What’s your vision for greater Lynchburg in 2020? (…jumping on the pun bandwagon right out of the gate.)
I don’t doubt “2020 vision” memes will saturate social media and pepper campaign speeches in the year ahead. By 2021, we will be desperate to no longer be in the “Year of Vision.” We even embraced the concept of “looking ahead” on our cover—we couldn’t resist.
But, all puns aside, and no matter what date you’re writing in your checkbook (if you even have a checkbook in the year 2020), we can’t overlook that it’s very important to have a vision—both personally and professionally.
I’m not talking about a New Year’s resolution. We all know those are made to be broken. A vision, in my opinion, is much more impactful. You are looking at the bigger picture for yourself or your company. Your vision may include a rough list of goals or it may simply be something broader that you want to improve upon.
Our first ever Lynchburg Business “Market Report” issue is all about the vision for our region—focusing on the big picture of our business climate, economic goals and more. Starting on page 19, we asked economic development leaders in each of the area’s five localities—the city of Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell—to tell us what’s on the agenda for 2020. I hope you will enjoy, as I did, hearing what they are forecasting for the year ahead.
Also on the horizon for 2020—a major overhaul of Lynchburg’s mall continues. In our commercial real estate feature, “River Ridge, Reinvented,” we are taking an in-depth look at this massive facelift and why local experts say it’s a bold, but very smart, move by the property’s stakeholders.
Just a quick glimpse of some local statistics, found on pages 8-9, should continue to encourage you that we live in a thriving and prospering region. From rising wages to a growing young population, our future is very bright.
And the view from the top is starting to look pretty nice.
All my best,
Shelley Basinger, Managing Editor
Shelley@lynchburgbusinessmag.com
