ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Priscilla Robinson was a child when Asheville was impacted by urban renewal. She lived in an area known as Southside.
“My house was right there,” she pointed out. “Actually, it was lined up, maybe six or seven apartment buildings.”
Matthew Bacoate Jr., 92, also saw the changes.
“Well, this is the spot where I grew up on Blanton Street,” he said.
Rev. James Grant along Choctaw Street knows, for many, the impacts of urban renewal still hurt.
“People left hurt,” Grant said.
Local and out-of-state researchers are studying how Asheville has changed over several decades. The key focus for many is urban renewal.
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“Some people say, ‘Why are the Black people so angry? Why don’t we see them?’ I tell them, I say, ‘Well, when you know what has happened as far as history, families lost their homes and businesses, it’s like an open wound that has never had the opportunity to heal,'” Robinson said.
Urban renewal was a national redevelopment effort that included Asheville from the 1960s to the ’80s. Bacoate does not think it was all bad.
“Anytime there is going to be change, there is going to be some damage. But I do not see where it’s overwhelming damage,” Bacoate said.
So, how did urban renewal work? Local governments bought rundown homes and businesses with federal grant dollars. Sometimes if the owner argued, the city or housing authority went to court and claimed eminent domain.
“Well, at the end, I would hope more people will understand. They will know the story of what happened,” Robinson said.
Asheville had six urban renewal projects. The biggest one was “East Riverside” or the southside neighborhood.
“A lot of the homes were owned by what we call today slumlords. There were a lot of people renting. I know there were Black people who owned homes,” Bacoate said.
Southside was home to nearly 4,000 residents, which was 50% of Asheville’s Black population. That was also the largest urban renewal project in the southeastern part of the United States.
“Look at the homes. The pictures tell a great story. And a bad story because it shows the exact conditions of those homes,” Bacoate said.
Years-long research led by the University of Maryland has found, so far, through city records, city leaders targeted Southside for a facelift because of rundown homes, diseases like tuberculosis and crimes, like rape and assaults.
Research shows $6.4 million in land was purchased by either the city or the housing authority in Southside during urban renewal. The median price the government paid for each property was $5,000. Most were resold for less than what they purchased it for. Currently, there are only public data for Southside.
“If there are some opportunities to expand the communities, I think it’s a great opportunity. I’d be happy to work on it,” Professor Myeong Lee with George Mason University said.
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Research also reveals a bulk of properties from urban renewal have seen a 400% increase in valuation as of June 2022.
“Black families lost out on a lot of generational wealth,” Robinson added. “A lot of families are in public housing because the grandparents’ home was taken.”
Researchers also found only 14 people from Southside during urban renewal bought property again in that area.
So, why were so many buildings in bad shape? And why could most owners not buy property again? What is called “redlining” was a discriminatory bank practice used to give out loans.
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Some families could not get money to fix their homes or purchase new ones in better neighborhoods. Also, even though mostly Black families and business were impacted, they were not alone.
“The poor whites went through some disenfranchisement, too, that lived in trailer parks. That lived in shacks,” Grant said.
The University of North Carolina at Asheville is working to make more databases and maps accessible to the public. It has been asked by the city and county’s reparations commission to examine financial damages and economic damages from systemic racism. A group of students are assisting in this effort.
