Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Oct. 3, 1985, edition 1 / Page 2
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wnere are the black investors? We asked that question in this column last spring (June 6) within the context what we perceived as a lack of ecohortdfc develop ment on that part of the Beatties Ford Road between 1-85 and the intersection of LaSalle Street. In particular, we noted that two black-owned businesses in the area had closed, efforts by blacks to purchase two y“ other businesses had failed and a proposed l upper-middle income, multi-family housing developed in the area never materialized: While we certainly have no ill-will nor animosity toward anyone with a successful business venture, there has been virtually no growth in black-owned businesses in the area over the past 10 years with the one exception being the Beatties Ford Burger King. We were therefore elated to learn re cently of two new developments aimed at stimulating growth along the Beatties Ford corridor stretching from Johnson C. Smith University north to Sunset Road. Whtk the proposed regional shopping oomplex at the intersection of 1-85 and 1-77 may have some negative impact on the Beatties Ford Boa* v commercial plans closer to Sunset Road, the area of instituting a mini-commercial revitalization revolution on Beatties Ford Road is an excellent and great idea. &§ v * In order - to make things begin to hap pen, Beatties Ford business owners and resident leaders of adjacent nrighboltoodb . , - Lem Long of Long and Sons Mortuary, president Robert Albright of JCSU, Eleanor Washington and Umise^Sellers^ presidents have tion and owSf thrSSger King fast food eatery, said, “Every community has its problems, but there’s nothing here we can’t overcome with the right focusi.” t Catalyst Ford Road corridor , Catalyst,** is a pro residential complex just north of C. Smith University and south of,Broqkshire Freeway on the east Bea#id!LFd(tt~Hee4. Tb^Charlotte- f Mecklenburg Citizens Forum, a$0-member- \ growth advisory group of developers, poli ticians, neighborhood advocates, has endorsed the project idea. Dr. Albright, a forum member, said that “Project Catalyst” is “unique” because few predominantly black colleges have engaged * in such a major development program adjacent to their campuses. Having dis cussed the project with two or three major local developers, Albright has dreams of a movie theatre, drug store, townhouses, boutiques and small shops on the nearly 20-acre site between the university and Brookshire Freeway between Beatties Ford Road and 1-77. These two ideas for the revitalization of the Beatties Ford Road corridor can only occur if right thinking people work to gether for a better Charlotte and better neighborhoods. It won’t just happen, it will take creative thinking, innovative financing and a belief that it can and will take place for northwest Charlotte to begin to achieve the growth it so richly deserves. X For Reexamination Dr. Leon Sullivan, pastor of Philadel phia’s Zion Baptist Church with 6,000' members and founder of the internationally renowned Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC), addressed the Eight Annual Carolinas Minority Trade Fair here yester day. Next week, on October 11, Tony Brown, chairman, Council for Economic Develop ment of Black Americans, will address the , West Trade-Beatties Ford Area Merchants Association. Both Sullivan and Brown have a long history of successful efforts and \ ventures to illustrate the potential black Americans have for achieving some degree W economic success, political influence and improved social standing. The philosophy underlying the practices, preaching, teaching, and lectures of both Sullivan and Brown is self-worth aiid self help. The Rev. Sullivan practices what he preaches in more ways than one. His church is involved in day care, a credit union, a community center program for youth and adults, an employment agency, adult eda cation classes, many athletic programs for ‘ youth and family counseling services. Furthermore, Sullivan founded OIC, the • first program of its kind in the entire nation. V - OIC sponsors training and retraining pro grams in over 140 cities in the United States and eight foreign countries. The program has trained over 600,000 people and has ptaVed over 400,000 of them in permanent jobs with annual earnings of about *6 million. . \ And that is not all; Sullivan founded Progress. Investment Associates (PIA) , within his church membership. PIA has . built a $1 million garden apartment com plex; a $2 million shopping center, the largest built, owned, and operated by blacks m the nation ; has built a second inner city community shopping center; and a multi million dollar social, health and humat£ serwices facility in downtown Philadelphia. m bfHDr. Sullivans accdrhpifatoi^ nnjants dofes not end here. However, it is ehough tS stress our central point: there has been too great an emphasis, even among black leaders, on the welfare dependency mentality that has crippled much black initiative. It is long past time for a re j:« anamination of our values toward self-help and the realization that the world, the • .