Studies Keep Confusing Harrisonburg for Other Cities

HARRISONBURG - It's too small for this. It's plenty big for that. Research groups seem to have a hard time remembering that the Friendly City is the one in Virginia; a college town with a population around 40,000 and a median income of $30,000 .

Not long ago, Target said Harrisonburg was just too small to sustain one of their stores. "Turns out we had been looking at the demographics for Harrisonburg, Louisiana, population 800," says Target consultant Brian Entwistle. "A few months after we declared it wasn't a good fit for us, we realized our mistake and got to building post haste. A college town without a Target? What were we thinking?"

On the opposite end of the spectrum, other demographers who have never heard of Harrisonburg assume that it's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a major metropolitan area and capital city of Pennsylvania. That's the fate which befell the group studying the feasibility of a municipal golf course, which they said would be profitable within five years. Seven years later, the city is spending about $1 million annually to make up for the operating losses. Study group member Jane Cliffton notes, "Harrisburg has lots of lawyers and lobbyists and big businesses which provide a bottomless market for new golf courses. Harrisonburg has...well, let's just say 'Whoopsie' on that one."

Demographers have promised to google more carefully and perhaps even visit the city before making recommendations in the future.

The City of Harrisonburg, meanwhile, is producing posters featuring Court Square and the words, "Harrisonburg, Virginia. No, not that one. Not that one either. The other one."