Talk:Roanoke, Virginia: Difference between revisions

Question

Wondering how to edit this U.S. County Entry?
The WikiProject U.S. Counties standards might help.

This article refers to the city (not the county) by the same name. Do these standards still apply? —BozoTheScary 03:10, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Nicknames

The business about the nicknames is superfluous and inacurate. It is not important that one of Roanoke's ford dealerships is called Magic City. No one calls it Noketown(since town is not in the name of the city at all) and no one has ever, in the history of the world, called it either Roajoke, Roatoke, or any such thing. Mentioning of the 'star city', 'magic city' and former name, the big lick are enough and sufficiently mentioned elsewhere.

— above unsigned comment by Youzwan 9 October 2006

I largely agree. The 'Magic City' nickname, however, is covered in the History section. It is arguably relevant that it is still used by a few area businesses (Magic City Sprinkler, too) and very rarely in the area press. (Perhaps that wording should be used instead?) The plays on the word 'joke' are almost definitely unencyclopedic in that there don't seem to be any cite-worthy sources, even though I heard them conversationally, albeit rarely, when I was in Roanoke. The plays on the word 'toke' are potentially relevant if there really is a citable source showing that Roanoke is 'known' for pot. This DOJ map doesn't specify Roanoke as a significant drug distribution area at all, though. —BozoTheScary 14:53, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

I too agree, except on one point. I live in Lexington, and many people who I go to school with who are from Roanoke often refer to it as "Noke city" and "Noke Town".

I'm personally inclined to say that that kind of personal reference is exactly the kind of thing that one would expect from an encyclopedia article. However, I've been too involved in some of the delete debates and my mind is now polluted by reading the prohibition on original art/work/research. So, I don't know. I am not inclined to remove the "Noke" stuff, but I'll have a hard time defending it if someone charges it as original research. Bleh. –BozoTheScary 23:34, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

All these names I have heard before by other citizens, so I would consider them acurate, though the acuracy of the weed use may be in question...

I gave in and just added a section acknowledging the "joke" and "toke" colloquial nickname families. Since they are colloquial there really aren't any citable sources (blogs and comment sections aren't citable), so I just added Google searches as refs. If it doesn't pass muster, revert it, please. I don't know of any other way to substantiate colloquial, yet encyclopedic, information. –BozoTheScary 22:35, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

"Roanoke is an Indian word for..."

So far, the only definitive answer for what "roanoke" meant that I've found is "shell money" in the Algonquin language. The river that is currently named the Roanoke River was also known as the "river of death", but that is not what "roanoke" means. "River of death" is only another name for what is now named the Roanoke River, not another meaning of "roanoke". –BozoTheScary 22:06, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

More history

In 1802 Roanoke was called Roan Oak, the original indian name. you can find this info in the Virginia room in the library downtown Roanoke. http://www.salemmuseum.org/images/pubs/chapter1.pdf

In Virginia around Roanoke the New River is called the 'River of Death' http://www.wvexp.com/index.php/New_River#Variant_Names_for_New_River In Roanoke, the Roanoke River is called the 'Mighty Roanoke' or 'River of Life' There are references in Roanoke Rapids, NC where the river is refered to the 'River of Death' http://digitalrepository.fws.gov/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/wildliferef&CISOPTR=151&REC=10

MySpace people refer to Roanoke Va as Nokie

History

I went a little hog wild on a reorg after trying to add some sensible refs. The article could still use some major refs and could probably benefit from a more "modern" ref strategy for organizing them, since there are so many comprehensive histories of Roanoke out there. Things that still appear to need attention:

• Did a "Gainsboro" or a "Gainsborough" predate "Big Lick"?
• One doesn't need to be particularly PC to see that article is glaringly missing historical info on:
  • the African-American former slave communities
  • the Indian tribes that ostensibly frequented the salt licks for game
  • the city's prominent immigrant communities:
    • Greeks
    • Brazilians
    • Southeast Asians

–BozoTheScary 04:32, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Citation style

With the albatross of the unreferenced tag hanging over this article, now would probably be a good time to consider switching to the Citation templates style. I was gung ho about it until I read that it wasn't preferred, it shouldn't be used without consensus, and it is a lot of work. Are there enough folks looking at this article for the word 'consensus' to mean anything? –BozoTheScary 02:14, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Toyota plant

I'm going to remove the paragraph about the Toyota plant since another location was selected. Frankly, I'm not convinced that Virginia in general or the Roanoke area in particular were ever seriously considered by Toyota. Most media outlets except for the NY Times have not mentioned Virginia as a location considered.

VaGuy1973 01:40, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I have heard that Roanoke lost consideration for the Toyota plant when the Site Search Committee read the high school graduation statistics. ~~ RC ~~

Schools

Anonymous contributors keep adding in schools that are not in Roanoke City. I've tried to clean up that section to make it more explicit. –BozoTheScary 15:34, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Is North Side Christian in Roanoke City? It is on the edge of the map on Google Maps. –BozoTheScary 15:34, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Ross Copperman

Ross Copperman is undeniably notable. If he's not, his WP page should be deleted. Anyway, 235 non-vanity, on-subject unique Ghits (97000 non-unique) says that he's notable. The Alexa ranking of his site is weak (2,860,603), but the Alexa ranking of an article about him is quite strong (http://www.jmu.edu/madisononline/RossCopperman.shtml 28,325). Anyway, he is reasonably notable in the UK, which is good enough for the WP.

The trouble is that he's not from Roanoke City. He's from somewhere very close and much whiter, but I can't find a place name. All I have is "10 minutes from Roanoke", "in the Blue Ridge Mountains", and "one black kid in our school". Which reminds me that we need a Roanoke Metropolitan Area article to cut down on the need for such pedantics. –BozoTheScary 04:15, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Citation for Elevation of 1175ft

The USGS gives an elevation for city of Roanoke as 940ft, and the USGS lat/long for the city are very close to a benchmark with elevation of 939 feet. (Check www.topozone.com to verify.) So where did the 1175ft figure come from? There are outlying parts of the city that high, but elevation of a city (as USGS means it) means the elevation of some major landmark downtown.

A quick Google search revealed hits for a wide range of elevations. Since Mill Mountain is inside the city, the potential range will be large. What does the city's web site claim? –BozoTheScary 17:18, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

[The city site] gives 1149 ft. We can quote that for the time being. - BillCJ 17:26, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I've changed it to a range using the lowest low I could find and the highest high. There really is a lot of contradictory elevation data on the city (and even the airport). Since Mill Mountain is in the city, there is a large range. –BozoTheScary 21:41, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

The 1847' height is for the top of 'Star', obviously a manmade structure. The highest natural point on Mill Mountain (which is indeed within city limits) is 1740'. Groups such as the County Highpointers take these distinctions very seriously. See http://www.cohp.org/va/Roanoke_City_1.html. 128.173.49.45 13:49, 25 May 2007 (UTC)