Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 1, 1990 TAG: 9006010264
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After touring the neighborhood with other council members, Bowers said conditions in some parts of the neighborhood show the need for more money to complete the redevelopment project started two decades ago.
The council members saw broken sidewalks and dilapidated, vacant houses on several streets. They were told that some vacant houses have been used by drug dealers, who have frightened nearby residents.
Representatives for the Gainsboro Neighborhood Development Corp., which arranged the tour, said they have been unable to sell a renovated house on Harrison Avenue Northwest because of illegal drug activity in the neighborhood.
"We need help. I'm not against downtown, but our neighborhoods ought to have just as much priority as downtown," said the Rev. Carl Tinsley, president of the non-profit Gainsboro organization.
"The drug dealers moved into the area after we started fixing up the house. We've been held hostage by them," Tinsley said.
Bowers has tried unsuccessfully two years ago to persuade other council members to provide more federal community-development money for Gainsboro.
The city will provide $131,215 in the next fiscal year for an ongoing clearance project to eliminate blighted conditions on Fairfax Avenue Northwest. But council recently rejected a request to provide additional federal community-development money for Gainsboro in the next year.
Tinsley is upset that $220,000 in federal money that was budgeted for sidewalk improvements in Gainsboro a year ago has been transferred to other projects.
Bowers said he hoped the tour would help convince other council members that more than just talk is needed to finish the project.
Gainsboro must compete with other neighborhoods for federal community-development money, but this puts it at a disadvantage because its needs are greater, Tinsley said.
"This was Roanoke's first neighborhood, and all we ask is that the city complete the project it started," Tinsley said.
City Manager Robert Herbert said earlier that the city's needs far exceed the federal money that is available and that city officials had to reject many requests for funds.
Roanoke will have about $3.8 million in federal funds available for community-development projects in the fiscal year that begins July 1. This includes about $1.7 million in unspent funds from the past year and money that has been transferred from other accounts.
About 35 existing housing, neighborhood revitalization and economic-development programs would be funded again in the fiscal year that begins July 1. City officials said several of those programs will benefit Gainsboro, although the funds are not earmarked directly for the neighborhood.
by CNB