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Creation Date
1964
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February 27 - Taylor Heads Group Opposing Urban Renewal
Distribution of information to property owners on urban renewal is planned by the recently organized Committee to Protect Property Rights.
The group will meet Sunday at a place and time to be announced to further its plans.
The Rev. J.H. Taylor was named chairman of the committee at its initial meeting Monday night. Protection of homes and business is listed as the purpose of the organization to Bowling Green's urban renewal program.
The committee will sponsor a film on urban renewal on WLTV at 6 p.m. tomorrow.
March 3 - One Committee That Should Receive No Encouragement
Citizens of Bowling Green should think twice before they give encouragement to the effort just getting under way here to block the city's urban renewal program.
In the immediate future, this effort apparently will be directed toward securing signatures on petitions circulated by an organization calling itself the Committee for the Protection of Property Rights.
Certainly this group has every right to carry on a protest against urban renewal, although it is difficult to see just what its leaders offer as an alternative aside from maintenance of the status quo.
Bowling Green's urban renewal proposal is divided into two parts.
One project envisions clearing of the Jonesville area, with the plan calling for Western State College eventually to expand into the area thus cleared.
It is quite apparent that Western is going to need this land in the years to come, and in fact the college already has purchased several pieces of property in the neighborhood, some of which already serve as a site for the college's new Academic-Athleic Building. [Diddle Arena]
This project seems to us eminently sensible, and it is difficult to conceive of any real grounds for objections other than those that would naturally accrue to person forced to give up their homes or property in the process. But even this cannot occur without just compensation.
The desirability of the Parker-Bennett project likewise should be obvious to all who do not close their eyes to the need for rejuvenation and the benefits it would bring.
The Committee for the Protection of Property Rights suggests that improvement of blighted neighborhoods is the responsibility of property owners and communities involved.
We would agree with this premis, with the reservation that whree this responsibility has been abdicated, other means are justified to accomplish the end.
We don't believe that anyone could successfully argue that this responsibility has been fulfilled in some sections of Bowling Green.
March 12 - Petition to Protest Renewal
A petition protesting Bowling Green's two Urban Renewal projects is being prepared for circulation throughout the city.
The Committee for Protection of Property Rights, which met for its fourth time yesteray, designated attorney Aaron Overfelt to prepare the petition.
The Rev. J.H. Taylor, chairman, and Paul Brooks, co-chairman, were the speakers at yesterday's meeting. They said:
Improvement of blighted areas is the responsibility of the landlords and the communities involved.
A school (Western State College) has no more right to seize property than any other organization. And it is not too late to stop the UR projects here.
Members of the committee palnned to step up their campaign against the projects and said they will conact members of General Council.
The council is expected to vote on the Jonesville UR plan for educational purposes and . .
March 17 - Jonesville Project Established - Council Takes Final Action
The vote climaxed a two-hour discussion before a crowd of 250 interested property owners and citizens in the circuit court room on the courthouse.
. . . [Aaron] Overfelt challenged the program on the ground that houses and businesses embraced in the area are not substandard and that no delinquency problem exists, and questioned Western's need for the land.
The Rev. J.H. Taylor, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, and an urban renewal opposition leader, suggested property owners avoid urban renewal, procedures to eliminate the "middle man" and deal with thestate for sale of the land to Western.
He cited working conditions for the Negro as "very low in Bowling Green," claiming "10 are employed in the city's seven factories." Welfare is lighter in Jonesville than anywhere else and the community has no health nor crime rate, Taylor told the audience.
M.M. Blewett, Jonesville residential and business property owner, urged greater employment of Negroes by factories and a small real estate tax "to sd these people to school to teach them to do these jobs." This he said would enable them to do their own urban renewal.
. . . Kelly Thompson, Western president, said the college's position had been made clear at an open hearing on Feb. 15 and with the signing of all preliminary papers.
The school plans to spend $191,750 to $200,000 on the Jonesville property acquisition he said, citing the advantage to the community of federal expenditures in the program.
He said the college needs the land for exapnsion, citing the rapid growth of its student population which has trebled in the last 3 years.
March 30 - Disquieting Assault on Urban Renewal
Keywords
Jonesville