Collegiate Times

With the exception of a couple of members, the Blacksburg Town Council is a joke. A long time ago, the El Guadalupes restaurant (which is next to the proposed Sonic) was a Lendy's that had a Drive In feature in the back with at least 10 speakers. Why in the world would those BURG backed idiots vote the Sonic down when it's the same kind of thing if it wasn't for their hatred of Fairmount? This was a nice town back in the 60's and 70's when the Council wasn't owned by a certain group. Meanwhile, everyone can come to C'burg if you want Sonics.

I agree! Blacksburg Town council is a joke. They keep driving all of thier business to Christiansburg. Christiansburg gets all of the tax dollars, and in return have much better town facilities than Blacksburg. Bburg needs an overhaul!

Town council + BURG + Citizens First are all jokes. They're bitter and will try anything to kill anything that might make the town more convenient for those of us who live and work here. Why place businesses within walking, biking, driving distance in our town limits when you can force all the businesses to Christiansburg - more driving, more gas, more time spent. If it's new. If it's convenient. If it a tattoo parlor or bar let's kick it out of town. When did this place become such a whine hole? I hope Fairmount + Sonic not only win, but bulldoze one of the other decrepit old dumps along South Main - they should be building TWO of these centers!!!

Things like this, with the waste of taxpayer money by the council, are precisely why I moved out of Blacksburg and will not return. I still work in Blacksburg, since it's a good employment center, but it's an awful place for retail, shopping, and non-VT related entertainment. I now live less than a mile away from a Wal-Mart Supercenter, Lowes, Kroger, Food Lion, Sheetz, and many other stores, restaurants, and retail activities and I love it. It's convenient, saves on gas, and doesn't cause any of the problems the BURG'ers claim will happen. The box stores have transformed Fairlawn from a wasteland of decrepit auto repair shops and junky restaurants into a viable commercial center that continues to expand and reshape old properties. Why people are so scared of change confounds me...it's not all bad, most is actually good.

I don't know who all these industry puppets posting before me are (well, other than people paid to post here by Fairmont or Walmart or whoever else), but they've got it all wrong. The gas culture is going out the door. That Sonic will last maybe five years and then be out of business. The Town Council is right on target with its decisions.

LOL that’s funny John 5 years and cars are gone. If you believe that then maybe we should start tearing up the roads. People are not going to stop driving and last time I checked mass transit isn’t everywhere either. I would be willing to bet sonic has a smaller carbon footprint than the average fast food restaurant since they have no heated and cooled eating area. This is about hurting Fairmont and I hope the town loses. They have spent 146,000 of our tax money without my permission and I wish the town council could be held personally accountable.

i really hate this town sometimes. run by hippies. it's a shame

agreed. we have too many (more than 0) liberal hippie teachers from the north teaching here. more power to you, sonic.

I grew up coming to VT related events and have lived in Blacksburg for almost 20 years. I'm excited about FINALLY having a Sonic, "Bog Box", and Arby's here and then something other than downtown merchants weird lot of "stuff" to choose from. I don't agree with those who stand in the way of development. Really people, if you don't like it here, then move.

I'm not sure who John Wood is (perhaps a BURG'er) but I'm sure the majority of the posters, myself included, are simply frustrated Town residents (or in my case, former) who want to see some diversity within the Town in terms of retail, dining, and entertainment opportunities. WHile I agree that gas is going to go away...do you honestly think that people will not still ahve cars? We'll switch to ethanol, bio-diesel, electric, or some other new form of car for transportation, and places like Sonic will still thrive. Americans adapt to change...it's what we do. All this doom-and-gloom crap coming from the anti-capitalist left is tiring, because it's not going to happen. If you like being depressed and pessimistic all the time, that's your business. I prefer to look for positive answers, even when times are tough. Maybe more people ought to do that.

