Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 29, 1969, edition 1 / Page 4
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Satlg ; STar EMPMAg Tuesday, April 29, 1969 Page 4 In The Community l9 Mayoral . Battle Fits Gidez v 1. 1 si 8 ' IT ITS' PI o n (uity By DAVE CLARK Special to EMPHASIS Howard Lee and Roland Giduz are giving Chapel Hill its first real mayor's race. Before this year, the pattern has been for the old mayor to be reelected indefinitely, or to name an heir apparent who was then merely seconded by the public election. Only rarely has there been more than one serious contender in the mayor's race, and there has never been a real political campaign. This year is different. For the first time Chapel Hill is experiencing the mixed blessings of a real campaign battle, complete with the first campaign headquarters, first mass advertizing campaign, and first campaign budget over $500. The candidates are both waging determined battles to capture the once-slighted position. Buttons are popping up, posters are sprouting, wide-spread grassroots participation on both sides is appearing, and this spring Chapel Hill's famous blooming dogwood and redbud are being replaced by blooming politicians. The occurrence of such a campaign was inevitable. Chapel Hill's population has doubled in the last 15 years, and the problems associated with that growth have alienated many people. Many feel that Chapel Hill has been, and is, continuing to be developed and run primarily for the business community, with little regard for less influencial residents. The political awareness and activity of Chapel Hillians, particularly the teen-agers, the students, and the Blacks, has been steadily increasing. The take-over of the Orange County Democratic Party by the supporters of McCarthy last year is a good example of this. Early this year two interesting and politically significant decisions were made affecting this campaign. First, Howard Lee local resident who, graduated from -a. UNC'4 School of Social Work, decided to run. f0r ,.may6rMnd' began' campaigning- without- formally! -filing, his candidacy, v. Secondly, Sandy McClamroch, a local businessman and mayor for the past 12 years, decided not to run again. For a while it was a one-man race. The office of mayor has changed along with Chapel Hill. No longer can the mayor get by with a hail-fellow-well-met attitude and friendly discussions with the few people who are directly concerned with town governing. The office has become increasingly unpopular with citizens who have felt their needs were being bypassed or ignored. The mayor, as the town's highest elected official, was frequently a collection . point for these criticisms. Sandy McClamroch, having served 12 years, undoubtedly thought of this changed character of the office when he decided not to run again. The increased responsibilities and importance of the office must have also seemed clear to experienced local politicians, for no second candidate appeared immediately. Then Mr. Roland Giduz, professional journalist and alderman of 12 years, announced his candidacy, and the race was on. The Candidates Howard Lee, the first candidate to start campaigning, was born in Lithonia, Georgia, the son of a sharecropper family. After dropping out of school twice, he returned to graduate third in his class. He attended college, and then joined the Army, serving overseas in Korea. Released from the Army, he followed up his early interests in the problems of teen-agers and juvenile delinquents by working as a Probation Officer in Savannah, Georgia. After 3'2 years in this line of work, Lee settled in Chapel Hill in 1964 and enrolled in UNC's School of Social Work. He graduated with a Masters in Social Work. He then went to work as Director of the Youth Program of the Education Improvement program, a Ford Foundation-sponsored experiment in Durham. At the conclusion of this program, Lee became Director of the Employee Relations Division at Duke University, where he is currently employed. During his 6 years of residence in Chapel Hill, Mr. Lee has been active in local affairs. He has served for four years as a board member of the ,Chapel Hill-Carrboro anti-poverty program, has been a member of the Democratic Party Legislative Committee, a Choir member and elected Deacon of the Binkley Memorial Baptist Church, and served as a scoutmaster for two years. In addition, he is currently serving as a member of the American Baptist Board of Education anc Publication, a.s Board member of the Federal Credit Union of Duke University, and as a member of the Chapel Hill' Mayor's Citizen's Advisory Committee. Mr. Lee is married and has two children. Roland Giduz has been a resident of Chapel Hill since infancy. He graduated from Chapel Hill High School, served in the infantry in WW II, and then returned to