Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 14, 1991                   TAG: 9104140111
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MOST FOLKS ROANOKE LOST WERE WHITE

Overall, the city's population fell by 3,823 people during the decade, according to the 1990 census count. More detailed census figures now becoming available shed some light on just who those people were.

Generally, they were white.

Roanoke's black population increased by 1,355 during the decade. But its white population fell by 5,587.

Almost half of those whites - 2,527 - left from two sections of Upper Northwest that saw a dramatic change in their racial makeup during the decade, as they shifted from predominantly white to predominantly black.

Did the whites flee as blacks moved in? No doubt some did, says Greg Weiss, a Roanoke College sociologist who founded the school's Center for Community Research. Surveys show that, when the number of blacks in a neighborhood starts to grow, whites tend to leave, Weiss says.

But city officials say many whites may have left Upper Northwest simply because they died, or moved into retirement or nursing homes. The Upper Northwest neighborhoods that lost the most whites during the 1980s were ones the 1980 census showed had a lot of elderly white residents.

Aging also seems to explain the big loss of population in other Roanoke neighborhoods that weren't affected by racial changes. Williamson Road, another graying area, suffered big population losses. So did some sections of Gainsboro and other predominantly black neighborhoods that tend to be dominated by older residents.

Another part of the city that lost a big chunk of its population during the 1980s can't be attributed to either age or white flight, though.

Old Southwest lost 560 people. City planner John Marlles believes that's due primarily to the gentrification of the neighborhood, as older houses that had been used for apartments were remodeled into single-family homes.

Only a few neighborhoods in the city increased their population - mostly in the well-to-do southern part of the city, in South Roanoke and the suburban neighborhoods along Grandin Road Extension.

Marlles attributed the increase in South Roanoke to the construction of condominiums there and an influx of families with children replacing older "empty nesters."