You know, it's really not hard to remember the S on the end of my name. It's not like it wasn't right there for you to read. I don't know where you get this silly idea that the left is anti-capitalist. I'm by all accounts a progressive, but I also own stock in oil (and a lot of other things). No, definitely not a communist here, and glad to have money. Still, it's sensible to wait and see what happens with the oil. No, of course you're right, people won't stop driving completely. But they'll cut down. Why drive to Sonic when you can take a bus to the restaurant right next to it, which also happens to be pedestrian- and biker-friendly? Slurring progressive points of view by referring to the town as hippie-controlled isn't actually a logical argument. It's just ignorant.

The problem, Mr. Woods, is that BURG (and, ostensibly, yourself) seem to oppose ANY development of downtown Blacksburg - and with only scant evidence of perceived negative effects on the community. Whether the Sonic lasts for 5 years or 50 years really isn't the concern - if we were always in the business of only building business space which we could guarantee would last indefinitly, then no businesses would ever be built. Blacksburg needs money NOW in order to drive down property and retail taxes and to generate the revenue necessary to revitalize the aging downtown district. Nothing saddened me more than walking down main street peering into the windows of businesses which had closed up shop. Downtown Blacksburg is rapidly becoming little more than a handful of bars and a post office, which is quite unfortunate for such an easily accessible business district for thousands of people. The point here though is that Sonic's longevity is SONIC's problem, not the town council's - the town needs money and business, and they are having a very difficult time attracting additional businesses on account of Christiansburg's favorable rates and business climate. BURG is setting itself up to cause the collapse of the town's economic structure, which is now propped up mainly by the ample size of the VT student body and faculty.

If the left were not anti-capitalist...then why are ALL of the anti-capitalists on the left? THe socialists and communists all support the Democrats or other leftists in elections, so the left is inherently anti-capitalist, even if some folks actually happen to like money in some fashion (like yourself). As for the Town Council, 4 of the 7 members are fairly unabashed leftists, and again, most hippies are leftists too since the hippies, leftists, communists, and socialists share many of the same ideological points of view on government and social structure. It's a fact, not a slur. And let me pose this, if we do manage to develop new technology to power our cars and the cost comes down, driving will not necessarily decrease any. Besides, folks drive to the Sonic in Christiansburg from Blacksburg today, so it's got a ripe business environment no matter how folks get there. I would walk or ride a bus to eat at Sonic, I like sitting outdoors. The notion that it's not pedestrian friendly is ridiculous too...it's no less pedestrian friendly than anywhere else in Town, even the oft-heralded downtown. In fact, it's probably going to be safer since it'll be designed to modern safety standards, without all the blind corners and obstructed views that downtown has.

"Why drive to Sonic when you can take a bus to the restaurant right next to it" Why take a bus to it when you can drive? durrru

Does anyone know how many people showed up in support of the development other than people employed by the potential development? BURG shows up and voices their opinion because the town council has to listen. If you want the new businesses to come, show up to the meetings and voice YOUR opinion. Yes, those meetings are boring, but Blacksburg won't get any more exciting without encouragement from the residents.

True story: I tried going to one of those meetings, but I was wearing a business suit and was definitely out of place. The hippie squad showed up on their bicycles with cute matching green BURG t-shirts. they smelled so bad i had to leave and never actually made it inside the meeting room.

I will say sonics are pretty ugly and I don't know if this is part of the town council's logic but if it were to fail quickly you then have this extremely tacky structure which nobody else can use. Of course, that probably won't happen. I wonder what all this has to do with empty stores in downtown? Are you saying by increasing the number of chains and stores in the town, we can have more revenue and then can lower taxes so stores can afford to move into downtown? Because other than possibly that I don't see the connection. @Kyle Minor: Of course the town is propped up by the ample size of the VT community. If VT wasn't there, Montgomery county would look like Giles county. I'm don't consider myself liberal, but you conservatives need to quit name calling and acting like jerks and idiots. You just sound stupid when you're spitting out names like hippies and commies. Get a grip! Present your arguments and be done with it.

I didn't call anyone any names. At all. I'm not quite sure what you're railing against here - the argument over Sonic's emplacement is part of a broader argument regarding the First and Main development as a whole. The fact that VT props up the economic structure of Montgomery County is a fairly weak argument in favor of the status quo - the interest, in this case, should primarily be the benefit of the large student population (this, I would venture, is not taken into account by groups such as BURG and other groups opposed to this new growth) since it is this population which creates the economic base which sustains the downtown district. And that's the silly thing about this whole ploy - Blacksburg loses because it fails, ultimately, to cater its designs to the people who actually have the money and the desire to spend it en masse.

