ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 30, 1996 TAG: 9601300060
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
PLANS UNVEILED last week for revitalizing Henry Street ought to come as exciting news not just for the city of Roanoke, but for residents of the surrounding neighborhood and the entire region.
Henry Street is about the history of black Roanoke: the history of black commerce and entertainment in the era of segregation, and also the history of the black community's dealings with the city's white majority.
It is a history that evokes, somewhat ironically, both nostalgia for happy times during segregation and bitterness about political powerlessness after legal segregation had ended.
Henry Street's long-awaited revitalization will be a successful economic-development project if it is able to recapture some sense of the lively musical and commercial scene that made what is now a desolate and nearly deserted First Street a center of black enterprise. It will be a successful civic project if that economic success can help bridge a bitter past to a better future, shaped with broad participation and support of black Roanokers.
What is proposed is an $18.5 million development that would bring jazz and blues clubs, restaurants and life back to a sadly deteriorated section of downtown. Among the features recommending this project as a first-class venture worth supporting: a great idea (build the entertainment and they will come); top-flight architectural talent; an attempt to study the history and architecture of the strip, including interviews with some black residents; and the interest of Memphis developer John Elkington, who successfully guided the resuscitation of that Tennessee city's famed Beale Street blues strip.
All the more noteworthy, then, that most of the dozen or so Roanokers who showed up for a subsequent public-information meeting about the plan were wary, if not hostile. They felt shut out of the planning on a project of great significance to their neighborhood.
They have a point. Earlier public meetings should have been held to gain a sense of the expectations of people who grew up on and around Henry Street, and who feel, as Vernice Law put it, "Henry Street belongs to us."
It does belong to these Roanokers in the sense that others who don't share their memories of life there will never love it as well. Support for the area's renewal by those who remember it best is important not just for better public relations, but also because their input could enhance the results. Nearby Wells Avenue's widening is an example of a project improved significantly, if belatedly, by bringing people most affected into the planning mix.
Fortunately, it isn't too late to listen. Roanoke's Redevelopment and Housing Authority director offered an excellent idea when she suggested a large community meeting before taking the Henry Street plans to City Council. From council, the planning committee hopes to win $5 million worth of taxpayer support.
Residents who yearn for the Henry Street of their youth ought to accept the facts, however, that revitalizing the area cannot mean simply returning to its segregation-era character, that the envisioned entertainment district will be a regional asset benefiting a broad swath of Western Virginia, and that the project will require substantial infusions of private capital.
After years of Henry Street plans going nowhere, it took the reopening of Hotel Roanoke with its new conference center to create circumstances favorable for a marketable vision to move forward. Because money will be invested only if money can be made, the enterprise must appeal to investors and, eventually, to visitors - or there will be no Henry Street renewal.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB