ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 3, 1996 TAG: 9605030035
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TED EDLICH
I HAVE been doing a lot of listening on the matter of Henry Street. I am sure that I need to continue doing so. Yet, in the course of listening, I have heard things that seem to make sense.
First, it is hard for many of us to focus on Henry Street without seeing it in the context of a massive urban-renewal program that aided in the destruction of black neighborhoods and black businesses. That surely did happen, and many people were hurt by it.
I was a volunteer with Total Action Against Poverty when the Kimball evacuation took place. I remember driving local leaders to talk with attorneys for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to ensure that those who were forced to move would get maximum payments under the law. I was the director of TAP's Community Organization when the ill-fated Gainsboro Project began. I was not impressed by the consultants who suggested tearing down old homes and hills to make way for less expensive infrastructure and new construction. We were out-organized by those hired by the Housing Authority. In retrospect, we should have tried harder. So should have many others.
A lot of us then, in leadership and nonleadership positions, were responsible for the harm and hurt that was caused. It is time for all of us who, by commission or omission, allowed the damage that affected individuals, families and communities to acknowledge that. Maybe our fault was nothing more than we did not pay attention and turned the other way.
Perhaps, the religious leadership of all faiths in this community ought to consider leading us in a day of atonement for what we allowed to happen in our midst. Clearly, some will rightly suggest that such an act alone is without substance and may be nothing more than a hollow gesture. Yet, part of what makes people really angry is the lack of public admission that wrongs were done.
Two other suggestions have been made that have merit. Roanoke City Council candidate Alvin Nash has suggested that for a time we put aside the current plan, not scrap it, but sideline it until full public hearings are held to garner everyone's ideas for Henry Street. This has really never been done. As one member of the Henry Street Music Center Advisory Committee said to me, "You know, there are a lot of people who have some very good ideas. Let's hear what they have to say."
Two suggestions I have already heard deserve consideration. Someone has suggested that Henry Street would be well-served by the development of a movie theater. Another has suggested that the Harrison Museum for African-American Culture have space on Henry Street where art and historical displays could be showcased. That way, the story of the past would less easily be lost. The Harrison Museum has earned a strong place in the cultural life of this community, and surely deserves recognition on Henry Street.
In the candidates forum held at Mill Mountain Theater by the Roanoke Regional Association of Human Services, council candidate Carroll Swain suggested that, at some point, all parties needed to get around a table to work out a final plan for Henry Street.
Once the public hearings took place, the ideas generated from those hearings and the current ideas developed by Hill Studio could be sifted through and refashioned by a task force made up of representatives of all parties. Their work would be subjected to yet another round of public hearings, participation and inquiry until greater consensus is built.
Such a process was followed in the development of the ordinance for rental inspections. At the outset, there was wide disparity between all of the interest groups involved. Much to the surprise of many, we found more common ground than we had imagined, and together we created a stronger plan than anyone had fashioned prior to the process.
It is time for members of City Council to take back leadership for the Henry Street development to create the kind of process that will include everyone and create out of our collective imagination and good will a Henry Street of the future that is economically sound and culturally responsible, of which we can all be proud.
The Henry Street Musical, a magnificent local production, recently finished a three-day run. The play closes with these words: "It may take a miracle. But miracles do happen when we work together. When we open our minds, really listen to each other and combine the very best of ideas." That makes for a good play. It also makes for a sound future.
Ted Edlich is president of Total Action Against Poverty in Roanoke.
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