Kyle has covered all the substantive economic aspects of the argument, so let me point out a few other more minute details related to Sonic itself. I, and many others I've asked, have never rolled up to Sonic, ordered, and eaten all while leaving the car idling. Most folks tend to turn the engine off in all but the most extreme heat. Also, there are typically benches on the patio in front of the kitchen where folks can eat if they've arrived on bike or foot. Add to this the fact that people who drive to Sonic will most likely be the same people who drive to wherever else they decide to eat out, and I think you'll see that Sonic's presence would have a negligible effect on the town's emissions.

Sonic would be a welcome addition to the limited dining choices in Blacksburg. I guess my horse and buggy would be welcome.

Limited dining choices? There are plenty of choices around Blacksburg. You have your standard bar food, of course, but also places like that serve Greek dishes, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, barbeque, Mexican, vegetarian foods, and more. You are only limited if you limit yourself to chain restaurants that serve the same thing everywhere you go.

I've found some average restaurants in Blacksburg, none to write home about. Sonic would add tax revenue and a "fun" concept to the local dining scene. The Blacksburg town council reminds me of the governments of Ithaca, NY or Berkeley, CA. Fortunately Blacksburg is not like Ithaca or overrun by drug addicts like Berkley.

So, Alum, are you arguing in favor of limiting choices to those which already exist? I'm not sure that argument will pan out, for a variety of reasons - but the most important one is that it disregards the purpose behind putting Sonic (and, later, Arby's) in the proposed locations to begin with. The point of First and Main is to create a 'one stop shopping' environment with stores catering to a variety of needs and socioeconomic levels. It's design is one to increase economic vitality by ensuring that money spent by Blacksburg residents (including students) stays in Blacksburg, rather than being transferred to Christiansburg as is the current de facto state of things. There are, currently, only limited dining options in the vicinity of First and Main - additional dining establishments will only serve to increase the vitality of the new development by encouraging consumers to plan for more 'extended trips.'

Think of First and Main as more like a shopping mall spread out over a wider area - you wouldn't imagine a standard shopping mall without a food court, nor should we imagine First and Main without places to eat. I mean, when I want a decent meal, I certainly don't go to Sonic - but that isn't really the point of Sonic in the first place, is it? The longer Blacksburg pigeonholes itself into permitting only 'the finest' establishments to be opened, the more its internal economy will suffer and the less desirable a place it will be to live. Blacksburg has an opportunity, with First and Main, to buoy its economy with something OTHER than the substantial student population at Virginia Tech - and why it fails to cease this opportunity is beyond me.

I wasn't trying to suggest that B'burg should fight the Sonic. I'm certainly not trying to suggest that the First and Main should go without a convenient eatery or two and I would be happy to see that part of B'burg developed into something other than a scum covered lake. It is just my opinion that people refuse to see that B'burg does have a tolerable amount of dining variety just because the restaurants don't have brand names. I don't frequent Sonic because I enjoy eating at locally owned restaurants with menus unique to their establishments and because as a small business owner, I prefer to spend my dollars at local businesses that invest back into the community. But I also realize that those chains increase the economic viability of a town and allow small businesses like mine to prosper.

I figured that's what you had been trying to say - and I agree with your take on the matter. My qualm is that BURG and other like-minded groups are so whole-heartedly opposed to this new development that they fail to take into account the rewards in addition to the risks - they'd rather just look at one side of the picture.

Sometimes I have no clue what B'burg is thinking. A lot of people in power here are like my home town and fear change with a passion. I am sorry but development is good. If a Sonic opens it doesn't mean I am going to stop eating at local places. Also the whole debacle over Walmart is a joke. Most of the items sold by local vendors in B'burg you can't get at Walmart. When I think of downtown I can't think of many places that sell items that Walmart sells except for maybe VT gear. But seriously is it 1950 or something? Accept growth and development