Chapel Hill to graduate from the University of North Carolina in 1948. He attended Columbia and graduated from there with a Masters in journalism in 1949, and was a special student at Harvard in 1958-59. Mr. Giduz has worked on numerous local publications, including the Durham Herald and Sun, the Chapel Hill News Leader, and the News of Orange County. He currently is editor and publisher of the Triangle Pointer, a columnist for the Chapel Hill Weekly, and manager of the Alumni Review. Mr. Giduz has participated in a variety of local civic activities, including Vice-president of the Chapel Hill Chapter HOWARD LEE of the American Field Service, founder and director of the Chapel Hill Historical Society, Vice-president of Home Ownership Opportunities, Inc., member and Deacon of the University Presbyterian ' , Church,4 Rotary; - Cliib, Masoti . and; member0 of the 5 Orange County Executive Committee. His -municipal activities include 12 years as alderman, mayor pro-tern since 1963, chairman of the Streets Committee for the past 6 years, and member of the Mayor's Ad Hoc Committee on Low-Income Housing Sites. Mr. Giduz is married and has three sons. The Record During 12 years as an alderman, Mr. Giduz has voted on thousands of questions. A great deal of interest is centered around his voting record, and every public appearance brings questions demanding explanations on some past issue. The following issues were selected because they have been discussed most frequently during the campaign: Civil Rights Chapel Hill has always prided itself on good race relations. Many students, particularly those who hail from the rural South, probably tend to accept this claim without question, since there is little overt discrimination in Chapel Hill.. It may come as a shock to readers that only six years ago there were restaurants and drug stores in Chapel Hill that refused to serve Black citizens. The big Civil Rights push in Chapel Hill was carried on during 1963 and 1964. There were numerous peaceful street marches, week-long fasts, community meetings, and street-blocking tactics. But the main emphasis , of the campaign was on non-violent sit-ins at segregated business establishments. The demonstrators would enter the business and ask to be served. When service was refused, they would merely sit down and refuse to leave until served. The demonstrators were beaten, hosed, kicked, drenched in ammonia, and in one case actually urinated on by an upstanding citizen of the community. But the sit-ins continued. Most of Chapel Hill (75 according to a DTH survey) was integrated.The problem was finding the most effective way to get through to the hold-outs. v A Public Accomodations ordinance was considered by the Board of Aldermen ' which would have made any discrimination by business illegal. The Aldermen voted unanimously to have the town attorney prepare such a law. On January 13, 1964, the ordinance the city attorney had prepared was introduced and seconded. Before a vote was taken, Alderman Giduz introduced a substitute motion. The purpose of the substitute motion was to set up a "Mayor's Racial Mediation Committee." The substitute resolution passed, 4-2, and the Public Accommodations Ordinance was dead. The civil rights demonstrators were dismayed. They felt like the city was once again avoiding taking any meaningful action to end discrimination, and credited Mr. Giduz (by introducing and voting for his resolution) with throttling the bill. Mr. Giduz said he felt that, while ending racial discrimination was a primary concern, his committee, composed of representatives from the Ministerial Association, the Merchants' Association, the Chamber of Commerce -and the university faculty, could better , promote integration by serving as a mediation committee to resolve racial differences. He also indicated concern with the demonstrators' tactics, and said: "I will not be intimidated or stampeded in any way to pass such a (Public Accommodations) law." Open Accommodations eventually reached Chapel Hill via the national open accommodations act in the summer of 1964, and the hold-out businesses were integrated. More recently, Mr. Giduz introduced a resolution supporting Open Housing in Chapel Hill. He subsequently voted for the Open Housing Ordinance, which was adopted in the wake of Martin Luther King's assasination and is now in force. Open Spaces On March 8, 1965, the Board of Aldermen passed a resolution expressing the concern of the Board over the preservation of open land around Chapel Hill, and requesting the Planning Board to prepare and submit to the Board a specific plan for open space preservation. The Mayor appointed a citizen's ad hoc committee to prepare the plan. The Open Spaces Plan drawn up by the committee was in many ways a model measure. It called for the acquisition of about 1,100 acres of