ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
After a series of angry residents accused City Council and the city administration of neglecting their Northwest Roanoke neighborhood for years, the administration promised to meet with residents of the 10th Street corridor to gather ideas on making the area safer.
City Council, meanwhile, demanded that the administration explain why no traffic light has been installed at 10th Street and Hunt Avenue Northwest and provide a list of signal projects ahead of that intersection.
Jeanette Manns, co-chairwoman of the Washington Park Alliance, led about 30 supporters to the council meeting. She said residents of her community have waited more than a decade for sidewalks and curbs along the two-lane street - and all they've gotten for their trouble was an asphalt footpath.
In the meantime, children - including her own grandson - have been injured by speeding traffic, she said.
Manns appeared with about 10 children who held bright-colored signs with slogans such as "Stand up for children. Sidewalks make it safe for me" and "Children live all over Northwest, but do you care?"
"I was offended [two years ago] when I went to one of my city [council] brothers and asked for a sidewalk. They gave me black asphalt. ... Do they do that in South Roanoke?" Manns asked council.
"With all the lies and the promises that have never happened, the people are in an uproar," said the Rev. Lenord Hines, another Northwest resident. "We want curbs, sidewalks, recreation and meeting centers - the same thing you folks have. Is that asking for too much?"
City Manager Bob Herbert told council that old plans to widen 10th Street to four lanes between Orange Avenue and Interstate 581 have been abandoned because residents objected. And recently, the city rejected an alternative proposed by the Virginia Department of Transportation to widen the street to three lanes, including a turning lane. The three-lane VDOT proposal was "insensitive" to property owners along the busy street, Herbert said.
Manns said she wants the street to remain two lanes wide, with curbs and sidewalks added.
Herbert promised the administration would meet with residents to work on possible solutions.
City traffic engineer Bob Bengtson said the 10th Street-Hunt Avenue intersection didn't meet the criteria for a traffic signal two years ago. But Councilwoman Linda Wyatt said more cars use the road now and the traffic should be restudied.
On a motion by Councilman Mac McCadden, council gave Herbert and Bengtson two weeks to recount traffic, report on why a signal wasn't put at the intersection in 1994, and give council a prioritized list of upcoming signal projects.
"This dialogue has been going on for almost two years, and my time on this council is almost up," said McCadden, who leaves June 30.
In other business Monday, council took no action on a South Roanoke woman's request that the pedestrian bridge crossing the railroad tracks to the Hotel Roanoke be renamed in honor of steam train photographer O. Winston Link.
Patricia Rodriguez told council members that Market Square Walkway, the name given last month to the bridge, is not memorable and has no historical significance.
Link, who is still living, spent 40 years staging elaborate nighttime shots of steam trains, many of them in the Roanoke area. About 13 years ago, the photographs were discovered by the art world, and his prints now sell for thousands of dollars.
Council took no action on the request, although one councilman suggested it might be fitting to name a planned railwalk along the downtown tracks in honor of Link.
But "we've been going through the drill almost six months, going through names," said Councilman Jack Parrott. "Where were you then?"
Rodriguez said she didn't suggest it earlier because she was tied up with personal matters and believed someone else would suggest the name.
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