' Page 4-The Chronicle, Saturday, January 17, 1981
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M Momber North Carolina . rj^i% \
Black Publisher's Association f
I "wnPA Robert Lillet
L Sports Edito
N.C. Press Association
The Pattersc
If some members of the joint committee have their way
black youngsters in Winston-Salem may have nowhere to
play for the next three years.
For several months the members of the Patterson Ave.
YMCA board have been discussing a capital funds compaign
to construct a new YMCA in East Winston-Salem.
But in the meantime a joint committee of the Glade St.
and Central Y's have recommended that the existing Patterson
Ave. building be sold at the earliest date possible.
Since the earliest date predicted for a new Patterson
Ave. YMCA is 1984, that could leave youngsters in the
eastern part of the city with no facilities for three years.
And even that is the most optimistic prediction. .
But shouldn't the Patterson Ave. board have
something to say about their building? Why is a joint
committee of the other two Y's deciding for us?
It would be a serious error of judgement to sell the Y
out from under the people of our community so soon.
What is the urgency of it? Surely the powers that be can
T _ ^
in crtvtottejrro
When are black citizens in this city going to be used for
_more than bait to help whites gain federal grants?
We refer to the suggestion by the advisory council of
?the Experiment of Self-Reliance that the city^re-appl>L for
< a federal grant to renovate the old Spruce street YMCA.
The idea is at best, unrealistic since the request has been
turned down by federal officials, three times previously.
The last time the request was denied, officials from the
Department of the Interior said that the grant request did
not have the backing of the black community, which it
didn't and still doesn't.
Black people are tired of seeing their hard-earned tax
dollars being used for things that do not directly benefit
them. Often times being spent for things that improve
conditions somewhere else while their own buildings and
institutions go neglected.
Youth Orien
Dear Editor: for the program.
The hostess for the pro
A new radio program will gram will be Ms. Preciou?
be aired on January 14, 1981 Allen, who is a student ai
on station WPAO in Mn..m Mt. Airv Senior Hioh and i<
Airy due to the"efforts of also the reigning Black Jr
Ms. Martha L. Joyce, who Miss,
is very much concerned
with the young people in the The format for the radh
Mount Airy area. program will be to inforn
Ms. Joyce stated that she the audience of area event
had discussed a program and we hope that we wil
for youth and by youth with receive information fron
Mr. Blair Eubanks of ~ ?
WPAQ radio station, and
he was very much interested
in the program and has offered
his advice, and the use Dear Editor:
of the facilities at the station.
I felt a need to write thi
It takes people like Mr. letter because I am concern
Eubanks to help make goals about children that ma
and idpa<; hprnmp a rpalitu havp an arrirl#?nf in th
Ms. Joyce is the president future at the Family Skat
of the Socialettes Club in Center on Funtim
Mount Airy and the Boulevard,
founder of Mount Airy's On last Friday, Januar
Black Jr. Miss Pageant. 2, we were at the Skat
The Socialettes also spon- Center. My 10-year-ol<
sors a "Little Miss Spring" daughter fell and broke he
pageant. arm. She passed out and
Through the interest and went fbr a floor superinten
concern of youth, especially dent. He carried her in th<
our young black youth, I ?fficc- *hcre he Pu,f an '
. . , bag on her arm. He tried t<
am very ^pleased with the make her as comfortable a
type of program that I have he could,
hoped for and will finally A policeman took he
have the opportunity to see name, age, address am
this become another reality ph?nc number. My hus
and a first for us. Ms. Joyce band ,ook her alone lo ,h'
will be working with getting hospi,al' 1 feel ,hat mori
the program together and eoncern should have becr
has also selected the hostess rhown b" ,he owner'
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BaBBStaaMttsa&^^g^g^^.'rmgascm^ nn, wimt wyjamgw^'^*^^
Salem Kjli^oqiclc
Founded 1974
Member
ihisi l i!ciniiiHi'
?o- founder
ti Donna E. Oldham vT^y~
icr City Editor
Elaine L. Pitt Audit Bureau 1
r Office Manager of Circulltions j||
?n Ave. YMCA
wait two or three years, until a new building is constructed,
before evicting its present tenants.
The building has housed the Patterson Ave. YMCA
^^ tit- ? ..... . .
silica 17X4. we neea a new Duitding, it is clear. But there is
no other building in the community that can serve even as
satisfactorily as the current one.
