Independence High linebacker one ofU.S. 's top players/Page 8B
tKjje Cljarlotte
VOLUME 21 NO. 52
THE VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY
THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 12, 1996
75 CENTS
SERVING CABARRUS, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES
Communities align against trash station
Facility is another example of
environmental racism, they say
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Eleven African American
neighborhoods in northwest
Charlotte have vowed to fight
location of yet another garbage
transfer station on the westside,
this one in a business park on
Hoskins Road.
“This is an issue of environ
mental health and economic jus
tice,” said Barbara Atwater,
president of the University Park
North neighborhood association.
The transfer station would be
about 200 yards from homes on
Plumstead Street in University
Park North on a site westside
communities thought would be
offices.
The announcement surprised
the neighborhoods and has
added fuel to a debate about
when and how communities
should be notified about certain
kinds of industrial develop
ments in their areas — even
those not requiring rezoning for
approval.
When the Hoskins Road area
was rezoned for industrial use,
the NorthPointe Business Park
was developed there. Residents
say they did not expect anything
like a transfer station, despite
the industrial zoning.
However, NationsWaste’s
plans to put the transfer station
in the business park have been
temporarily stymied in the
Mecklenburg County bureau
cracy and faces a new problem
in the wake of Chester County,
S.C. officials’ refusal last week
to sell the firm landfill space.
The neighborhood group, coordi
nated by Atwater and Aaron
Orr, has formed a steering com
mittee of representatives from
each neighborhood called the
Northwest Combined
Neighborhoods Association.
Atwater said the group has
talked with attorney Geraldine
Sumpter. Her firm won a case,
handled by then-partner Mel
Watt, against Mecklenburg
County blocking a county-run
transfer station proposed for the
LaSalle Street area.
Neighborhoods in the group
and their representatives on the
steering committee include:
Dalebrook, Roscoe Johnson;
Garden Park, Richard
McElrath; Hyde Park, Johnnie
Collins;
McCrorey
Heights, Isaac
Heard; North
Cross, Lois
Meadows;
North wood
Estates,
D e 1 0 r i s
Sanders;
Northwood
Hills Estates,
Kevin Brooks;
Northwood Park, Gwen Bryant;
University Park, Eleanor
Washington;
University Park North, Henry
McCown; Oaklawn Park, Anna
Atwater
Hood.
Atwater said she and most
others found out about the pro
posed transfer station about
three weeks ago, when someone
called and asked if they knew
what was going on.
“We feel we ^u■e being dumped
on,” Atwater said. “They just
opened a facility off Statesville
Road and we had to fight one on
Lasalle Street. Someone at the
meeting had a map and it
showed aU the industrial things
in the University Park area.
There were so many and very
few on the other side of tovm.”
See TRASH on 2A
PhOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON
Cheryl Ray and her children prepare for dinner at their Fairview Homes apartment. Her chiidren are (ieft to right) Stevie
Massey, 3; Porchea Ray, 10; Twanquisha Ray, 6; and Rashavious Ray, 7.
Changing the welfare state
Federal legislation puts programs in local hands
By Jeri Young
THE CHARLOTTE POST
It is not often that public
policy is radically reformed.
President Clinton did just
that when he signed into law
the Welfare Reform Bill,
which promises to be a radi
cal departure from the 61-
year-old maze of federal regu
lation and administration
that has come to represent
the welfare system.
Citing the need to make
welfare “what it was meant to
be, a second chance, not a
way of life, " Clinton's July 31
endorsement of the much
debated and vetoed legisla
tion brings to a rapid end fed
erally mandated entitle
ments. The government, after
Oct. 1, will no longer guaran
tee aid to poor families.
Eliminated is Aid For
Families With Dependent
Children, the preeminent
source of cash welfare for the
estimated 36 million
Americans who currently
receive means-based aid.
Stringent requirements
have been placed on welfare
recipients, including a five-
year lifetime limit on benefits.
Teenage, unwed mothers
would be required to attend
school and live with an adult
to receive benefits and
women could lose up to 25
percent of their aid for refus
ing to identify the fathers of
their children. Another $24
billion will be cut out of the
food stamp program and par
ents of disabled children
would no longer be guaran
teed aid.
Most striking is the move
ment of responsibility for the
administration of poverty
relief programs from the fed
eral government to states.