land, the great part of which at that time was undeveloped. The land was to be acquired in two ways: 650 acres was to be obtained by fee'' simple acquisition; 450 acres was ' earmarked for' " development ! right acquisition, wnien' meant tnat the land would continue to be private property, but could not be built upon. It was hoped that private purchases and contributions could contribute significantly to the Open Spaces land, if the town began a strong acquisition program. The sites chosen for Open Space were stream valleys, swamps, ravines, and steep hillsides. The plan cited the value of these spaces as recreation spots for nature lovers, bird watchers, and jaded townspeople. In addition, the great economic value of preserving open spaces among heavily built-up areas was pointed out. The desirability of preventing Chapel Hill from becoming just another monotonous , concrete metropolitan agglomerate was also discussed. The , Open Spaces Plan was unanimously endorsed in principle by the Board of Aldermen on Nov. 30, 1965. An application was made for a subdivision called Bolin Meadow, which was to site squarely on Open Spaces land. The application was approved by the Planning Board. The inconsistency of the Planning Board's approving construction on land that the city had voted in principle to keep as Open Space can be explained in two ways. First, half of the 10 member Planning Board are either full-time realtors or bankers whose banks derl in real estate. Secondly, the Open Spaces plan was endorsed only in principle, which meant that the Planning Board could easily recommend exceptions to the plan. On July 8; 1968, the Board of Aldermen met and considered Bolin Meadows. Vocal opposition and had been aired at a : previous public hearing concerning the project. The arguments were reviewed, with emphasis on the fact that the proposed subdivision was occupying Open Spaces land. A vote was taken, Mrs. Prothro, Mr. Ethridge, and Rev. Smith voted against; -Varley, Kage, and Mr. Giduz voted for. As in all tie votes, the mayor had the tie-breaking ovte, and McClamroch voted to approve the project. Advocates of the original Open Spaces plan blamed Giduz for the loss. They had known all. along where the others would vote, but Giduz was the unknown factor, and the swing vote. Mr. Giduz says that his vote was consistent with the recommendations of the Planning Board and with proper land uses for the long-range development of Chapel Hill. - The next major battle over Open Spaces came when developers applied for a rezoning permit to allow the construction of a 143-unit subdivision extension called Camelot II. The land to be built up was designated Open Space in the original Open Spaces proposal. The extension was vigorously protested by neighboring residents, who did not want the additional traffic and people, and by advocates of the original Open Spaces Plan. An attempt was made to purchase the tract, which consists of approximately 8 to 10 acres of swampy land. The residents of Greenwood raised $50,000. The developer wanted $150,000, so the purchase fell through. The Planning Board approved the proposed development. The matter was brought to the Board of Aldermen. After debate, the proposal was passed 3-2, with Giduz, Varley, and - Kage voting for, and Prothro and Smith . against (Ethridge did not vote because he owned property in the Greenwood area). Camelot II was required to donate a , pedestrian path along Bolin Creek. Open Space advocates charge that there was no reason to re-zone the land. They ,point out that the area was judged by the last Army Crops of Engineers hydrologic survey to come under 78 feet of flood water per century. The area was rflooded as recently as 1958 and future houses will have to be built on stilts to protect them from flood-waters. Also, they felt that a very reasonable offer for the land had been made ($50,000 for 10 acres of swampy, undeveloped land), and that if the Aldermen had not rezoned the land, then it could have been purchased for Open Space. Mr. Giduz defends his vote by stating that he was following the recommendations of the Planning Board, . and that in his opinion Camelot II 1 constituted a reasonable land use consistent with the orderly and proper 7 growth of Chapel Hill. In other matters pertaining to Open ,s Spaces, Mr. Giduz said in a recent J interview that he feels he has been one of the biggest supporters of the Open Spaces Program, and that he feels that the theory ; of Open Spaces is being followed. He says he has worked to force developers to include patches of Open Spaces in their i developments. 