Urban Renewal South: The Best-known Secret in Charlottesville's History

Last night city council designated for revitalization the Garrett Square property and approved 3-2 an appropriation to leverage a renovation grant on a 1 to 20 ratio. The two bills seek to gain points in a competition process to be considered for the subsidy.

The Piedmont Housing Alliance endorsed the plan and would become owner in 15-18 years. The spokesman expressed regret over this neighborhood’s recent history and caution of well-meaning programs.

This article attempts to describe the area and the infamy of two decades of renewal.

Urban renewal began right after desegregation in 1960 with Vinegar Hill. It did not stop until 1980 when Garrett Square opened. When it was finally over, two neighborhoods with business districts were gone.

Roughly two hundred substandard rental units, white-owned, were torn down. Sixty maintained historic and new residences owned by blacks and whites met the wrecking ball.

More than sixty successful businesses no longer served the community. The Vinegar Hill businesses were black-owned. Ownership was mixed in the Garrett area.

A small mountain was taken away. The earth at some parts of Garrett Square is 30 feet lower than 30 years ago.

A downtown stream disappeared. At one time, Pollocks branch sprang forth near Water street. It now surfaces at Elliot avenue.

And for the first time in history, you could not drive through downtown Charlottesville. The changes were so swift and monumental that the future was shocked. The sense of loss was immediate and profound.

The first cycle of renewal was a small area west of downtown where blacks were. First street is closer to the west end of the mall because downtown used to extend to Fourth NW.

The second cycle was on the black side of the tracks except whites lived and worked there as well. Four times larger than Vinegar Hill, this renewal was much more controversial.

The white majority downtown businesses supported renewal because it meant less competition. The businesses west and south of downtown enjoyed a competitive advantage because they did not exclude customers.

The white majority supported it because it dealt with the race problem cloaked in a good intention. The assumption was made that if a house looked bad, its interior must be bad. The same assumption was made about the people.

Urban renewal was a great society program, seductive in its optimism and faith. But it failed to recognize the civil rights struggle between landowners and renters. Renters want the same favor of the American legal system given to property owners.

Regardless of value, apartments and personal property cannot be used as bond to get you or your family out of jail. The cheapest real estate is enough to post bail for most charges. A landowner can risk his property on the promise of a stranger to show up in court.

The percentage of Charlottesville residents who rent has increased since renewal. Property is too expensive for most renters because it is not allowed to blight. The blight ordinance inflates property values.

Hidden in the history of the Garrett neighborhood are two cycles of private sector urban renewal. Shacks for transient railway workers were torn down in the late 1800s as a business district was built. Businessmen erected well-crafted homes for their large families as industry sprang up.

Three generations later, many of the houses looked like big shacks. The worst buildings were torn down and replaced with new ones, but not fast enough to save the neighborhood.

Urban renewal is one of those programs that make worse the problem they advertise to make better. Not one promise of renewal has been realized.

The failure of the program has led the city to a condition of denial that it ever happened. The psychology is interesting.

Incessant claims that we are a world-class city. Calls for what we lost: compact development, diversity, mixed use, owners and renters, small business, pedestrian friendly, environment, quality of life, historic preservation. Attempts to help those hurt the most: the elderly, families, women, children, the poor and minorities.

The best program to help revitalize would be a Downtown Waterfront History Park from Elliot to Water street along a creek that once flowed through a lost neighborhood.

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