Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501310067
SECTION: STREET BY STREET PAGE: 11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, who administers the parish, schools and nursing home, checked out the home's construction in April 1989. He was not pleased with what he saw nearby.
"The area at the bottom of the hill still looks like a slum," Bishop Walter F. Sullivan complained in a letter to City Council member David Bowers, a Catholic. Bowers now is Roanoke's mayor.
"The Catholic Church is investing over six million dollars in the improvement of the image of downtown Roanoke," Sullivan said. "I hope that the city can do likewise as a start. Perhaps some of the dilapidated buildings can be leveled as a sign of the city's commitment to continue the improvement of the area."
About that time, the city set its sights on more of Gainsboro for another project - this time for two four-lane roads that would speed traffic toward downtown and by the restored Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
Black Roanokers, led by neighborhood activist Evelyn Bethel, packed hearings to plead with the city not to take any more of their community. "If we don't have Gainsboro, we have no history," said the Rev. Charles Green, president of the Roanoke branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The city rerouted its plans for Wells Avenue, one of the roads to be widened. It tore down several commercial buildings, most unoccupied, but spared a dozen homes it had targeted earlier.
Residents were not appeased. The word went out that 500 to 1,000 people would be bused to a City Hall hearing on Wells Avenue. City Manager Bob Herbert suddenly canceled it.
Then four Gainsboro-based organizations, Gainsboro Neighborhood Development Corp., Southwest Virginia Community Development Fund, First Baptist Church and Total Action Against Poverty - all of which received grants or assistance from the city over the years - promptly broke away from Bethel's Historic Gainsboro Preservation District and two other black groups opposed to the road widenings.
Saying they wanted to win Gainsboro some perks in exchange for the roads - like job training, housing rehabilitation and small-business help - the four breakaway organizations went into months of private talks with Herbert.
He and they unveiled plans for Wells to become a pedestrian-friendly boulevard with flowers, signs about Gainsboro's history and special streetlights by the time the hotel reopens this spring. They presented plans to give work to minority contractors and service workers at the hotel, fix up Gainsboro's old homes and create start-up money for small businesses.
Last summer, two homes on Wells were purchased and moved to nearby Gilmer Avenue at a cost to the city and state of $400,000.
James Harvey, a former City Council member, said recently that more government money has been spend on Gainsboro than any other neighborhood. "Everybody's talking about how Gainsboro is being mistreated," he said. "Give me a break."
City Manager Herbert said the city's trying to be more sensitive. "We've been trying to do things differently."
This summer, Gainsboro is expected to see some demolitions. Ten homes and six commercial buildings will be seized for a new four-lane Second Street/Gainsboro Road. City engineers say most, if not all, of the buildings will be torn down.
by CNB