7 ! INCHUCO INCHUCO-One of the. more heated 7 controversies in recent years concerned " uuuit lj vv aiiu muucldlc income public housing ' by the Inter-Church Council. The controversy started when the S Housing Committee of the Council i decided that it was feasible to construct some non-profit housing under the ' provisions of Section 221 (d)3 of the A Housing Act of 1961. The Council : decided to aim for 100 units with 50 v units for moderate income residents-$4,000-$6,000-and 50 units for families with lower incomes. :.i Criteria for the housing established by j HUD required that the sites be located in r. reasonable proximity to schools, shopping areas, sources of employment, 3 and other community facilities. INCHUCO also required that the housing ;r should be built on scattered sites, at least . some of which were to be located outside , the current ghetto area. The Church of the Reconciliation - offered the committee five acres of land next to its church site on the corner of Elliot and Old Oxford road. The Housing Committee prepared preliminary plans locating 39 town-house apartments on the site, 12 of which were intended for non-white occupancy. The Planning Board held open hearings ' on the rezoning of the property, and a bitter fight developed. The residents of the surrounding areas seemed evenly split. The opposition cited increased traffic, t more pedestrians, and more garbage as their reasons for disapproving the project, I but it seems clear that the real opposition 7 was to having Black families around. The 7 Planning Board voted 4-3 not to approve y the project. The issue was then taken to the Board of Aldermen. The Board voted in a split vote to approve the Planning Board's 7 recommendation to deny the rezoning - request. Mr. Giduz voted against 7 INCHUCO. - Mr. Giduz says today, when he is asked about INCHUCO, as he frequently ; is at public gatherings, that he voted to ' concur with the Planning Board because 7 he always, with only four exceptions, has ; upheld the , Planning Board's recommendations. (A quick check of the I minutes of the Aldermen's meetings back to I960 will reveal at least nine different 4 occasions when Giduz voted against the 7 recommendations of the Planning Board.) ;( He also says he opposed rezoning because I the area was becoming less and less an apartment type area. INCHUCO supporters feel that blatant racism and fear of the effects of Blacks on property values were the primary factors in stopping the rezoning, not valid zoning considerations. They point out that the faculty of the City and Regional Planning Department were behind the project almost to a man. The feeling that racism was a motivating factor was lent some credence recently when a parcel of land only a couple of hundred yards away from the INCHUCO site came up for rezoning. The proposed use was a new supermarket. There - was no local opposition. Umstead Project The umstead Project was a high-density apartment development that was originally slated to contain 458 units on 35 acres, located near Colonial Heights. There was considerable local opposition to the project. Residents of the Severin Street-Wesley Drive area opposed the settlement because they did not want a high-density apartment project immediately adjacent to their moderate income single unit residential area. A request for rezoning was presented to the Planning Board and twice voted ivuLiAND GIDUZ downasplit vote. Twice the Board of Aldermen returned the measure to the Planning Board. When the measure was considered by the Planning Board for the third time, Mr. Weiss, who had votejigainst the rezoning twice before, Vaiill and unable to attend the meeting. This resulted in a tie vote, and chairman Ralph Scroggs was then able to cast the tie-breaking vote. He voted to approve the modified plan, which by now included only 120 units on 11 acres, but was still situated only 100 feet from single family residences. On January 12, 1969 the Umstead proposal was presented to the Board of Aldermen. After discussion, they voted to approve the Planning Board's recommendation to rezone. Mrs. Prothro, Mr. Ethridge, and Mr. Smith voted against rezoning; Mr. Giduz, Mr. Varley, and Mr. Kage voted for rezoning. Mayor McClamroch broke the tie by voting in favor of rezoning. Opponents of the Umstead Project contend that if the Aldermen could refuse a zoning exception for the INCHUCO project, which was designed by experts to harmonize with the surroundings, they could and should have also denied the Umstead request, which places a much greater concentration of people adjacent to a residential area. They felt that the essential difference was that powerful real estate interests were behind Umstead, whereas they did not support INCHUCO. Part of the Umstead development was to have been Open Spaces. Mr. Giduz says that in both cases he supported the recommendation of the Planning Board, which he felt to be in the best interest of the orderly growth of Chapel Hill. The Campaign The campaign began in earnest in January, when the Chapel Hill Weekly came out with a full page