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| The Community
Improver, May 1966 -- FULL TEXT |
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May, 1966
VOL. III
ASHEVILLE IS ON THE MOVE...PROGRESS THROUGH COMMUNITY EFFORT
Rehabilitation Office
86 Livingston Street
Phone: 253-4745
The Community
Improver
MAY WE INTRODUCE...
Mrs. Norma Grayson was born in Alabama but raised in
Asheville. She is the daughter of the late John and Leila Michael. Her
father was
for
30
years a principal
of Hill Street School where her mother also taught for the same number
of
years.
Mrs. Grayson is a graduate of Stephens Lee High School and
Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tennessee. Later she received her Masters
Degree in social work from the Atlanta
University
School of Social
Work, Atlanta, Georgia. She has studied at the New
York School
of Social Work and
attended workshops at University of Chicago,
Chicago, Illinois. For
some years she was
case
worker with the
Family Service Society,
St. Louis.
She next
was an interviewer
with the
State
Employment
office in N.C.
During the war she was a
Field
Director of the
Red Cross Prior to
her present position with
the Redevelopment
Commission,
she was
a clinical
social worker with the Veterans
Administration
in
New York
City for 19 years.
While with this agency, she
served as a supervisor of Trainee Social Workers of Fordham University
and the New
York School of Social Work.
PLANNING FOR RENEWAL
Many plans
are being made to improve the
area
in which you live. The East
Riverside area is the center
of
attention nowadays. Much time,
effort, and money have
gone into
plans
to
make it one of the
nicest sections
of
town.
There are two stages
in
any Urban Renewal Project. One
phase is "survey and
planning." The
other is the action phase
in which the plan is carried out and the area is renewed. We are
presently in the first
stage. We have not
yet completed all the plans and preparations necessary for intelligent
action. No buildings will be purchased or land cleared until these plans
are completed.
When plans are finished and the
time comes for
renewal,
we hope each
person will support the
effort to make East Riverside
a
better place to
live.
--
Editor
MOTHER'S DAY
This is the time of year I stop for just one day to
appreciate the First Lady of my
life;
the lady who always thinks
of
me as her "baby".
If I have done wrong, it is always Mother who sees the
spark of goodness in me through all the shabbiness, and loves me still.
If I have done well, it is Mother who beams
with
pride.
It has been jokingly siad [sic],
"A
man is
never
truly
old
until his Mother stops worrying
about him."
-- Kent Washbum |
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THE FABLE OF A CITY CALLED ASHEVILLE
Long, long ago, in a high enchanting valley in the Blue
Ridge Mountains, was a city called Asheville.
Its climate, location, and scenic beauty made it famous
as a tourist attraction the world over. It soon acquired the nickname
"The Land of the Sky."
Asheville was a simple community consisting of a
commercial or shopping cone surrounded by a residential area, which
again was surrounded by farms and timberland.
The demands of this uncomplicated society were
adequately met by the City Administration.
But the coming of the industrial revolution,
automobiles, and the population explosion changed the city of Asheville
drastically.
Lack of city planning and code enforcement produced
insurmountable problems which the city administration could not overcome
financially and administratively without state and federal loans and
grants.
Since World
War
II, growing decay
at the heart of Asheville has been the Number One problem. For 25 years,
slums have grown and real estate values and municipal
tax
income have
dropped.
The affluent and then middle-income families
headed for the suburbs and the downtown and
the surrounding
residential area
deteriorated.
Industry
has
brought its
share of
problems, hodgepodge land use,
industrial
stench, air pollution, water
pollution, besides contributing
to the
crowded and unsanitary
living
conditions.
The automobile has produced junk yards, traffic
congestion, strip development, parking problems, air pollution,
decentralization of cities and wholesale slaughter on the highways.
Well aware that these conditions have become a
nationwide trend, in 1963, the
City
Fathers decided to investigate the
possibility of using the urban renewal program in the hope of renewing
the vitality of older and worn-out neighborhoods - a task financially
impossible by the City Administration. A few months later a conference
was held between the urban renewal people
and City Administrators to determine which area would best be benefited
by this program.The area known as East Riverside was chosen for two
reasons:
(1) The cost of building the South French Broad High School
$1,400,000 - will provide the City of Asheville with the majority of her
one-third share of the cost of this urban renewal project.
(2) 55% of the structures in this area can be rehabilitated feasibly
now - but not later.
In January 1965, the City of Asheville received advance funds to
begin its survey and planning work. We are presently in this phase of
the operation.
____________________________
SOMETHING TO GET FIRED-UP ABOUT
What if someone told you that the possibility of your
house burning is 100% greater than the average Ashevillian? If you live
in one of the 1,000 blighted houses in the East Riverside Redevelopment
Project, your chances of having a
major
fire are
just
about twice those
of the average person in Asheville.
