The city of Roanoke uprooted hundreds of mostly Black residents through its urban renewal projects during the 20th century. Now the city is wrestling with what it can do to restore some of those communities — at the same time as it faces budget cuts and other problems.
Roanoke's urban renewal projects that played out from the 1950s into the 1980s destroyed dozens of blocks of neighborhoods to make way for Interstate 581, the civic center, a post office and other uses. The city seized hundreds of so-called "blighted" properties, uprooting residents and businesses in largely Black neighborhoods.
Along with redlining and other policies that enforced segregation, urban renewal disrupted generations of Black Roanokers by displacing them from their homes. Phazhon Nash's grandparents were among them.
"Like, my grandfather grew up on Rutherford where the post office is," Nash says. "Neighborhood is gone. They'd tell me all the time about the incinerator that used to be at Washington Park and how the ash would come down and the kids would laugh and joke, it's snowing. But it's the ash from the incinerated garbage raining down on their neighborhood."
Nash was elected to city council in 2024. His campaign was inspired by a proposal to develop Evans Spring, 150 acres of undeveloped land along Interstate 581. It sits adjacent to the Fairland and Melrose-Rugby neighborhoods – which are home to largely Black populations, including many families previously displaced by urban renewal.
Nash came on the heels of a majority Black city council was elected in 2020 – but now, he's the only Black member on the 7-member council.
"It is a tremendous responsibility," Nash says. "Especially being the only Black member on council, I feel like I do bear a bit of extra weight right now. Simply given the history in our city, about the relationship between particularly the Black community and our city's government. I want to really do my best and do what I can to help repair that relationship, and be very specific about the policies and the way I act as a councilman."
And Nash is the only Black council member at a sensitive time, when city leaders have been discussing a formal apology for urban renewal. Nash was part of a task force that was working on the apology, until they became disillusioned.
"The one thing we all said is, there has to be meat and potatoes here," Nash says. "There has to be substance. Coming back now and saying, 'Sorry,' that's not going to do anything."
The Evans Spring plan brought a temporary halt to the task force.
"We felt it was such an opposite position to what the apology was trying to speak to, with unifying and healing trauma," Nash says. "So we said, 'Hey, no urban renewal apology, we're not working on it no more.'"
The task force since has reconvened, and gave an update in December. That update included new focus on measures to restore parts of Black Roanoke that were affected by urban renewal. That could include moves to increase home ownership, and investment in Black-owned businesses. It also included a call for preservation of historic sites — like the caretakers cottage in Washington Park, which dates back to 1840.
This month Nash pushed to set aside money to fund a study of the caretaker's cottage with an eye toward redeveloping it into an amphitheater. The city is facing a budget shortfall, which led to more than two hours of debate on Nash's proposal. In the end, the council approved the plan, but reduced the amount of money it will spend on it. Nash says he still got the city to take this historic, meaningful building more seriously: "So my goal was accomplished."
But that's just a start. The city is reconsidering the future of the Berglund Center — the civic center that was built on the site of neighborhoods destroyed by urban renewal. Some leaders have proposed putting a casino on the site. Nash launched a focus group of city, business and neighborhood leaders that are meeting to talk about what's to come.
"I felt it needed to really be community driven," Nash says. "Berglund Center is a product of urban renewal, and whatever happens to it in the future, citizens need to be at the table. Because the way our city have typically done economic develop projects is council, city manager, consultants from wherever, sit in a room, craft this plan, go to the community and say this is what we're doing, this is what it is, and shove it down people's throats. I wanted to take that process and flip it on its head."
The focus group is still meeting, but nearing the end of its process. Roanoke is unable to move forward with the casino idea until the General Assembly convenes for its 2027 session – and the idea could be a no-go even then.
The city council looks set to take another look at the Evans Spring plan next month.
There's still no scheduled date for its consideration of an apology for urban renewal.
