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Market Building, Roanoke, Va. /Flickr

Let's take a little restaurant survey today.

Which national fast food chains would you like to see in a gleaming, refurbished City Market Building downtown?

Domino's Pizza. Hardees' Thickburgers. Arby's roast beef. Wendy's fries. McDonald's McNuggets. Long John Silver's hush puppies.

The gut-busting, diabetes-inducing possibilities seem endless.

Do you believe it's ridiculous? That it could never happen? You're probably correct.

But an interview last week with Assistant City Manager Brian Townshend left the door open for such a scenario. Just barely open, mind you. But open nonetheless.

Read the rest of the column here.

The city intends to close the Market Building on June 30 and embark on at least a year's worth of renovations, much of which will be financed by historic-renovation tax credits.

Burger in the Square,  Zorba's, New York Subs, Big Lick Pizza and the other food-stall vendors will be forced out. Some will move elsewhere. Others may close for good.

Read the rest of the column here.

State Sen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax

First, State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli accused me of "Catholic baiting."

Then, during a recent debate in Richmond, the GOP's candidate for attorney general accused his Democratic opponent, Del. Steve Shannon, of "race baiting."

Now, the baiting stuff is heating up in a rather entertaining way! The most recent evident of that is this morning's post by Hank Bostwick on Star City Harbinger.

Next, Cuccinelli may be accusing Bostwick of sodomy baiting, or something similar. Or maybe The Cooch will sue SCH for libel for calling him a "cunning linguist." That sounds darn close "sodomite." From SCH:

Cuccinelli, like Van Jones or David Duke, is free to have any radical opinions he wants. This is America–the cradle of it, actually. I mean, we’re about to have a governor who ‘once’ had rather narrow views on the equality of women, to put it mildly. People can tolerate a lot.

But to advocate for a view of the law which allows for the criminality of consensual sexual conduct among adults loosely defined as a ‘homosexual act’ is fundamentally unjust (presumably a ‘homosexual act’ could mean any act by one who is homosexual).

STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS | The Roanoke Times Photo taken October 21, 2009 Santana Sromo, 27, of Roanoke, stopped to buy hot dogs from Mendy Songer, for himself and some co-workers on Wednesday at the corner of 3rd Street and Norfolk Avenues southwest. Songer has started her own business as a street vendor selling hot dogs. But it hasn't been easy.

Could a diminutive and good-natured grandmother from Bedford County be the focal point for future changes to Roanoke's mostly nonexistent street vending scene?

It's too soon to tell, for sure. But it's looking more and more likely that Mendy Songer, 45, could become a poster child for small-scale free enterprise in the city.

A column last week about Songer's travails selling hot dogs in downtown Roanoke certainly struck a nerve.

Thursday, people flocked to her hot dog stand at the corner of Third Street and Norfolk Avenue, across from the Virginia Museum of Transportation. Some drove from Salem and Vinton to show their support. Songer sold her entire stock of 100 franks before 2 p.m.

Thursday afternoon, Councilman David Trinkle raised the issue during a council meeting. Trinkle, a physician and restaurateur, asked City Manager Darlene Burcham what had happened to street vending regulations city officials began talking about years ago.

Read the rest of the column here.

By Grant Jedlinsky / The Roanoke Times

It sounds like it, although the term "spin" is being quite charitable.

Talking Points Memo has the details:

The network pool crew noticed Fox wasn't on the list, was told that they hadn't asked and the crew said they needed to be included. Treasury called the White House and asked top Obama adviser Anita Dunn. Dunn said yes and Fox's Major Garrett was among the correspondents to interview Feinberg last night.

Make sure you read the entire post. It's amazing!

Fox New's Major Garrett admits it was a misunderstanding. Watch the video.

Could it be that the city of Roanoke will allow street vendors to sell food on sidewalks and streets in downtown Roanoke?

Maybe . . .

As I'm writing this blog post, City Council is discussing -- GUESS WHAT? -- that exact possibility.

"It's certainly something that would improve the quality of life in many ways," said councilman David Trinkle.

He's the physician and restaurateur who owns both Fork in the Alley, in South Roanoke, and Fork in the City in Old Southwest. (Both are known for their dogs and sausages, by the way).

Mayor David Bowers broached the idea of allowing ice-cream carts on Mill Mountain.

That would be welcome news to some would-be area street vendors.

Since my article in today's paper about Mendy Songer and the battles she's had to sell hot dogs in the downtown area, two others prospective vendors have contacted me with tales of how the city has stymied their efforts.

Larry Howell, who lives in the Wasena neighborhood, says he invested $10,000 in street vending gear only to find out he can't locate it downtown. He's currently seeking city permission to sell his stuff off Reserve Avenue, over near the National Guard Armory.

And Joe Roragen, who owns A.J.'s Restaurant on Brandon Avenue (it's the old Steve's Hot Dogs place) says Downtown Roanoke Inc. has stymied his efforts to sell from a hot dog cart in the downtown area.

During the meeting, City Manager Darlene Burcham noted the issue has been talked about for years. The last time it came up, about three years ago, the city dropped the issue in the face of strong opposition from the downtown business group, Burcham told council.

Stay tuned!

One of the new Carilion buildings at the Riverside development. Note: Carilion already owned the land this building stands on before the city and housing authority declared the area blighted and began acquiring nearby parcels.

