Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990 TAG: 9007270502
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GRACE BOSWORTH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Unlike other renovation programs, such as Kimball and Commonwealth in Northeast Roanoke, Gainsboro was not torn down and removed, spawning new businesses that totally changed the face of the area. Nor were Gainsboro residents brought together for short-term crises, like a flood, a sudden influx of drug dealers or a need for street lights.
Gainsboro's redevelopment history goes back to President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," launched in the 196Os.
Gainsboro, predominantly populated by blacks and the oldest neighborhood in Roanoke, was a likely target. Elderly people made up more than half its population, many of the homes were more than 60 years old and many dilapidated houses were suffering the neglect of absentee landlords.
The initial plan envisioned total redevelopment and urban renewal, a term that had just popped into the nation's vocabulary.
Friendly bulldozers, with the blessing of City Council and under guidance of the city's Redevelopment and Housing Authority, removed entire blocks of houses and shaved off the hills.
Members of the Gainsboro Project Area Committee watched with satisfaction. Residents, given relocation grants when their homes were purchased, were sent to other parts of the city with the hope that they would return to Gainsboro when new homes were available. But for years, there were no new homes and nearly $7 million had been spent in the neighborhood. Records also show that close to 900 families were uprooted between 1969 and 1980. According to census data, the Gainsboro population fell from 2,200 to 990.
Without anyone thinking about it too much, Gainsboro's makeup was undergoing a drastic change.
Before urban renewal, Gainsboro had been a neighborhood. Residents knew one another by name, and their children played together. There were small grocery stores, schools, churches and other businesses.
But as redevelopment moved slowly ahead, the national rules changed, ending the "War on Poverty." Emphasis began to swing to "conservation" and "revitalization," stressing not what could be destroyed, removed and replaced, but what could be saved and rehabilitated.
After seeing so little redevelopment, many residents were feeling frustrated and betrayed. Some, who normally would have kept their homes in good repair, had not done so because they thought their houses were going to be torn down.
In 1978, Roanoke got a new city manager, Bern Ewert, who wanted to see the project completed. He characterized Gainsboro as "a victim of federal experimentation."
Different perceptions of needs and the allocation of neighborhood monies made communication difficult between residents and city officials.
The Neighborhood Partnership was established in 1980 to help all neighborhoods resolve problems at the grass-roots level. The Partnership and Gainsboro would be funded from the same source, and Gainsboro would no longer enjoy grants targeted at its situation alone.
By 1981, a study titled "Gainsboro Neighborhood Action Project: Comprehensive Revitalization Plan" was adopted, and the Gainsboro Neighborhood Development Corp. was formed, putting the fate of Gainsboro directly into the hands of the people who lived there.
The corporation developed a plan that addressed housing and neighborhoods, commercial development and community services, recreation and community image, and transportation and public utilities.
During 1983, most of the work in housing was done in the Rutherford Court, Rutherford Avenue and Third Street areas, which resulted in the sale of six model low/moderate-cost single-family dwellings by 1984.
By 1985, people programs were in place. Fuel assistance for low-income and elderly people, and arts and crafts programs were started. A program to distribute surplus butter and cheese from the federal government and another to provide transportation for the handicapped to such places as medical centers and grocery stores also were established.
But federal money was being cut back each year, and other neighborhoods had needs to be met. Despite searching, sometimes successfully, for other grant funding or private donors, the Gainsboro Neighborhood Development Corp. was finding it harder to stay in business.
A community organizer was cut out and soon after in 1989, the project administrator selected by the residents, resigned.
Today, Margaret Turpin is a staff of one, serving as executive director for the project, aided by a long-standing 10-person board of directors and whatever volunteer help she can muster.
"Our main problems now are time and money," Turpin said. "We have a project for town houses on Fairfax Avenue. It's in its third year. We have asked for $200,000 to put it up, but so far the city has not funded it. Even $50,000 would put up a model so that people would know what they were being offered."
Turpin's concerns are not limited to houses being built. She has a nasty problem right next door to her bright headquarters in a refinished house at 304 Fairfax Ave.
"Do you see that house? The owners live in Maryland. We would have to tear it down, the shape it's in, and the lot isn't big enough to do anything with, but they don't respond to our offers to buy.
"Meantime, you see how high those weeds are? It will take the whole summer to get them cut down, and rats and mice will breed in there and try to move into this house. Every year I go through the letter-to-the-city routine, and every year it takes until August. There's got to be a better way."
Another concern is the presence of drug dealers in rental properties in the area. "We have rehabilitated old homes, built new ones, generally upgraded the whole area, but who wants to make a home in a neighborhood where drug dealers flourish?
"We've got to do something to put fear into the buyers, the guys we see in here with their three-piece suits looking for a salesman. We need to start publishing the names of users. Illegal drugs aren't just consumed down here, they're used at lunchtime downtown."
Gainsboro hasn't had to go alone all the way. In 1983, Total Action Against Poverty's "Operation Paintbrush" put volunteers to work with donated materials and resulted in 18 houses being repainted.
In 1986-1987, Habitat for Humanity sponsored the construction of two houses on Gilmer Avenue. And there has been some funding from the Virginia Housing Development Authority to cover grant programs for homeowners who need to fix up critical household services such as electricity and plumbing.
With occupation of what is now the Coca-Cola bottling plant and construction of a 100-room Innkeeper motel and the new home for the aged completed by St. Andrew's Catholic Church, the area keeps changing. Gainsboro is not the territory visualized back in the late 1960s.
Old-time residents recall life on Henry Street before integration, when black citizens dined at the hotels and did their entertaining in banquet rooms and clubs that lined the street. Many doubt that Henry Street, even revitalized, will regain its original glory. But what happens to Henry Street also will affect all of Gainsboro.
Doubtless, Gainsboro will continue its evolution - future residents doing whatever neighbors in the 21st century will do. But it will never be the old way, not after nearly 25 years of upheaval.
by CNB