THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609220013
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 139 lines
He's only 29, but Kenneth Cooper Alexander believes he can draw on Berkley's history to build a strong future.
Tonight, he'll be installed as president of Berkley's Beacon Light Civic League, making him the first such Berkley leader under age 50 in more than a decade.
But he brings to the job family and civic ties that span several generations. An hour's drive with Alexander through Berkley begins to reveal the depth of those connections.
For example, Alexander points to a creek off Indian River Road - for him, a place brimming with pleasant recollections of crabbing and rafting with other children some 20 years ago.
Nowadays, the mucky water stews with years of industrial debris. And, Alexander worries aloud about the sort of memories that kids today will take from Berkley.
``It's discouraging to kids to see what they have to see over here now,'' said Alexander, who owns the Metropolitan Funeral Service on East Berkley Avenue with his wife, Donna. ``They have to walk through the community's eyesores every day on the way to school. What are we exposing our kids to?''
His memories, Alexander said, impel him to try to make Berkley a model of revitalization, preserving the best of its past, such as its many Victorian-style houses.
Many neighborhoods, he said, ``have become just like any other place. I want to keep Berkley from becoming like any other place.''
History is one reason Alexander's installation goes beyond the routine.
Alexander is taking the helm of a civic league founded in 1941, making it one of the oldest and most-venerated neighborhood groups in South Hampton Roads.
Another reason is Alexander's youthfulness. He'll be the first Beacon Light president in many years who is not named Horace Downing or George Banks. Downing, 79, and Banks, 63, have alternated in the top office for more than 15 years.
``I think most civic leagues now are going through the same thing. Most are led by older people,'' said Downing, the last of Beacon Light's founding members. Over the decades, he's served at least 12 two-year terms as president.
The 1941 organizing meeting, Downing said, was held in the service bay of the Liberty Service Station, which once stood at Liberty and Craig streets. ``We cleaned it out and borrowed some chairs from the undertaker next door,'' he said.
Banks, who joined in the mid-1950s, said it's unusual to find young people with long-term commitments to civic leagues. ``They're looking for something quick, and civic work is a continuation, and it's work that's never completed. It kind of burns them out.''
But then Banks reflected: ``Maybe us old folks have to get out of the way sometimes, let the young people do their thing, make some mistakes, but hopefully not big mistakes, but with us letting them see and learn as they go along.''
In city or suburb, many civic leagues in South Hampton Roads seem to have similar problems finding young leadership.
``In most of the younger families both the husband and wife are working and feel they don't have the time,'' said John Moore, 67, president of the Virginia Beach Council of Civic Organizations. ``It's not that they wouldn't like to, but by the time they get home from work, they're feeling just beat, and they have to take care of their own household and personal affairs.''
In Chesapeake, there's more of a mix of youth and veteran leadership - but it depends largely on the age of the subdivision.
``It's about 50-50 because Chesapeake is such a growth city,'' said Gene Waters, president of the Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations.
Civic leagues in Chesapeake's newer neighborhoods generally have younger leaders while established communities have older ones, Waters said.
Few civic leagues have the array of challenges facing Berkley's Beacon Light. Alexander sees them on almost every street: blighted housing, drug-related crime, truant schoolchildren, the paucity of convenient places to shop.
Alexander had to interrupt a recent tour of Berkley to cross into Chesapeake for gasoline and a stop at a bank.
``Groceries. Hardware. Bank. Gas. Even a McDonald's. We have to go out of Berkley to Chesapeake,'' he said.
But the physical problems may prove to be the easiest to fix. For example, the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority is assembling land for a small shopping center, and the agency continues to help build and renovate houses.
Alexander also believes that Berkley eventually will benefit from its proximity to downtown Norfolk, which is a few minutes away across the Berkley Bridge.
More complicated are the everyday crises faced by Berkley's aging homeowners and poorest renters. Alexander often hears their problems when he pauses to say hello to neighbors on their front porches or strolling the sidewalks.
On one block, a woman tells Alexander that the tires on her car ``were flatted'' - or slashed - possibly in retaliation for her reporting suspicious activity to police.
On another block, Alexander encounters a woman who is illegally doubling up in the rental home of her mother. The bigger problem is that the woman has not yet sent her three children to school this year, fearing that her housing situation would be discovered.
Alexander promised to help find solutions to both problems.
Throughout Berkley, Alexander is known for his willingness to help, and his energy. The traits have run in his family, which make Alexander feel all the more committed.
His maternal grandmother, the late Ruby Cooper, was the longtime secretary of Antioch Baptist Church and a stalwart in many other community activities.
His late father, David Alexander, came to Berkley as a teen-aged itinerant television repairman. ``All he had was his toolbox and he used to go door to door,'' Alexander said. ``But he fell in love with Berkley and set up his shop on Liberty Street.''
In 1966, David Alexander changed careers, opening the Metropolitan Funeral Service on Liberty Street, once considered the ``downtown'' of Berkley because of all its shops. Most, now, are gone.
Kenneth Alexander has grown community roots of his own. His volunteer work includes helping the Southside Boys & Girls Club, where he enjoyed many hours as a child.
In 1991, Alexander's community involvement took on a deeper meaning. He began burying many of the young men he grew up with, contemporaries who had turned to drugs and violent crime.
Alexander's growing concern caught the attention of longtime leaders such as Downing and Banks. He spent hours learning the skills of community organizing and says their ideas can be used by any civic league.
One lesson, Downing and Banks say, is to cultivate new leadership by involving young members in committees. For Alexander, that led to being appointed to several committees at City Hall, including the Industrial Development Authority and the Southside Task Force.
Joshua Paige, president of the Norfolk Inner-City Federation of Civic Leagues, a coalition of black neighborhood groups, hopes Alexander's work will inspire other young neighborhood activists to get more involved.
Also celebrating Alexander's installation as Beacon Light president will be Calvin Durham, president of the Lindenwood-Cottage Heights-Barraud Park Civic League.
Durham, 34, welcomes Alexander because the two are in the same age range. He's looking forward to comparing notes on issues facing young leaders of inner-city neighborhoods.
He also has advice for young adults who do not get involved in their neighborhoods.
``Nothing is going to materialize overnight. Everything takes time,'' Durham said. ``I also know that if I stop doing this, the quality of my neighborhood will diminish. I can't let that happen.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Kenneth Cooper Alexander, who takes his post today, grew up in
Berkley and owns the Metropolitan Funeral Service there. by CNB