Politics
In a political context, the Roanoke Valley usually refers collectively to Roanoke City, Salem, and Roanoke County. Some governmental functions are consolidated. For example, there is a regional sewer authority and Roanoke Regional Airport is governed by a regional commission. Salem is generally more reluctant to participate in these efforts than Roanoke City and Roanoke County. Botetourt County also participates in some efforts such as the regional library system. Whether more functions should be provided on a consolidated basis, or if the governments should be consolidated, is an often discussed issue. Consolidation referendums in 1969 and 1990 failed because of the opposition of voters in Roanoke County. The issue has remained dormant since the 1990 referendum.
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Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the mud stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime records unique, violin player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“Political organizations have slowly substituted themselves for the Churches as the places for believing practices.... Politics has once again become religious.”
—Michel de Certeau (1925–1986)
“The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form. The need for possessing, consuming, handling and constantly renewing the gadgets, devices, instruments, engines, offered to and imposed upon the people, for using these wares even at the danger of one’s own destruction, has become a “biological” need.”
—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)