historians agree. Altoona was built by the railroad and
just as easily it was torn down. But the
glory and the devastation caused by Norfolk Southern is a
story that rings true in another community. 300 miles
south, Roanoke Virginia is a mirror image of
Altoona in industry demographics and terrain. A car repair
shop just like the one in Blair County sits idle
. The hundreds of people who worked there for years
ago were forced to find other jobs. And it
was the mission of economic developers to recreate those
jobs. It's a psychological blow to people who have
been here for generations and families who've been here for
generations and had been employed by the railroad for generations
. Roanoke elected officials struck gold when they landed the
Carilion Biomedical Institute, a $100 million dollar partnership between
local hospitals at two universities. The biomedical institute will
create the cures and the jobs of the future.
We do have a foothold into this emerging area into
new economy kinds of jobs that will certainly pay off
down the road. The community's comprehensive plan, designed
just before the Roanoke shops closed has turned the downtown
into a cultural village center. The Roanoke, Ala
, Education Center offers adults the opportunity to get their
associates, bachelors or even masters degrees from 20 different
universities. The airport now ships international freight and international
passenger service isn't far behind. Yeah. Blair counties
blow still stinks. Senator Arlen Specter's court battle to
keep the shops open was lost and so was the
communities were poor with big business. Al tunas officials
tried to create a comprehensive plan for the downtown,
like the one in Roanoke, but unable to agree
, they hired an independent firm to come up with
one. It really is time for, for a
lot of our elected officials to, to look at
, uh, maybe john Wooden's quote about it's really
amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets
the credit. Blair County Airport is losing passengers and
next year it will lose a chunk of its federal
funding. There is no higher education partnership with Penn
State, but there is a partnership to complete Interstate
99. When it's finished, it will link the
turnpike in Bedford to I 80 in state College,
creating an innovation corridor that many believe will turn the
area's economy around. It's almost essential that you have
good solid transportation, both air and rail and highway
. To stimulate a regional economy. The region does
have its own$100 million investment, but this one
is retailed. The 2000 jobs created by Logan town
centre will pay relatively little compared to those biotech jobs
in Roanoke. So al tuna put together a team
of economic developers to bring in those higher paying jobs
. Their mission is also to drive up these statistics
. After the shops closed in roanoke, the unemployment
rate rose to 2.7%, still well below the nation's
four average cutbacks in Altoona, however, drove its
numbers up to 7.1%. Household income in roanoke is
about 30,000$719. Altona 28,000 to 48 Poverty rates
15.9 in Roanoke, 17.7 in Altuna. But certainly
the most telling statistic high school graduation rates, 70
of people over 25 in roanoke have their high school
diploma less than half doing Altuna. It seems as
though all tunes don't blame elected officials for those statistics
, consensus is they blame Norfolk seven, ironically,
roanoke ear's wish their elected officials would have waged a
court battle to keep Norfolk southern in town. Either
way, both cities say they're doing all they can
to get back on track. I'm Jennifer Millie 10 68 00:04:20.670 --> A:middle L:90% News