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

DATE: SUNDAY, September 12, 1993                   TAG: 9403090028
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WHEN NEIGHBORS GET ORGANIZED

Since 1980, this idea has been institutionalized as the Roanoke Neighborhood Partnership, which helps distinct neighborhoods retain, and often improve, their neighborhood integrity and quality of life.

Sometimes - interestingly, since it's a quasi-official municipal agency - the partnership even helps neighborhoods fight city hall.

To be sure, First Union, Dominion's new owner, might have concluded strictly by bottom-line calculations that the marginally profitable 9th Street branch was worth saving.

The bank might have been swayed, too, by a desire to show good-faith compliance with the federal Community Reinvestment Act, which frowns on financial institutions abandoning less-affluent neighborhoods.

Such decisions really ought to be driven in any case by market considerations, not politics. Banking is a private enterprise that must be profitable to perform its role; capital is best allocated where return can be maximized. And there is cause to be a little skeptical of the notion that, in this age of postal delivery, electronic transfers and automatic teller machines, everyone needs a bank on the corner.

Still, it clearly did not hurt that the Southeast Action Forum - one of four charter members of the Roanoke Neighborhood Partnership - was able quickly to mobilize residents for a lobbying campaign once word got out that the branch was on the endangered list.

Had a few Southeast citizens complained that they had no cars and no way to get to other bank branches in downtown Roanoke or other neighborhoods, First Union officials presumably would have listened sympathetically - though perhaps not responsively.

But when Southeast Action Forum turned out more than 150 residents for a hastily called public meeting, when others came but couldn't get in because the meeting hall was so crowded, the community's voice was a roar the bank couldn't ignore.

For 13 years, the partnership has been urging neighbors to unite and work effectively for good causes - ridding the community of eyesores, sprucing up streets with trees and flowers, tackling neighborhood crime waves, rehabilitating dilapidated houses, maintaining neighborhood schools and parks.

The operative word here is effectively.

Residents of neighborhoods have always banded together for common cause. But often they've wasted energy in shouting matches - and often with the shouting directed at the wrong people.

The neighborhood partnership, which now has 25 participating organizations and three business-group members, has helped raise community activism to an art form.

It has provided financial grants for numerous projects, can-do encouragement, technical assistance and know-how. Importantly, it has also provided know-who - putting groups in touch with people in position to deal with residents' specific concerns.

That doesn't mean neighborhoods always get what they want -from government or the private sector. Nor should they; a particular neighborhood's wish list may run counter to what's good for the entire community.

Indeed, in a city where "us" vs. "them" sectionalism has been the historic basis for many conflicts, there is risk in nurturing neighborhood activism. Theoretically, it could solidify lines of racial and class division, could further the unblending of housing opportunities, job opportunities, public-school opportunities. Citywide cohesiveness of interest could fall victim to zip-codephilia or demagogic campaigns, such as tax revolts.

That is a risk that city leaders and the neighborhood partnership have done well to assume, and to guard against. For now, the evidence is strong that the partnership and neighborhood activism have been great pluses for Roanoke.

They have helped renew a sense of community, and civic pride in each neighborhood's unique heritage. They have reaffirmed the American faith in grass-roots democracy.

They are one reason why Roanoke is a great city, not just for its lively downtown, but for its marvelously livable neighborhoods.