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Mr. Frye:
<br />
<br />Mr. Wentz:
<br />
<br />Mr. Holley:
<br />
<br />Mr. Lewis:
<br />
<br />Mr. Holley:
<br />
<br />Mr. Lewis:
<br />
<br />Mr. Wentz:
<br />
<br />Mr. Eason:
<br />
<br />Mr. Wentz:
<br />
<br />Mrs. Rivin:
<br />
<br />Mr. Eason:
<br />
<br />Mrs. Rivin:
<br />Mr. Eason:
<br />Mrs. Rivin:
<br />
<br />Mr. Eason:
<br />
<br />establish in another community within the City?".
<br />
<br />"No, sir... (inaudible)...to the church within the area would certainly be a...in
<br />agreement with any plans for the whole area of Southside..~pecific location in
<br />the two azeas, presently underway for housing and commercial usesr would probably
<br />not be good locations, Mr. Holley, but there will be, we hope, a continuing pro-
<br />gram in Southside, and we feel that given the past history of churches mn redevel-
<br />opment areas, and relocation benefits, and the present condition of the church,
<br />with its effort to upgrade the present facility, we think that something %o the
<br />church's advantage could be worked out in that connection."
<br />
<br />"The church would be treated as any individual, they would have the right to re-
<br />locate within the area of Southside or they could relocate in any other area, just
<br />as any individual; they would have the same right of relocation."
<br />
<br />"Excuse me, Mr. Vice Mayor, if I may, my questmon wasn't answered, but let me
<br />direct this question to the Reverend. Are you interested in remaining in South-
<br />side?"
<br />
<br />"IN Bort~mod~h~amea."
<br />
<br />"You don't specifically like to remamn in there if you could?"
<br />
<br />"Not necessarily so."
<br />
<br />"Any other questions for Reverend Lewis?~Thank you very much. For the benefit of
<br />any future speakers, I would like to repeat my remark that the individual cases
<br />that may come about as a result of this plan, the Housing Authority has members of
<br />their staff directly representative of these variuos areas, and of course the
<br />entire staff of the Housing Authority is available to answer your questions. So
<br />if your question is of a specific nature, I think it would be more properly re-
<br />ferred directly to the Housing Authority when themr staff is able to have all
<br />their material together to answer your specific questions. The next request to
<br />speak is Ira Eason, 231 Henry Street. Mr. Eason."
<br />
<br />"Good evening, gentlemen. I am here representing the New Town Community Develop-
<br />ment Committee. Our concern is, what is gomng to be done in the community of
<br /> New Town? And beyond that, we are concerned wi~h what ms going to happen in the
<br /> City of Portsmouth. We feel that the community of New Town is pretty much, is
<br /> going to determine pretty much what'is going to happen mn the City of Portsmouth,
<br /> mn that we have a corridor, the High Street commercial area, and we proposed
<br /> commercial, industrial area in our proposal, and our view is that unless we get a
<br /> viable, strong neighborhood to support the High Street commercial area a~d the
<br /> commercial-industrial area that has been proposed, that those areas are going to
<br /> fail because, although we get the rapid highway systems that will bring people mn
<br /> and out, we really don't have the labor supply that will be able to make use of
<br /> that area as it now exists. We need a strong, viable area, residential area, to
<br /> supply High Street and the proposed commercial-industrial area with labor and
<br /> consumers. We feel that many of the ideas and plans that have been expressed by
<br /> the City Task Force really do not address those needs, whi~e these people on the
<br /> Task Force are doing as much as they possibly can, and they are working as hard
<br /> as they possibly can, and giving as much ~f the information as they do have avail-
<br /> able, they don't have as much as the citizens who live mn Southside and/or New
<br /> Town area possess. They should be more receptive, more open to the ideas, comment~
<br /> considerations of the members of the New Town area. And our proposal is, while
<br /> the Southside-New Town area is the most blighted area of the City, we do need that
<br /> section as a high residency area."
<br />
<br />"Are there any questions from any Commissioner or any member of the Council?"
<br />
<br />"Yes, I would like to ask Ira, how would you define a viable residential area?"
<br />
<br />"A viable residential area is an area that has the necessary safe, adequate
<br />housing for anyone who selects to live there; that includes low->income persons,
<br />persons of moderate, middle, and possibly upper income levels. This woul8 be
<br />a viable community."
<br />
<br />"You're not speaking, then, in terms of numbers of houses."
<br />
<br />"In the larger sense, yes..."
<br />
<br />"Are you expressing dissatisfaction with the number of houses proposed, the type
<br />of houses proposed, the way the houses are planned to be located?"
<br />
<br />"We're speaking of the type of housing. The type of housing that is proposed at
<br />this point is single-family units. We see that if Portsmouth is to grow and be-
<br />come the viable city that it should be, that the New Town area should have multi-
<br />family units... (inaudible)...to take care of the redevelopment that has to go on
<br />in other areas of the city. As it stands right now, the City of Portsmouth has
<br />27 to 30 square miles of land that it can use for housing and those supportive
<br />services going into housing. Unless some area of the city is developed so that
<br />it can start to support those areas of the city that are going to be redeveloped,
<br />and probably the Prentis Park area, which is now beginning to become run-down,
<br />in five years we're going to be faced, five or ten years, we're going to be faced
<br />with the same problem in the Prentis Park area, where the houses have ~ecome so
<br />old that they really do need to be replaced. Where are those people going to go?
<br />
<br />
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