And with fashionable fiscal conservatism taking office
with the new president, moving the Patterson Ave. Y into
temporary quarters, as the joint committee has suggested,
may very well mean they will occupy temporary
quarters permanently.
We should keep the old building until a new one is
ready to occupy.
The Winston-Salem Foundation holds the deed to the
Patterson Ave. YMCA in trust. As a community foundation
we hope they will make the same considerations in
handling this situation as they would if the Glade St. Y
were being displaced.
T Renovation
Money should be recycled back into the black community
at approximately the same rate as we are taxed.
The need to strengthen the economic base in the black
community is apparent when you look at the number of
black-owncd businesses operating in our community.
For years, blacks in Winston-Salem have been used to
obtain grants for industry and other projects. A perfect
example is the UDAG grant used to build the Radisson
Hotel.--Because of the "Pocket of Poverty/' downtown
will have a new $35 a day hotel, which will have many
openings for maids and bellhops. That seems unfair for
ther part that black citizens played in getting the loan.
We find it hard as the dickens to believe that anyone
would try to revive the idea of spending $1.5 million to
renovate the Spruce Street Y in the name of the black
community.
Is anybody listening to us?
ted Programs
people who have sugges- Joyce
- tions and who might want 1110 Granite Road
? some special event an- Mount Airy, N.C.
t nounced. 27030
> If things go alright, we We feel that the program
will eventually have a will be of interest to all ages
special guest on at times of people.
and we ask that all informa- Again the first program
3 tion and suggestions be sent will be on January 14,1981 at
i to the address below: 4:25 in the afternoon on
s radio station WPAQ.
1 Outreach Thank
you.
1 c/u rvis. Martha L. Martha L. Joyce
:ating Accident
I have not received any the Skate Center and we enkind
of card, letter or joy it. I think people have
s phone call from them to see gotten away from love and
" how my daughter is doing, kindness. The only thing
y More concern should have that matters to some people
e been taken concerning the is "A FEW DOLLARS
e safety of the children at the MORE."
e Skate Center. We support Carolyn Gordon
y ~~~ ~~
r^^Editorial Response^^^
Th o ArnmVi//i ?a
j r.v. ^r.rI/rune wviLurries responses 10 I
e I editorials and columns. Please address all I
3 I communications to:
s II The Editorial Page I
r| P.O.Box 3154 I
J || Winston-Salem, N.C. 27102 I
II The Chronicle reserves the right to edit copy\ w
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i V publication. Responses can not be returned. JI
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A A/*B
Washington--If I hadn't just boughi a new pair of
eloves (having ruined the old ones bringing in firewood),
it probably wouldn't have sounded like such a grand idea
in the first place.
But the temperature was in the teens (Fahrenheit), the
gloves were in the forties (dollars) and the price of
firewood was not lit to print in a family newspaper. And
so I was prepared to embrace the proposal of a new urban
_ i
policy 10 encourage a population shift to the Sun Belt.
Th3ecd,T wondered why someone hadn't come up with
t his wonderful" idea before J he President Ts Commission""
for a National Agenda lor the Eighties got around to it.
Population growth in the Sun Belt and decline in the
North are merely the opposite sides of the same coin, the
commission pointed out in a leaked report. The government
should wake up to reality and stop trying to save the
shrinking cities of the North, said its brilliant conclusion.
"There is a fundamental problem in attempting to halt
the shrinkage of metropolitan areas or the revitalization
of obsolete industries which in the past have been expected
to adapt themselves to changing circumstances,"
"the report saidr"ln our \icw, ~thc moral and material
resources of government would be better expended in
planning for the future and helping people to adjust to
future imperatives in ways that derive from an understanding
and acceptance of change." *
In other words, uov eminent should i?nrniir:i?m
Americans to do what the latest Census figures show
them to be doing already: Pack up and move to such
growth areas as San Jose and Phoenix, Houston and El
Paso. The South Bronx is dead? Then give it a decent
burial and head for the Southwest.
This isn't callousness, the commissioners said; it's
common sense. "When the federal government steps in
to try to alter these dynamics, it generates a flood of
demands that may sap the initiative of urban governments
via the expectation of continuing support. There
must be a better way.**
A new Administration and a new Congress face a lot of
unfinished business in the weeks ahead. Several civil
riehls-iehited iiw?:i\niwit! 1>.? ?wi !?.? ......h.i-i
? ? t | 'V ' 'M * ? V IU V IIVUI.
