Monday’s Big Answer– 7/24/2006

July 24, 2006 |

On Friday, I asked what the impact will be of Charlottesville losing coverage in the popular media.  Now I give you my opinion. . .

There is certainly some portion of the population that has moved here due to the heralding of the Charlottesville Area by popular media.  I remember distinctly that when Charlottesville was named a top place to live by Fodor’s, our office received a tremendous spike in phone call and Internet inquiries.  Of course, some of this interest is casual, but some people actually decide to move places based on these rankings. 

There is no doubt in my mind that this area is a great place to live.  We have many positives (low density, major public university, low crime, great health care).  It was only a matter of time before the popular media picked up on these things.  What this did was begin to create competition among localities.  Every locality wants to attract people in order to improve their economy, and as a matter of pride.  For every area that was mentioned, there were 4 or 5 others saying, "Hey! Look at us! Look what we have to offer!"  Now that Charlottesville would appear to be on the outside looking in, what will happen?

I think that, believe it or not, we are already beginning to see the effects of this lack of attention from the media.  In the past, the community did not need to do its own marketing, there were plenty of outlets willing to do it for us.  That is no longer the case.  Now, the community cannot rely on people finding Charlottesville because they read about it in Money Magazine, or saw a story on The Today Show.  The community must learn to market itself, and seek out publicity, if it intends to continue to attract residents and businesses. 

Many in the real estate industry have grown complacent.  It has always sort of been assumed that, "if you built it, they will come."  That used to be true, because people were hearing about it all over the place.  Now, that is not so much the case.  New subdivisions that have plenty to offer are finding out that it may be a bit harder to convince people to move here when they don’t have the popular media to rely upon for help.  A developer or builder used to be able to say, "It’s great to move here.  You don’t have to believe me, Money Magazine says so."  Now, that can’t be said.  The Charlottesville area is going to have to do a better job of publicizing the great features of our area.

Like it or not, we live in a media/ratings driven society.  Information is everywhere, and readily accessible.  Everything in our lives is ranked in terms of quality, size, affordability, etc. and those rankings are publicized on everything from cars to clothing stores, to schools, to places to live.  If Charlottesville still wants to be desirable to the general public, it is going to have to find a way to continue to attract attention from the places that control the attention of the public.

Hopefully, losing some popular media coverage now will help the area in the future in that it will force people to go out and work to attract attention.  It will cause people to look for things that make the Charlottesville Area attractive, and publicize those things.  If this doesn’t happen, and people just sit back and say, "oh well, it was good while it lasted," then I am afraid that perhaps Charlottesville truly has jumped the shark.

Technorati Tags: ;

Posted by Daniel | Filed Under Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Monday Answers 

Comments

Got something to say?





Creative Commons License