If you believe The News Virginian (“Time to do what works,” Nov. 8) and others, you would think that a successful downtown is all that is needed for Waynesboro to survive into the future. Wow. That seems easy enough. After all, there are a few empty buildings downtown and if they had small businesses in them, we would all prosper! New businesses like Ruth’s Renovations and the Wine Emporium are the latest additions to downtown, but they cannot survive without the patronage of the community.

As an incubator for technology companies, Harrisonburg could offer Waynesboro a model for its future, according to a member of the River City 2020 group, organized by The News Virginian.

The River City 2020 group, organized by The News Virginian, held its first meeting Wednesday at the newspaper’s office in an effort to create an economic vision for downtown.

In this space we seldom shrink from doling out criticism when we consider it due.