ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on February 29, 1996. The name of Estherlene
Sayles Rawls was misspelled in a Wednesday story on a Henry Street
public hearing.
Years of distrust over how city government destroyed most of Roanoke's oldest black neighborhoods came home to roost once again Tuesday night as residents grilled city agencies over plans to redevelop the former black commercial strip along Henry Street.
``You say, `Trust us now.' How do you expect us to do that?'' retired Fizer Funeral Home treasurer Walter Fizer told the board of the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority in a long recollection of urban renewal's unmet promises in Gainsboro.
Board Chairman Willis ``Wick'' Anderson and members of the Henry Street Revival Committee tried to assure 150 people at a public hearing at Addison Middle School that the public's voice will be heard in meetings and that consultants' land-use proposal to build 11 clubs and restaurants and other facilities on Henry Street can be made more pleasing to them.
Most of the speakers from the audience were not convinced. ``You have made your plans behind closed doors,'' Vernice Law said. ``You have not respected us.''
After a viewing of slides showing architects' renderings of big, brick buildings that might be built on Henry Street, the Rev. Lenord Hines said those proposed businesses might look good in the pictures, ``but you're not going to let us make one dime of that money. ... The community is sick and tired of what you've done to us. You've messed up Gainsboro and you're not going to mess up Henry Street.''
Speakers asked why only four of the 11 city representatives on the stage of the school auditorium were black. Agency members said they could not explain why most of the groups' black members - including the Rev. Noel Taylor, chairman of the revival committee and former mayor - were absent.
Other speakers asked that future Henry Street hearings be held in more comfortable quarters. The sound system echoed through the old school auditorium and made those speaking difficult to understand.
It was the third public meeting since late January in which black Roanokers expressed deep suspicions about how the authority acquired most of Henry Street's land in recent years and whether, as the authority promises, minority entrepreneurs and workers will get a fair shot at running the businesses.
Architect Don Harrowed, who heads the project for city consultant Hill Studio, said minority participation is key to the plans and that specific objectives will be laid out.
Anderson said that although the authority had planned to lease Henry Street properties to some developer who will build the commercial structures and lease them to business owners, it is possible that the land could be put up for sale to entrepreneurs.
George Rogers, a retired post office employee, was told by some in the audience to ``sit down and shut up'' when he suggested that black Roanokers should have held on to Henry Street's businesses years ago. ``If we'd had the money, we'd have done things long before now,'' he said. ``We did not support each other.''
Black members of the audience seemed offended by the notion of building music clubs and ethnic food for tourists on Henry Street. ``The black people are for more than soul food and jazz,'' said Law. ``We don't have a community center ... a drugstore ... a convenience store in the Gainsboro area.''
Two ministers drew applause when they said that dance halls and music clubs won't do much to help Roanoke's black community. Consultants aim to market the clubs to college students, other young people, tourists and conventioneers at the Hotel Roanoke but they said they now see the need to include services and facilities for the neighborhood.
Tuesday night's meeting was full of bitterness about city government. Leroy Lowe stood up to say that getting those feelings out in the open is a positive change for Roanoke. ``It's good and it's healthy,'' he said.
``These people in this community have been beat down and trodden down and they don't have self-esteem,'' he told the city boards. ``If you want the spirit of Henry Street to be there, you're going to have to include these people.''
Serenely Sales Ross, a past leader of the Gainsboro Neighborhood Development Corp., said the city needs to explain why her group's plans for Henry Street were snubbed a decade ago. ``They gave us just enough money to break our necks,'' she said of planning money provided by the city.
``I want to commend the housing authority - if this is a new day,'' she said after assurances from the agencies that they will listen this time to the community. ``But if it is not,'' she cautioned, ``beware.''
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: LAURA M. KLEINHENZ/Staff. Roanoke resident Evelyn Foxby CNBsaid Tuesday night that the Henry Street project is not a racial
issue, although she questions city
officials' intentions. color.