From Collapse to Comeback

“I’m coming home, coming home. Tell the world, I’m coming home.” Do you remember that song from Diddy? It came out in 2010, the same year I came home to Danville after graduating from VCU in Richmond. I think about it often.

When I moved back to Danville, our city was in the midst of the Great Recession, which itself had followed on the heels of several of our city’s major industries closing, like Dan River Mills. Our unemployment rate was hovering close to 20% and our city’s core was littered with vacant and decaying buildings. It wasn’t a peak time for Danville.

Despite all of this despair, there was something brewing under the surface. There were groups of people who believed with all their hearts the predicament we found ourselves in was merely a roadblock, and not our destination.

Winston Churchill once said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” In 2010, it would have been very easy to see the difficulties in Danville. For twenty years, our population had declined. Our major industries had left. Everything we once knew about our city seemed to be eroding around us. And yet, we didn’t quit. My election to City Council in 2012 coincided with a new beginning for Danville.

We reimagined and rebuilt our downtown into the River District, taking it from a decaying eyesore to a crown jewel of our city. We have a bike share program that has been used by over 10,000 people. Our riverfront YMCA was ranked as one of the top ten recreation facilities in the world by Athletic Business Magazine. We’ve had well over $250 million in private sector investment in our River District, where historic tobacco warehouses have been transformed into vibrant loft-style apartments, shopping spaces, breweries and world-class restaurants. Our partnerships with DCC, Danville Public Schools, and IALR have created a precision machining program that is not only nationally recognized but helping us attract new industries from around the globe. Multiple neighborhood splash parks and a $14 million Riverfront Park are on the way.

The White Mill and former Schoolfield Mill, two former Dan River Mills properties, are being transformed into Dan River Falls and Caesars Virginia, respectively.

From economic collapse to being hailed as the Comeback City, we’ve come a long way from 2010 to now, but as that much older song from The Carpenters goes, “We’ve only just begun.”