THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 7, 1995 TAG: 9511070269
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
The Park Place Civic League took its first formal step Monday toward greater neighborhood control over the struggling Park Place Community Development Corp.
League members said a community development corporation was necessary to the neighborhood's future. But they voted to seek its restructuring.
Details were left to a corporation committee that includes several civic league leaders.
``We need to go to work. We can't afford to wait any longer,'' said Mildred Holloway, a member both of the league and the corporation's board of directors.
The corporation was launched in June 1993 to be a community-based catalyst for the revitalization of Park Place, an inner-city neighborhood beset by many social problems.
However, the organization never achieved its promise and found itself embroiled in many controversies about how the neighborhood should be improved.
Some problems seemed rooted in the initial composition of the board, which was created under the direction of then-Mayor Mason C. Andrews. Many neighborhood residents perceived it to be dominated by City Hall.
The civic league still does not have official control over the corporation, but neighborhood residents now make up the board's majority. Still, there are many suspicions.
Rodney Jordan, a Park Place resident and merchant, said Monday that he agreed with the need for restructuring but would hold back full endorsement until he saw the recommendations.
Kimberly Kimbrough voiced a frequent fear among Park Place residents: that low-income residents would lose their homes to upscale redevelopment.
Many residents also resent the corporation for getting credit in several neighborhood improvement efforts that were undertaken by other Park Place groups.
In a recent interview, Nelson White, a Park Place resident and board president of the corporation, said he was aware of the deep-seated suspicions. That helped prompt the need for restructuring, he said.
``It hasn't been finalized, but we hope that in the end we'd be able to bring all the factions to the table who are dissatisfied,'' White said.
Options include merging or affiliating the corporation with the nonprofit Park Place Redevelopment Foundation, which has built some houses in the neighborhood. White is executive director of that group.
The restructuring committee also will look at ways to enhance neighborhood control over the corporation while diminishing the roles of City Hall, the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and downtown business leaders, said B.J. Stancel, civic league president.
Once restructured, the corporation will have to contend with funding problems.
Outside fund-raising efforts never gelled. The corporation landed a $125,000 grant from the Norfolk Foundation but little else from other philanthropies or government agencies. Also, most of the money went to salaries rather than direct services to the neighborhood.
Earlier this year, the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority had to lend the corporation $30,000.
This fall, the agency granted the corporation another $39,000 to cover operations for October, November and December, White said. Most of that, he said, will go to salaries, while another $12,500 is to repay a loan from Norfolk Works, a federally funded job-preparation program.
In recent months, most of the corporation's defenders began to change their minds about the operation.
``It became indefensible,'' White said.
Civic league members said they eventually wanted a community development corporation that doesn't have to rely on government monies.
``If we want to be empowered, we have to do this,'' said Mildred Johnson, a resident. by CNB