The changing face of Floyd
With luck, the weather will cooperate Saturday for the Floyd Town Jubilee that will celebrate, among other things, the town’s first public park while spotlighting the other changes in the face of our community.
The Warren G. Lineberry Park between the Winter Sun and Angels in the Attic fills a gap in the town’s landscape. Most towns have a public park. Floyd didn’t — until now.
Amid the music, the events and the vendors hawking various wares is the slow, if sometimes begrudging, acceptance of change in our little burg and a continuation of the town’s struggle to identify and classify itself.
Like it or not, Floyd is already a tourist town, despite the reluctance of some on the town council and board of supervisors to accept this reality. Visitors flock here not only for The Friday Night Jamboree but also to eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores and enjoy — if only for a brief moment — a little relaxed country living.
While the struggling economy has slowed migration of new residents to the county, Floyd increasingly becomes an area defined more by those who moved here than those who call themselves natives. Our economy is driven by businesses owned and/or run by transplants while the initiatives that define change originate with those who come from somewhere else.
Some die-hard locals still decry the "hippies" who moved here in the 70s but many of the town’s businesses are run by those former alternative lifestylers who now represent the status quo.
When the Village Square — now called The Station on South Locust — opens across the street from the Floyd Country Store, the businesses there will be run by those who discovered Floyd County at some point in their lives and now call it home. The apartments upstairs will be rented mostly by new residents of the community.
And many of those who shop at the new stores or eat at new resturants will be visitors who want to see what this town is all about.
The future of Floyd County does not lie in outmoded concepts like the mostly-empty Industrial Park on Christiansburg Pike but in the booming construction and changes along Locust and Main Streets in downtown.
It’s time those who cling to the past accept this reality and get with the program. They can start by joining in the celebration Saturday.
(Updated at 10:36 p.m. on Saturday, June 20, to reflect a change in the restaurant lease status at the Station on South Locust.)
Well I think the hippies has spoiled what was the good town and county of floyd. Why should we embrace tourism? Not a lot of money comes in and it will only bring more outsiders, of which we need no more. Give me the original floyd countians any day!!
I agree with you whole heartedly! Floyd needs to embrace tourism not complain about it. If the locals want to continue to enjoy the relatively low property taxs in Floyd we will have to find another source of revenue. Floyds leaders need to realise that tourists= tax$$$$$ and that is money that doesn’t have to come out of the locals pocket.
Floyd locals should be thankful for those who have came in and invested in the Town, and County for that matter. Just wish they had been here to save the old Brame Hotel. The Village Green is such a great addition to the beauty of Floyd (and looks so much better than an abandoned store) Everything that is being done is great. My only thought is that I think the stage and park should have been farther along before having an event(Opinion not a complaint) but I’m sure all will be fine.
But a special thanks goes to all who have invested their dollars into Floyd…THANK YOU
You may be surprised at the amount of money that indirectly comes from tourism. Consider all the new stores, hotels/bed and breakfasts, and restaurants that have come to Floyd over the last 5-10 years. Most of these would not make it except for money coming in from “outside”. On the surface it may seem to not seem to help the “locals”. However, I would be willing to bet if you took away the “outsiders” there would have to be at least a 10% increase in property taxs just to make up the difference. The town and county take money in from tourism both from sales taxs and from property taxs. Floyd will never get heavy industry or large factories but we do have a cash cow looking us in the face if we could just see it. There is so many rich people living within 100 mile of Floyd just looking for a place to “get away” for a day or two. Floyd already has its natural beauty and “old time feel”. We need to invest in these thing, the things that make Floyd unique. Every town in America can build another industrial park but not every town can build the natural beauty of Floyd.