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

DATE: MONDAY, December 20, 1993                   TAG: 9312210002
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCIS T. WEST
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FALLING INTO PUBLIC HOUSING'S TRAP

YOU DO CAUSE a stir. With wanton illegitimacy targeted as the chief cause of the breakdown of the social fabric, the timing of staff writer Beth Macy's Nov. 18 news article in the Roanoke Times & World-News about ``Pregnant and proud'' is somewhat bizarre. It does provide rich (or ripe) evidence of a subculture that seems to run rampant in public-housing projects.

Then your Nov. 21 editorial (``Get going on regional housing'') brags about Roanoke's having 10 public-housing complexes incorporating 1,500 units, chastising Salem and Roanoke County for having none. You heap it on in the same issue when, on the Commentary page, Alan Sorensen's column (``Growth, protecting what's here can sustain each other'') promotes ``sustainable development.'' You follow on Nov. 24 with indignant (and rightly so) letters about Ms. Macy's news article and an accompanying editorial entitled ``Yes, it's wrong. Now what?''

Just as federal monies (taxpayers') have failed abysmally to create public-housing communities of pride and moral strength, public (taxpayer) money won't cure the mess. Until affected individuals and groups of individuals decide to take personal responsibility and to decry aberrant behavior, conditions won't change. Let these individuals cease showing contempt for generally accepted behavior and they'll find ample support from the community at large. Illegitimacy isn't limited to any set of people, nor is it looked upon universally as a badge of honor. And indeed society at large should renew efforts to highlight the stigma of illegitimacy, especially among teen-agers. Until wholesale illegitimacy is stopped, it will simply continue to feed upon itself, more and more and more.

Because Salem and Roanoke County wisely chose not to seek the ``free'' public-housing money from the feds, with all the strings attached, these communities should pay little attention to ridicule from this newspaper when their elected officials are obviously in sync with their voters.

Would that Roanoke officials had it to do all over again, perhaps they would not have fallen into the public-housing trap. Is there any one circumstance that has so regrettably centered crime and decadence in Roanoke?

\ Francis T. West is a former mayor and former owner of West Windows Corp. in Martinsville.

by CNB