Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511250010
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: G-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They're in a section of Northeast Roanoke where nearly 60 percent of single moms with kids under 18 live in poverty, according to the 1990 Census. And there is little reason to believe things have improved much since those statistics were gathered, officials said.
In 64 homes, there was no gas or electric heat, only wood stoves or coal-burning furnaces, the census said. Four in 10 adults hadn't finished high school. Only 5 percent of residents held a four-year degree, compared to nearly 16 percent citywide.
But city officials have a plan to help, using Virginia's enterprise zone law.
In addition to offering tax cuts to businesses in the area, the city plans to spend $450,000 to fix up homes and streets if the state declares the area an enterprise zone.
"If we are going to create jobs, we have got to have people who can work in those plants and we've got to prepare our citizens to be those people," said Phil Sparks, acting chief of economic development. "We want to stabilize that area and we hope that this would become a model for future development elsewhere in the city."
Although many residents keep small homes with tidy yards, gardens, bird baths and playground swings, they generally get by on less than residents of the city as a whole, according to the city's enterprize zone application.
One who might qualify for home improvements is Ada Mason, 75, who heats the King Street home she shares with her son with a basement wood stove. Though he works for a heating and air conditioning company, they can't afford to put a system in their home, said Mason, who lives on Social Security.
"I'm too old to be cold," she said. "I would be proud if I could somehow get good heat."
The city has a written pledge to give five homes $5,000 central heating systems. And in five other homes without adequate kitchen facilities the city would install kitchens costing $5,000 each. The city, in cooperation with social service agencies and other organizations, also has money for 10 street lights, four-tenths of a mile of sidewalk, sewer lines, a program to boost civic pride, training in jobhunting and education assistance.
To some who live in the area that would be affected, it sounds too good to be true.
"You tell them I made a big horse laugh," said a Hollins Road barber who refused to give his full name, saying only that he goes by Horsefly Atkins. "They've been promising and promising."
Atkins said city leaders have shirked promises to widen Hollins Road and install a needed stoplight at Hollins and Liberty roads. Bob Bengtson, city traffic engineer, said traffic signals go in where they are needed most and the need is greater at other intersections. The widening job was on the city's road-project wish list at one time but now might not happen for 20 years, he said.
Enterprise zone projects, if approved, would happen much sooner, city officials said.
Sparks said the program is not an attempt to make amends for urban renewal programs that between 1955 and the 1990s removed scores of homes in Gainsboro and other areas near downtown. Those homes were demolished to make room for the Roanoke Civic Center, highways and businesses.
"That was never in my mind," Sparks said.
by CNB