editorial entitled "Chapel Hill's Bizarre Mayor's Race." The editorial, by editor James Schumaker, claimed that Mr. Lee had Congressional ambitions, and said that his supporters included SSOC and the Young Socialists Alliance. The editorial closed with the statement "... who would have ever thought anybody would go to anywhere near those lengths to be elected Mayor of Chapel Hill." Town reaction was prompt and angry. The next week a flurry of letters hit the Weekly, all supporting Lee. The general import was that the w Titers were glad that someone finally was going to some trouble to run for mayor and that political ambition, if it existed, far from being a liability would probably be an asset. They further protested the implications of linking SSOC, YSA, and George Vlasits with Lee's campaign. gFWH. ..ll-M..I . Illl .1.1 J jlj, ,j, i i . , I- - , . f 1 ' " r ' : ' - V Both candidates have been making- numerous public and private appearances: 4 Thus far they have appeared on the same stage three times. From these joint; appearances, from their campaign 1 literature, and from a recent question Z forum published in the Wednesday April 23 Weekly, the basic similarities and differences between the men and their; platforms have emerged. ' " h " 9 Roland Giduz emphasizes his life-long residency in Chapel Hill, his familiarity with local issues and local people, and his record as an Alderman. Among his achievements are a personal campaign, that helped bring about the fluoridation of Chapel Hill's wat er, and codification of the ordinances of Chapel Hill. He lists the"" high points of his career as participation in establishing the payments the Unversity currently makes to the town to replace lost tax revenue, the recent raising of city employees' wages to a $1.80;hour minimum, the recently passed $220,000. 4 bond issue to rehabilitate substandard.-, housing, and his part in the campaign against the proposed strip mining,' operations of Texas Gulf Sulphur. Howard Lee stresses dynamic leadership and the role it can play in -helping Chapel Hill solve its social and economic problems. He strongly emphasizes returning a sense of urgency to city government, a responsiveness to the needs of all the people, and greater participation by all citizens, including teenagers and students, in the decision-making processes of local government. As for specific issues, transportation,, housing, and recreation have probably ' received the most discussion. . . Public Transportation "Both candidates support the creation of a public transportation system. Mr. Giduz points out that he introduced a resolution that ended with enactment, of, a study that showed public transportation' in Chapel Hill would be desireable and profitable. Mr. Lee points out that the recommendations of that report were made almost 2 years ago, and that there . is still no public transportation system. He proposes using outside technical aid and ' federal funding to tailor-make a system for Chapel Hill. ; Recreational Facilities Both candidates support increased recreation programs. Mr. Lee stresses active participation by youth in the planning of such a program, and prompt application of bond monies for matching Federal grants. Mr. Giduz proposes a recreation center based on a school-district wide approach, utilizing a wider tax base and federal funds. Housing Both candidates support better housing. Mr. Giduz says that his primary goal will be to eliminate sub-standard housing in Chapel Hill. Mr. Lee proposes a tripartite approach of private homes for moderate income families, apartments for low and moderate income families and public housing with sliding rent scales. INCHUCCAgain One of the few major differences that has developed is over the rezoning of INCHUCO, which is again being considered by the Aldermen. Mr. Lee says that after following the course of the conversy and weighing the arguments, he is convinced that INCHUCO constitutes a sound land use and would definitely support the re-zoning. Mr. Giduz says that a public hearing is required before the project can be approved, and that he will not commit himself until he hears those proceedings. A recent issue that has arisen is the scandal concerning the open sewer on Mitchell Lane that flows through the Black section. Lee says that this is a case demonstrating the non-responsiveness of local government, and something ihat should have been taken care of long ago. Mr. Giduz agrees that the sewer is deplorable, and points out that durin his! : service as alderman half of the length of the sewer has been covered. Election day is May 6. A turnout of J 0,00' as compared to the normal 6,000, has been predicted. Neither side is claiming a large victory. 4
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 29, 1969, edition 1
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