One issue loft unresolved In ilie last Congress was the
long-overdue amendments to the l air Housing I aw tli.it
would give the go\eminent I he enforcement powers needed
to make the law waik.
We've had a fair housing law on the hooks lor ovet ten
years, hut discrimination in the sale and rental of housing
is siiH rampant. That has heen proved time and again In
large-scale research programs and In simple anecdotes
that can he related hy evetv black pet son who has evet
tried to move out of a ghetto.
Part of the reason discrimination in housing is so
powerful is that the law has no teeth -- discriminators
need not fear fines or license suspensions. Under the present
law the Department of Housing and Urban Development
can only mediate disputes, while the Justice Department
can onlv sue in situations where a pattern of
The House of Kepresentatives and the Senate Judicial v
C'onijniMcc tioih hacked hills that would let HUD bring
lawsuits against those charged v>ith discrimination in
housing, lint it died in Congress' rush to adjourn, even
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tf d>m? ids J&* '&**ry ^
'alization of I
te Industries I
Tlic commission found the better way. Since the old industrial
cities are dying anyway, and since the continuation
of the migration 10 ihc sunny Southwest is in-?
evitable, the smart and benevolent4 act would be for
government to subsidize the upheaval. Go with the
outflow.
U.'Sinliriil Unln ~
.... . .v.|j> uui i aiv? niwvv iw rilUCIUX. p uciroil
u> Sail Diego and Boston to Albuquerque. Who wants
Cleveland? Don't all shout at onec.
But before I could even start packing, I heard from a
wet-blanket friend. ' 1 ' > ?1 "> ?' *
"What about water?* my friend said.
Water?
"Well, yes, water. The far Southwest already pipes
every precious drop of the stuff down from the high
snowficlds far to the north, and the high snowfield states
are already restive about not having enough left for their
own use.
"Texas drills for it, rapidly depicting the underground
reservoirs laid down eons ago. See how elccrily it reports
each new engineering triumph: We used to strike water at
3(XT fcer, buf now, thanks to modern technology, we are
able to drill the umpteen thousand feet necessary before
ilriLo >*tni ' * ' *
.,v v..xrUji,, wuiti iv) Keep me crops and goil courses
irrigated and the swimming pools filled.
"Throughout the Sun Belt, air-conditioners chew up
more electricity than the Frost Belt uses for heating. But
never mind. Just move the populations, problems and
watcr-gu/vling industries to the sunny Southland and
abandon those old, tired, worniuit Northern cities.
"But don't worry. When the Sun Belt runs out of
water, a benevolent government will provide the subsidies
to move everybody right back to Dayton, Chicago and
Minneapolis. II there's anything left of them by then."
Okay, so maybe it wasn't such a brilliant idea alter all.
I'm willing to settle for a presidential commission to investigate
the cost of gloves.
?i* ^ L *
A New
Administration,
Old Problems -fJ JIBES'^*5
jpTOJ
I hough supporters made important compromises.
Fail housing supporters will bring it up again. But we
will start out wi111 two strikes against us. Some of the
Hill's C oniuyssional supporters were defeated las!
Novoinhct and tlicit replacements may be less s\m
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1'iimv.iiv. ^i\n iiuihs. /Mill MIC ."SCIUIIC JtKHCiaiA k OIUmitiec.
w hose chairman SenatorLdward kenncdv led tlie
tieht lot i he hill, will now he chaired In Scnaior Si com
Mmrmond, a virulent I'oe ol civil richts.
Bui i hai docs noi mean the ell on 10 enforce ihe law is
doomed. Piesiilent Reaean can use ihis as an opportunitv
to send signals lo ihe nation that he finds housine
discrimination as abhorrent as do its victims. He can eel
helnnd the effort to work out a fail housing enforcement
hill that puts the uovcinmcnt squarclv on the side ol ending
disci iminalion.
Auothei issue \h . Rcacan can capitali/e on is one that
he nuHietl last month. Then, he said he supported restrictions
on busing. At the time the Congress had passed a
iicier to an appropriations hill that would have prevented
the Justice Department from taking part in school
desegregation cases involving busing.
President Carter was able to kill that blatant attempt to
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