The major cause of fires in the Project Area seems to
be careless smoking. Be careful! Many houses in this area are like
kindling waiting to be lit. The second major cause is faulty wiring.
This is a problem that must be corrected by Community Improvement. Too
many houses have no electric outlets on the walls. Drop cords alone
provide electricity in many cases. This wiring is
not
meant to
furnish
power for such
high-drain appliances such
as
toasters, frypans, refrigerators, or
television
sets. Something
must be done if this
appallingly high
incidence of fires
is to be checked.
______________________
The Young Women's Christian Association,
founded 110 years ago in London, England, now is at work in 75 countries
around the world, including 5500 locations in the USA. In Asheville the
YWCA has been serving women and girls for 59 years. |
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These smiling faces belong to Brownie Troop No. 127. They have good
reason to be smiling; they just have come downstairs from a meeting of
games and songs.
These girls meet in the some Rehab Office room each
Tuesday from 4-5 p.m. Besides singing and playing games, they discuss
good citizenship and plan hikes and outings.
This past Easter, the Brownies made and delivered
Easter cards to the patients at the Silent Rest Nursing Home.
Troop No. 127 is sponsored by the New Mount Olive
Baptist Church, and is under the leadership of Gail and Betty Sligh.
(Miss Sligh is pictured in the back.)
LIVINGSTON STREET
SCHOOL REPORTS
Mrs. Mary R. Sligh represented the Livingston Street
School PTA at the State PTA Convention in Lumberton, North Carolina,
recently.
Those of you who are interested in finding out
what
went
on there may
find out when she
gives her
report
of this meeting
to the Livingston
Street School PTA at the
regular
meeting Tuesday,
May
17, at 7:30
p.m.
Also
slated for
this meeting
is a
report
from
the First
Grade
teachers on an
experimental
reading program they
have
been conducting
with
their students. This should be
interesting.
MEDICARE - AGAIN
So many people failed to sign up for the
benefits of Medicare in March that President Johnson asked to have the
deadline extended.
If you have not signed up, you may do so until May 31.
Don't wait until the last minute!
For information, call Mrs. Grayson at 253-4745; or call
the Social Security Administration at 252-8773.
Y-TEEN QUEENS
Marche Forney (right), of the Shiloh Y-Teens,
was crowned at the Y-Teen Extravaganza which was held at the South
French Broad YWCA, Saturday, May 30. Judy Foster of the Livingston
Y-Teen Club, was the runner-up.
The program consisted of a "Fashion-etta", "Fashions of
Yesterday, Today," by the South French Broad Y-Teens (advisor, Mrs. C.
P. Chandler); a skit entitled "A Y-Teen Dreams," involving all Junior
Y-Teen clubs; and a
dance
number
by
Carolyn
Lyles of the South
French Broad Club.
Sherrie Stevens, a Livingston Y-Teen, played the
leading
role in the skit,
and Brenda Gibson,
Miss
Y-Teen
of 1965, crowned
Miss
Y-Teen
for 1966.
The
program was
sponsored
by
the YWCA
Teenage
Committee,
Miss
Delores Carnegie, Chairman. |
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NEW APARTMENTS FOR THE
ELDERLY The Housing Authority of Asheville has revealed plans for
a new hundred-unit apartment building for the elderly. This structure
will be located on three and one-half acres of land next to Aston Park
on South French Broad Avenue. A general administration building is also
planned.
The main building will be 7 stories high and will contain 335 rooms.
More than half of the apartments will be used by people who will move
from substandard houses in the Redevelopment Project Area.
This building will be an attractive addition to Asheville housing. It
will provide space for meeting and recreation, an area with automatic
washers and dryers to be used by the occupants and quiet, roomy
apartments. There will be a range and refrigerator in each apartment,
and two automatic elevators will carry people quickly and safely to and
from their rooms.
We should be seeing the beginning of construction late this year.
This is real progress!
THANK YOU!
For the past several weeks, the "Rehab" Office at 86 Livingston
Street has reported a great number of visits and phone calls by East
Riverside residents who are interested in the Urban Renewal plans. We
welcome this kind of interest.
As plans for the project progress it appears that more and more
people are taking a personal interest in these plans. Many want to know
how Urban Renewal will affect their houses. Others are asking the
Rehabilitation staff what they could do to improve their property. Some
have already started a program of improvement.
In an area as large as East Riverside, success will come only with
your interest and effort. Thank you for your visits and phone calls. Let
us hear from more of you!
REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
OF THE
CITY OF ASHEVILLE
P. O. Box 7148
604 City Building
Asheville, N. C. 28807 |
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