^nation, and white America owes black America nothing except the opportunity anyone else has to progress as far as his talents, abilities, and sense of personal commitment will allow. Slavery and its aftermath notwithstanding, we as black people must realize that the road to an improved quality of life can only begin and succeed through individual initiative and an “I can do” personal philosophy and atti tude. THE CHARLOTTE POST North Carolina’s Fastest Growing Weekly /, 'j, 7*4-370049* The People's Newspaper” 107 Yean . , Of Continuous Service *4'1 '.»f| i11 iif^ ii Bill Johnson Editor. Pub. Bernard Reeves Gen. Mgr. Fran Farrer-Bradley Adv. Mgr. Dannette Gaither Office Mgr. Published Every Thursdky’by .. t The Charlotte Pott Publishing Company, Inc. Main Office: ,■ 1531S. Camden Road Charlotte, N C. 28203 Second Class Postage Paid at Charlotte , Newspaper'Publishers' North CaroMna Black PshUshcrs ; Aasodatloa National Advertising Representative: ■* Amalgamated Publishers, Inc. One Year niMCnpiMM l\*l* One Year -117.7* Payable In Advance U8P8 No. MSS** POSTMASTER Sepd Change of address to: , Charlotte Post 1531S. Camden Rd. Charlotte. 2*243 BLACK ■ CANANDMUSTD01HEi:3 ■ * * • Are People On Welfare Willing To Work For A living? Are the people on welfare not willing to work for a living? According to recent studies - not necessarily. Twenty thousand welfare re cipients in Massachusetts are waiting in line to enter the state’s work-for-welf a re program. This program has already found jobs for 19,000 ' welfare recipients, like them. In Michigan 7,900 welfare recipients have entered i PROJECT SELF-HEAP, 1 which has found 2,100 jobs for* recipients in 37 \ terica afpeopteT' _ aofSoffct in work far welfare programs. Xalifof^' nia has recently joined the effort, j Whether or not the pro gram will work and save money will come with age. But one aspect seems clear, that if given a true oppor tunity to get a job many people on welfare go for it. Ten years ago under Gov. Ronald Reagan, California experimented with workfare and abandoned ^ as a fail ure. California’s program had required all able-bodied welfare recipients to work 20 service , • Htter in p*t__ , basic idea was to i % the poor, realists handful got Jobs. Why does workfare seem to be working now? Primari ly because it provides work experience for the poor and is viewed more as an op portunity and not a punish Massachusetts uses work fare as a* positive alternative that is willing to lend a helping hand when needed. It offers an array of oppor tunities: immediate Job Miller Say* Tax Reform Can Mean Hack Home By Sherman N. Miller Special To The Poet America's thrift institu tions have fallen on hard times. Mortgage delinquen cies have been on an upward trend for a considerable time. Between 1970 and first quarter 1984 the mortgage delinquency rate has almost doubled in conventional loans (1.75 to 3.69 percent), VA lopp (3.q3 to 6.14 per cent), and FHA loans (3.85 to 7.12 percent). These rising delinquency rates dictate that lending institutions re assess their home loan poli cies^ However^ any new loan home ■ _ jjPj In 1983. white Americans owned 67.7 percent of the residences they occupied. Conversely, black Ameri can’s residential ownership was less than 50 percent (45 percent).*for this same period. U black America permanently locked in a rental caste? A Mack American tragedy that seems like a phantas magoric nightmpre is the deleterious impact on poten tial rental housing that new housing concepts like regen trification entail. This bane ful impact on black Ameri ca is quantified by J. Eugene Sherman Grigsby HI and Mary Li Hruby in their article en-t titled, “A Review of The Status of BlaCk Renters, 1970-1980.” Grigsby and Hruby write, ”...'425,000 rental units re moved from central citiei between 1973 and 1900 ( 39 percent of total) had been occupied by blacks, but they occupied only 402,000 (21 per cent) of the newly construct ed rental units. Conversely,: 834,000 ( 88 percent) rental units removed from central cities had been occupied by whites, but this group occu pied 1,471,000 (75 per cent) newly constructed rental units in central cities.” ' The above housing trend portends that many blacks may become permanently locked in substandard rental housing with the ad >!. .. .. vent of tougher qualifications standards for home mort gages. This becomes appar ent if one uses median in come to measure the money irrcome oMamilies. In 1902 $24,603 versus $13,590 for blacks. This median income difference suggests that many black households ope rate from a very marginal financial basis; therefore, programs^designed to encou uiAi cnanges in .nousenoia income to be de* chase? wiIt lYiafce the Amori* l t # ,, tt*--.-'’• . 'A. ■>: ' They write, *‘A convention al measure of affordability is that housing expenditures not exceed' 23 percent of household income. More re cently, a 30-35 percent range dn©r jjjCd 3s & stdnd&id •»» in 1903, 51 percent of SMSA renters were spending 25 per cent or more of their in come on housing. Blacks were spending above the overall renters for the .7 SMSA, and relatively more of them were spending at the 35 percent for hous □ld be easy to point to ve data as merely , this ghom^acemSo’Stm m nr_■!!___I - - -- -■>*. A _ 'mWWaiqaiMMMMnr' to *
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Oct. 3, 1985, edition 1
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