ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997 TAG: 9703110101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND?
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: I was in the Navy back in the early '50s and helped put a ship in commission. It was a light cruiser named after your fair city Roanoke. I have been curious as to whether it is still in existence and where it might be now. G.L., Virginia Beach
A: Your ship had a short life but was well known. It was decommissioned in 1958 and assigned to the Pacific reserve fleet, and finally sold for scrap on Feb. 22, 1972.
As a Navy spokesman said, some of us may have shaved with it this morning.
According to Roanoke Times files, the ship, classified as CL 145, was commissioned in 1949. Its bell is mounted near the entrance to the Roanoke Public Library on Jefferson Street
The CL 145 was the third of four Navy vessels to bear the name USS Roanoke, in honor of the city and the Roanoke River.
The most recent Roanoke, an oiler that refueled aircraft carriers and other ships at sea, was commissioned in 1974 and decommissioned in October 1995.
Classified as AOR 7, it's now in the maritime reserve fleet, sitting just upriver from the San Francisco Bay near Benicia, Calif., where it faces an uncertain future.
It could be sold for scrap, or possibly sail again if an Army proposal is approved to place fully loaded ships in forward areas where they could supply military forces quickly if a conflict breaks out.
Would it again be named for Roanoke? Not necessarily, a Navy spokesman said.
Neighborhood boundaries
Q: What constitutes the Raleigh Court area? Real-estate ads say "just listed, Raleigh Court" when the house is actually in Virginia Heights, Wasena, Ghent or Grandin Court. Where are the boundary lines?
A: Your question sounds like a geography issue but it's really something else.
It's about how communities are built and get annexed by the city, and how they evolve over six or eight decades of people growing up, moving out, starting new businesses or dying.
Lines that were drawn mostly by real estate developers around, say, 1900 to 1920 have lost their definition.
Older maps indicate Raleigh Court was within a few blocks of Brandon Avenue and Grandin Road.
The sense of community in that area now extends from the Memorial Bridge west to Edgewood Avenue, south to Grandin Road and east to Wasena Avenue.
Older neighborhoods in that swath include Virginia Heights, Ghent, Lee Hy Gardens, Rosalind Hills, Westhampton, Center Hill and maybe others.
So who decided all this was one community?
Actually, the residents made the call - or at least the folks who participated in neighborhood partnership meetings did.
John Marlles of the city planning office said residents at meetings called to set up new neighborhood organizations are asked to draw maps of the neighborhood as they see it. When everyone's map is considered and debated, the group settles on lines.
That's how the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League came into existence, embracing all the old neighborhoods.
It's a community - and a political - process.
Marlles said the only complaint he's heard is that sometimes people buy a house in Raleigh Court thinking their children will attend Raleigh Court Elementary School, only to learn they're in another school's attendance zone.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Maybe we can find the answer. Call us at 981-3118. Or, e-mail RAYR@Roanoke.com
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