Healing Charlottesville

Five Letters Endorse Bern Ewert's Urban Renewal Involvement

Five Daily Progress letters endorsed Bern Ewert for city council during the three days preceding the Charlottesville Democratic Convention.   The convention is on Saturday February 23 at 10 a.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Charlottesville High School.

  1. Kay Peaslee, Feb. 20.   "Candidate Bern Ewert...served as deputy city manager in Charlottesville for six years in the early 1970s."
  2. Paul and Virginia Schatz, Feb. 22.   "He has been deputy city manager (Charlottesville)" and executive for three cities and one county.
  3. Peggy Van Yahres, Feb. 22.   Bern Ewert "worked here as our deputy city manager helping...housing rehabilitation and planning for human resources."
  4. Albert Reynolds, Feb. 22.   "Bern Ewert has the experience in government to know how to get things done.   He was the city deputy manager of Charlottesville from 1971 to 1976...housing rehabilitation....   This experience qualifies Bern Ewert eminently for City Council." (italics mine)
  5. Virginia Greene, Feb. 21.   "Who in the world would want to vote for Bern Ewert for Charlottesville City Council?   Here are some of the people (including me):   Those who approve of what he has done for Charlottesville already.   As deputy city manager 1971-1976...he worked for housing rehabilitation, neighborhood revitatlization...."

To paraphrase Ms. Greene:   If you approve of Bern Ewert's participation in urban renewal south of downtown Charlottesville ("housing rehabilitation") or its modern version ("neighborhood revitalization"), then you should vote for Bern Ewert.  

If that statment is true, its negative should be true.   If you disapprove of Bern Ewert's urban renewal yesterday or tomorrow, then you should not vote for Bern Ewert.   I have only a few questions for Bern Ewert.

  • As an eyewitness to urban renewal of Garrett Street, please describe the buildings, businesses and people of that neighborhood.   Your memory could help us recover lost history.
  • Please describe the process of urban renewal.
  • What were proponents and opponents thinking at the time?
  • Did guilt bring you back to Charlottesville?

In Ms. Greene's letter, she goes on to say, Bern Ewert "was commended by the National Trust for Historic Preservation."   While Bern Ewert was on the public payroll here, two centuries of Charlottesville's history disappeared.

The witnesses of urban renewal are becoming more vocal because history is repeating all around us.   But they are the only ones who know about it.

Jaycees' 1967 pamphlet urging urban renewal of three streets.

Charlottesville civil rights leader.   "Drewary J. Brown: Working for a Better Day."   WHTJ-TV41   Sunday Feb. 24 at 5 p.m.

Blair Hawkins

Fri 22 Feb 2002

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