Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020317
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CITY SEEKS RESIDENTS' INPUT ON GAINSBORO ROAD PROJECT
People still aren't happy about the whole idea of razing Wells Avenue in historic Gainsboro for a four-lane road to sweep by the Hotel Roanoke.But city officials succeeded in getting them engaged in the details of it Thursday night - the street lights, the crosswalks, the shrubbery, the "street furniture," as an architect called it.
City Public Works Director Bill Clark talked a mostly skeptical crowd of 45 into forming committees at Gainsboro's First Baptist Church and filling big pads of paper with suggestions on the little things.
Bethel and NAACP President the Rev. Charles Green say their organizations and the People's Voters League want to block construction of the new Wells Avenue and the bigger 2nd Street/Gainsboro Road project nearby.
"Yes, we are going to try to stop it," said Bethel. "We are doing research now to see what avenues are open to us." The groups hired a Washington lawyer a few months ago.
Ralph Beauford, of 62 Gilmer Avenue N.E., likes the current plan for Wells Avenue a lot better than an earlier one. It would have taken houses on Gilmer Avenue, too, and put the new Wells Avenue very close to Beauford's home.
There was good news for preservationists Thursday night: Clark said after the meeting that two homes on Wells Avenue - two of the most handsome in all of Gainsboro - may be moved off Wells and onto vacant lots nearby. Five commercial buildings on Wells Avenue will be torn down.
Some at the meeting were offended when design consultants, trying to show some high-brow street designs, showed slides of boulevards in big cities like London.
"We don't care about London," said Ricardo Valdevieso, of Plowshare Peace Center. "This is Appalachia."
He said the consultants were insensitive and should be fired. Because Gainsboro is a predominantly black neighborhood, he said, "Why is there not an African-American company working on this design?"
Gene Cress, an engineer with Mattern & Craig who is working on the road plans, said a black-owned firm, E.W. Finley of New York and Atlanta, did most of the design of the 2nd Street bridge that will span the railroad track and send downtown traffic through Gainsboro.
Realtor Rudy Cox accused Gainsboro homeowners of neglecting their property. Many homes, he said, are "boarded-up shacks." "Plant a tree," he told residents. "Your neighborhood is going downhill all the time."
Bethel said one reason some homes don't look so good is that people are reluctant to repair houses they fear the city eventually will demolish anyway. Many of Gainsboro's oldest homes and community buildings were destroyed years ago.
City engineers say that Roanoke needs the two new roads, or downtown traffic will become hopelessly mired by early in the next century.
Officials will hold another meeting on the Wells Avenue design in about 30 days.