for instance. Not so long ago, it was being described as “isolated” and “sleepy,” primarily because we lacked reasonable proximity to an interstate highway. Now, thanks to a widely circulated (at least in Central Virginia) recent article in The Washington Post, we’ve morphed into “undiscovered” and “funky.”

“Few people go there expecting much,” wrote Pamela Redmond Satran, author of the travel piece in question. “It’s out of the way, seen as a poor relation to posh Charlottesville, an hour to the north, and genteel Lexington, an hour to the northwest. Its reputation as the home of conservative Christian-oriented Liberty University and the late Jerry Falwell hardly bodes well for style, culture and night life.”

I’m not sure I would agree that you can’t be a conservative Christian and have style (any more than a Democrat can’t be a Christian), but the point is inescapable. The words “Lynchburg” and “fun” have rarely been used in the same sentence.

Not only don’t we have an interstate, but we don’t have a casino, a water park, a civic center or even a zoo. The two largest employers in town are Centra Health and the Falwell empire.

But sometimes the key to success is not being something you’re not, but being recognized as the antithesis of that something. For many residents of Northern Virginia, home of two-hour traffic gridlock, our town is something of an oasis.

Satran became aquainted with Lynchburg while doing a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst County. She was not sent or lured here as a travel writer, no one was paying her expenses, and she didn’t check in with the Chamber of Commerce.

“I didn’t know she was writing this article,” said Angela Hamilton, executive director of Lynch’s Landing, “until it came out. That’s what made it even better — this was just someone writing from her own perspective, a personal opinion.”

And someone writing from Washington, only a three-hour drive from here.

“We’re already seeing more Northern Virginia visitors,” Hamilton said.

“Lynchburg is the perfect place to wile away a long weekend,” Satran wrote. “It embodies just the right mix of fine and funky, all within a walkable distance ... .”

A hint: She’s not talking about Wards or Timberlake Road. Satran has fallen in love (or at least in serious like) with the part of the city that not so long ago was considered a black hole by most Lynchburgers themselves: downtown. Now, Satran makes our center city sound like the Left Bank of Paris.

“Lynchburg has a vibrant cultural scene and a distinctly bohemian air. More than an acceptable place to stop for a tuna sandwich, it’s a destination packed with standout restaurants and shops that combine individual style with world-class quality and taste.”

“Packed” might be an overstatement (I’d question “world-class,” as well), but it’s a fact that functioning businesses now vastly outnumber boarded-up buildings between 12th and Fifth streets. People have moved into lofts and apartments, and art galleries are proliferating.

So yeah, perhaps we’re approaching — if not already residing in — funkiness. To me, “funky” means the Dahlia (may it rest in peace) and the Texas Inn. To Pamela Satran, it means Bull Branch, which she calls “one of my favorite restaurants on Earth,” and spends a langourous paragraph describing much of the menu. (BB also pours a “perfect martini,” she noted).

Beyond that, Satran had nice words for Dish (another downtown restaurant), the Community Market, Farmer’s Feed & Seed, The White Hart (soy latte and panini), the Craddock-Terry Hotel, the Legacy Museum, the Academy of Fine Arts and the Old City Cemetery.

My only concern is that this will put a lot more pressure on us here in the City of Seven Hills. Back when nobody expected much from us, little effort was required. Now, we have a funkiness standard to uphold.

On the other hand, it’s a lot cheaper than building an interstate.