mve Got to Stand Together against the West!'
EDITORIALS
Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man
————-.-And He May Be Wrong
Caribbean Carnival
Another pint-sized Caribbean "republic” has
hit the sawdust trail, by kicking out one form
of dictatorship and substituting another.
The Dominican Republic has buried the
leader of the Trujillo Family and chased the
rest of his kinfolk to sancttiary along the
Florida goldcoast.
Undoubtedly the mdst revolutionary poli
tical principle still running loose in the world
today is the American- experiment in gov
ernment. Although some of these newly freed
peoples affect the trappings of socialism, and
pay lip service to the Kremlin they are
seeking, albeit blindly for the pot at the
end of the rainbow that the "Yankee Col
ossus” has found.
Most of all they want our standard of
living, without the faintest comprehension of
the kind of sacrifice it took to create the
American way oi life.
Secondarily, they want the freedoms that
Americans take for granted, without really
understanding the fundamental difference
between freedom and license.
Centuries of tediously slow development
and generations of super-human labor have
flowered into the American Way of Life.
There was no magic wand, no blue print by
scientists — either political or economic.
America’s emergence' was after a hectic
courtship, an agonizing pregnancy and a
tortured birth.
Countries — big or little — who hypnotize
themselves into believing that they can have
all of this by adopting the slogans, imitating
the political set up or importing American
limousines are living in a recklessly foolish
paradise built on the doorsteps of hell.
The Cubans swapped Batista for Castro,
and at this date it is too early to know .who
will step into Trujillo’s boots. Undoubtedly
it will have to be some strong man, since the
illiterate, greedy halfbreed mobs that make
up the people of the Dominican Republic are
not capable of governing themselves any
more than the Congoese or the Cubans or
the Brazilians.
Wonder Why
Some months ago the State Highway
Commission was eagerly insistant upon open
ing up King Street as a route through Kins
ton for heavily travelled highways N. C. 11
and NC 55. Years ago, before he became
- director of highways, Bill Babcock recom
mended this method as part of a thorough
fare plan for the city of Kinston.
When first confronted by this recommen
dation from the highway commissioner
Kinston officials backed off because of their
fears about the right of way costs which
the city must share.
Then the Highway Commission did a sur
vey of the proposed opening up of King Street
route and the widening of East Street
route. This survey showed that the King
Street route would be $300,000 cheaper than
the East Street routing.
Now the officials pf Kinston have complete-,
ly accepted and repeatedly and unanimously
1 voted .for the King Street route over the
East Street routing. ' i ‘
But the highway people, including High
way Director Babcock have reversed them
selves and say that they will four-lane these
- •-» .■ ■*>
two highways to either Veroqn or Washing
ton Streets in Kinston.
How the highway people have been, able
to so completly reverse themselves in such
a short period of time is a, minor political
mystery, to which we suspect we have the
answer. . 1
If this highway routing has degenerated
into a political contest rather than a ^raffic
engineering problem then all aspects of the
matter should be brought out so that the
people who will be paying for the additional
$300,000 cost might be better able to under
stand what kind of wodd it takes' to make '
highway, shingles. ' ■
In .addition to the p^st Street route being
considerably more expensive .it neither'ser
ves'* the' immediate or long jange best in
terests of the City of Kinston.
The East Street route may serve a few
individuals better, buC public projects should
be concerned with the general good, rather
-than the enhancement of individual bank ac
counts, We recognize how naive this sounds
in the light of political reality, but it is true,
whether, practiced or not. ; ( , ■ '
• V ' /
| What Is Urban
Renewal '
. The people of Kinston niay quite easily
be mixed np -on the specific question of
What Urban Renewal really is. Although
we do not pretend to be an expert op this
matter,we believe we have been exposed to
enough facts about urban renewal to attempt
to answer .this question. ,
Urban Renewal is first a program intended,
to arrest and prevent residential and . com
mercial blight. Blight is the gradual decay
^of property values and living conditions in
a given area caused by eitherj-efusal or in
ability of property owners to standardize
or keep in ^reasonable repair their properties
in such areas/'
In an urban renewal program in citifes of
less than 50,000 population the cost of proj
ects is split three-fouryhs federal govern
ment, one-fourth city' government, * with
whatever improvements in utilities, streets
and sewers the city may install counting as
payments “in' kind” rather than in cash.
Wihat does a project cost?: 1. The price
of the land, 2. the cost of clearing the land,
3. the administrative cost of supervising the
purchase, clearing and sale.
How is the land purchased?: By direct
negotiation between l he owner and the ur
ban renewal officials. If the private owner
refuses to negotiate, then the property may
be acquired through the established proced
ures of eminent domain.
Who fixes the price in an eminent 'do
main procedure? A jury of men and women
in the superior court of whatever county the
action may be entered. Naturally, for Kins
ton it would be a jury in Lenoir County Su
perior Court that would fix the price.
What happens after the land is acquired?
Its re-use is determined by the renewal com
mission with the approval of the City Coun
cil. By re-use the commission determines
which areas would be most suitable for res
idential, commercial or industrial purposes.