Under the new system,
states would be issued block
grants for administration and
benefits dispersal aimually by
the government. States have
until July 1, 1997 to submit
their plans to the Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families
program., the official title of
the grant program that
replaces AFDC. The amount
of federal funding, which will
See WELFARE on page 3A
Freedom Drive
fights to turn its
image around
Corridor working to attract new
businesses to West Charlotte
By Winfred B. Cross
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The reports of the death of Freedom Drive have been greatly
exaggerated, or so say supporters of the area.
Sure, some businesses have moved on, but there are many more
success stories,
“A lot of it is perception,” says Mary Hopper, public relations
spokesperson for the Freedom Drive Task Force. “The irony is
that a lot of out-of-town developers get their information from a
computer screen. Those screens look at target areas and show the
best areas by data. But they don’t ask the people who live in the
areas what they want.”
Hopper was hired by the group through a matching $15,000
grant to publicize shopping and business opportunities in the
area. Two newsletters are being produced, one faxed to business
es, the other sent to residents.
“I think that’s going to be very useful to them,” said Tom
Warshauer, an economic developer for the city of Charlotte. He’s
served as a liaison to FDTF for three years. He too believes the
area’s problems are more perceived than real.
“Some of the businesses draw from all over the city and even
the region,” he said. “There is some good discount shopping
See FREEDOM on page 2A
Benjamin Banneker artifacts
sold to Virginia businessman
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BETHESDA, Md.
Supporters of the Benjamin
Banneker Historical Park and
Museum went into an auction of
the black scientist’s artifacts
expecting to buy the rare items.
'They were wrong.
The local group watched
Sunday as a Virginia business
man bid $55,250 for the
antiques it had hoped to put on
display at the museum under
construction at the site of
BannekeFs home in Baltimore
County. “We are very disap
pointed," said Ronald L. Sharps,
executive director of the
Maryland Commission on
African American History and
Culture and chairman of the
Banneker Artifact Consortium.
Emanuel Friedman, an invest
ment banker and chairman of
Friedman, Billings and Ramsey
in Rosslyn, Va., made winning
bids of $32,500 for a maple and
pine drop-lead table, $7,500 for
documents and $6,000 for two
candlesticks. A ledger from the
Elhcott & Co. general store not
ing purchases by Banneker
went to Friedman for $3,750.
See BANNEKER on page 2A
Wright continues climb to Charlotte police’s upper ranks
PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON
Charlotte Police Captain Nina Wright recorded the highest score
among candidates for captain. Wright is the second African
American woman to attain captain.
I
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Nina Wright will be settling
into her new position soon - top
officer in the Chariie Two patrol
district for the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police
Department.
Wright, 35, is only the second
female African American cap
tain in the Charlotte police force
history. Andrea Huff held the
position for several years in the
1980s before leaving the force.
Wright’s promotion comes
after a bitter lawsuit won by a
group of white officers who said
the city’s affirmative action
efforts hindered the advance
ment of white officers.
Wright was the top candidate
emerging from qualifying exams
in August and takes to the posi
tion with relish.
As Wright sees it, she’s been
on the force 10 years and has 20
to go before she’s eligible for full
retirement. In that time, she fig
ures she can move much liigher
in the department to “at least
deputy chief”
Looldng back at Wright’s per
formance and determination to
be the best she can in her posi
tion, such a promotion doesn’t
seem improbable.
“I came to this agency with
aspirations of moving up the
chain of command,” said
Wright. “I left a career (operat
ing computers at a bank),
because I was stifled. I realized
this is not the career for Nina,”
Wright oonsidered police work
as a child. She was always
tomboyish, following her father
around their rural farm and
playing quarterback when the
neighborhood kids gathered for
football games.
She grew up in Long Creek
enjoying television shows such
a.s ' Ada}!! 12“ and “Dragnet.'’
But w'hon you are only 5-feet,
2-inches and 108 pounds., the
police force looks far away.
“I never grew up physically, so
1 pushed the idea out of my
mind,” Wright said. “What I
saw was bigger males.”
But one night a police officer
she met while she was working
a weekend night auditor shift at
a local motel suggested police
work to her. Then, he called in
about a half dozen female offi
cers, All had small builds and
that convinced Wright she
See CAPTAIN on page 2A
Inside
Editorials 4A-5A
Strictly Business 6A
Lifestyles 8A
Religion 10A
A&E 1B
Regional News 6B
Sports 9B
Classified 13B
Auto Showcase 14B
To subscribe, call (704) 376-
0496 or FAX (704) 342-2160.
© 1996 The Charlotte Post
Publishing Company.
Comments? Our e-mail address is:
charpost@clt.fTiindspring.com
World Wide Web page address:
http://www.thepost.mindspring.com