The Washington Times slams Carilion Clinic and Roanoke city hall this morning in a strongly-worded editorial titled Roanoke's eminent-domain shame:

According to the Wall Street Journal, Roanoke's nonprofit Carilion Clinic launched mergers to increase market share, gave a multimillion lump sum retirement package to one executive and million dollar salaries to others just like a for-profit company, only Carilion's activities benefited from a nice tax exemption worth around $50 million a year. Carilion's clout grew just like a big business as it became a top regional employer and expanded dozens of subsidiaries as far from nonprofit health care as a venture capital group.

And that expansion brought in the government. With a billion dollars in assets, Carilion is just the kind of powerful corporate citizen to which local governments often cater. So when Carilion decided it wanted to expand into an area surrounded by other businesses, the city was willing to do almost anything to help them do it. Launched in secret meetings code named "Andy's Warehouse," the city put in motion plans to hijack the land using the power of eminent domain.

Andy's Warehouse? Where did THAT come from? Couldn't they come up with a better code name than that?

I kind of like Murphy's Lawn myself.

Photo by ERIC BRADY - The Roanoke Times

The Roanoke Civic Center is easily the ugliest coliseum/performance/exhibition hall complex in all of the eastern United States.

It looks like it was designed by a ex-Soviet commissar who, as a child, calmed his fits of attention-deficit disorder with a smuggled-in Lego set his mom bought on the black market.

For that reason, and maybe a few others, it's unclear right now whether any company actually wants to  buy the naming rights and slap its logo up there.

But you never know, right? And when you're in the red to the tune of more than $1 million a year, there's not a lot to lose.

Which is why the city of Roanoke has tossed that scrap of bread into the air, just in case a hungry seagull is passing through.

We can always dream, right? What company/organization would be a good fit? And what would be the right name? I'd like to hear your suggestions.

Regular correspondent Jon Halberstadt from Montgomery County has some ideas. Three of his are NRA Range, the Second Amendment Center, or the Urban Renewal Arena. The first two fit in rather well with the gun shows the civic center hosts regularly. (The next one is Oct. 24).

Roanoke writer/editor/blogger Dan Smith has some ideas, too: Carilion Coliseum, Luna Hippodrome, and Norfolk Southern Palace are a few he tossed out there. He also added General Electric Square Garden. The city of Salem was not amused by the latter.

Let's hear yours, folks. Post them as comments!

Have you ever paid $41 for a steak?

Or $55 for a bottle of wine?

I haven't. Guess you could say I'm stingy.

We can't say the same for Dave Morgan, the former general manager of Roanoke's nonprofit bus system.

While federal, state and city taxpayers were subsidizing Valley Metro to the tune of $5.5 million in operating funds, Morgan was working his Valley Metro credit card overtime.

From July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, Morgan racked up $13,251 in charges for meals and drinks on the bus company's tab.

On average, that is $255 each week.

And because that is an average, it actually understates what he spent during many weeks.

Read the rest of the column here.

UPDATE

Dave Morgan,  the former manger of Valley Metro, has been fired by his employer, the company that manages Roanoke's bus system.

Photo by Dan Casey

Just kidding, folks.

I know of no attempt by Salem to outdo Roanoke's most revered landmark, the 100-foot-tall Mill Mountain Star. But given the history, you might understand why a paranoid Roanoker might fret about that.

Which brings us to today's story about the new Salem amphitheater officials in that city announced today. (An update with a rendering is here). It left reader Dick Howard, who lives in western Roanoke County, absolutely inspired:

I love it when [The Roanoke Times] uses a Salem reference as a club to whack the boobs in Roanoke's City Hall. Today's headline "Salem plans to build own amphitheater" was a great one. The word "own" implies that, once again, Salem has gone its self absorbed way, pulled out and co-opted the [Roanoke] with an amphitheater. The reality is that it will most likely be some dinky thing seating a couple hundred smug, in-bred blue hairs but it obviously rattled some cages downtown.

And now for the genius part of Howard's email:

Isn't is time for the word "salem" to be used as a verb to denote a haughty, co-opting, efficient action  as in "Boy, they salemed the City on that issue?"

Yeah! Let's coin a new verb, shall we?

And you can kind of understand what Howard means, right? After all, the only thing Roanoke has that Salem doesn't is Chik-fil-A. (Which Salem desperately wants, by the way).

But let's add some other definitions, too!

2. To build miles of adjacent fast-food joints (just like West Main Street in Salem): "The city of Roanoke has decided to salem Williamson Road with McDonald's, Popeye's, Wendy's, Hardees and Burger King."

3. To vote (almost always) unanimously on every issue: "Salem City Council salemed the agenda and concluded its meeting in 14 minutes.

What other definitions for the verb "salem" are out there?

A red-light camera in Springfield, Ohio / Wikimedia Commons

The city of Roanoke is considering whether to install red-light cameras at nine intersections in the city.

During the upcoming debate we will hear this is much more about reducing accidents, and much less about revenue these cameras will rake in.

Roll your eyes. Allow yourself a snicker. And don’t believe that cockamamie argument for one second.

These cameras are ALL about the money they haul in. That’s why I call this odious scheme “the robotax.”

The safety argument is fallacious window dressing, and that’s the gentlemanly way to put it.

How do we know? Read the rest of the column here.

Do you have a tongue-in-cheek suggestion for other types of "cams" the city of Roanoke should install around town? Post it as a comment here, or email me. We'll review the best suggestions in Thursday's column.