After the re-use determination is made
the property is cleared and sold at public
auction, and the only restrictions are similar
to zoning regulations. These restrictions dif
fer from zoning in only one - particular: In
zoning one may buy a commercial or indus
trially zoned lot and build a home on it.
But in a' renewal area one may construct
only those type buildings in it that are spe
cifically indicated for it in the re-use plan.
In short, if you buy a renewal tract des
ignated for industrial use, you can use it
only for industrial purposes.
If the re-use plan of an area determines
that an area is to be allocated for residential
' purposes no standard residential buildings
in that qrea would be acquired. If the re-use
plan determines that an area is to be allo
cated to commercial usage no standard type
commercial property in the area would be
acquired, and the' same pattern follows for
industrial.
1 In an urban renewal project nobody’s
property is “taken, seized or confiscated”.
It is purchased at a price generally much
more than fair to the property owner, and
whdn a negotiated purchase is impossible
the full protection of the courts is available
to every property owner. It is the identical
system used to acquire lands for road build
ing and everyother kind of public project.
. How much control does the federal gov
ernment have over the project ? After a
project has been accepted as economically
practical and sound from a planning view
point. federal controls end. There are no
federal controls on the sale of the land.
Between the post office site and urban
renewal project downtown Kinston busmen
gossips will have plenty to keep their tongues
warm even during a .long, long winter.
JONES JOURNAL
JACK RIDER, Publisher -
•Published Tivery 'Thursday by The Lenoir
County'^News Company, Inc., 403 West
Vernon Ave., Kinston, N. C., IPhone JA 3
.2375, Entered as Second Class Matter May
5, 1940, at the Post Office at Trenton, North
Carolina, under the Act of March 3T 1875).
By Mail in First Zone — $3.00 Per Year.
Subscription Rates Payable in Advance.
Second Class Postage Paid at Trenton, N. C.
GeaSsSB*!
pirrently two situations in Kinston re
accent the absolute need to create perma
nent off-street parking areas- tf the cen
tral business, district of Kinston- is to con
tinue. One is the closing of Montgomery
■Ward’s Kinston store, which has little ad
jacent o/f-street parking, while Sears, just
across the street is hastily rebuilding its es
tablishment which was badly gutted by a
Thanksgiving Day fire. Sears has flourished
and it has a large adjacent off-street parking
areai.
Of course, it may be argued that Ward’s
has suffered from very poor policy at its
top levels, and has not been nearly so ag
gressive as Sears. But look around at other
downtown Kinston instances: Doug Baker’s
Yellow Front, Caroon’s Market, Courie’s
and Stroud’s markets all closed down on
the same block of South Queen Street. Nei
ther had any off-street parking. Harvey’s
super market with plenty of adjacent off
street parking is flourishing.
The automobile is both a blessing and a
curse. It brings us great pleasure, broadens
our continuing education, makes distances
shorter and conversations more frequent.
But at the same time it kills us by the thous
ands, maims us by the millions, bankrupts
us by the tens of millions and harasses every
official from the cop on the corner to the
President of the United States, who has to
be concerned with a sufficient network of
inter-state highways for commerce and mil
itary demands.
PBKSOWM
PAM6MPHS
' BV
JACK RIDER
The automobile has made Americans the
most restless but most lazy people in the
world. We are constantly on the .go, but we
insist upon parking within 20 steps of what
ever we have travelled a thousands miles to
to see. This cultivated laziness has cost city
planners and city property owners more
sleepless nights and more money than any
phenomenon of the 20th century. There are
only two answers to the problem of traffic
congestion: to provide adequate public trans
portation or adequate off-street parking.
Either is very expensive.
The larger cities are almost forced to pro
vide public transportation, while the trend
in cities of less than a' million in population
is toward off-street parking. Kinston, at
present, docs not have a single permanent
off-street parking space. Fortunately, Kins
ton does have several hundred off-street
parking spaces but all are owned by private
citizens, who may or may not continue to
use their property in this fashion.
The county owns a considerable tract of
land directly back of the court house. This,
by all means should be immediately convert
ed into a permament parking lot. The land
was purchased aj a hedge against future
office expansion needs of the "COTtaty. But
the county already owns a considerable tract
of lend immediately north of the court house
upon which a two, three of four storied of
fice building, with connecting overhead pass
ageway could be built that would easily pro
vide every imaginable office need the county
ought to have in the next hundred years.
The Herring Family is currently tearing
down the Central Warehouse in the heart
of downtown Kinston. I’m sure I have no
way of knowing what they plan to do with
this extremely strategic piece of land, but I
hope that it will be possible to convert the
entire area into a permanent off-street park
ing facility. It is centrally located and would
stimulate business in its. entire perimeter
and lead to rejuvenation o^ both buildings
and businesses in that particular area. And
this is an area that badly needs both.
| The city is getting ready to vacate-its old
city hall sometime within the next year or
two. Some aldermen feel that it will, be nec
essary to sell that site in order to pay for
the city hall. I suggest that this would be
unwise economics. No section, of Kinston
more badly needs off-street parking \than
this,particular area. As it stands the city has
very little invested in that tract of land. It
wonld, be wiser to issue sufficient bonds
to, complete the city hall and keep the old
city hall site for off-street *»-*•*— *****«
flanked by modern comm_
m'ents.
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