History intern Kalen Doleman created an exhibit of publications from the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville Records. The exhibit can be viewed in the three display cases outside of Special Collections, located on the top floor of Ramsey Library. Kalen also wrote this guide to the exhibits:
During
the 2015-2016 Spring Semester, Kalen Doleman interned in UNC Asheville’s
special collections as part of the hands-on history intern requirement. As an
intern, Kalen worked on multiple collections processing information, scanning
photos, and creating various finding aids. Partway through the semester, Kalen
began processing and creating a finding aid for the City of Asheville Housing
Authority (HACA) Photographic Media. While working on this collection, he
noticed that the Photographic Media contained similar elements to the HACA
publications; another collection he had processed much earlier in the semester.
After organizing the physical collection, Kalen began to process everything
electronically. While doing this, he decided to create an exhibit on the
Asheville Urban Renewal Project.
The actual collection had plenty of items from
the 1940s to the 1990s. This enabled Kalen to create a very detailed exhibit
spanning multiple decades, while simultaneously providing one overall theme to
the story. The actual exhibit contains twenty-one items all organized into
three different sections. Kalen’s goal for this exhibit was to provide some
insight into the urban development program, by presenting some of its effects. And
giving detailed evidence on the development program’s different stages. The
main purpose of this exhibit is to show what changes were made in the Asheville
area, and allow the viewer to determine the reasons behind these changes.
From
the 1940s to the 1990s, there was a huge push for urban renewal and development
in the Asheville area. HACA really began its push in the 1950s, which is when
they started executing the plans for urban renewal. This is reflected in the
HACA publications collection. The program had many economic, social, and racial
effects that can be seen even today. Based on the documents in the collection,
it seems that the height of this program occurred during the 1970s. The
documents emphasize a strong push towards demolition, and reconstruction,
especially in low income areas. For the most part, these areas were residency
areas for minorities. From what can be gathered it seems there was not much
consideration for the people who lived in these places. One of the reasons for
the Urban Renewal Program was to generate economic growth and development, with
some emphasis on how the environment would be affected. The layout of Asheville
demographically, and commercially, are perhaps the most noticeable long lasting
effects of this program.
During
the project, many people had no choice but to leave their homes and find
somewhere else. The main cause of this removal, was the fact that the Urban
Renewal Project destroyed many homes in order to construct new and more
expensive buildings. This can be seen as part of a long-term process of
gentrification, which happened over a fifty year period. There are also HACA
records regarding different populations of people depending on the area of
residency. So there is evidence that HACA conducted research into the standard
of living and the demographic makeup of these gentrified areas.
Commercially,
there were also many changes in the business layout of the city. This is
something HACA did a large amount of research on as well. Documents in the
exhibit show that there was a focus on the local economy of the Asheville area.
Looking at the documents, there seemed to be a cost benefit analysis of the
environmental and economic effects of the program. This makes sense because the
Urban Renewal Program was part of a plan for more economic growth and
development.
The
purpose of this exhibit is not to blame or justify HACA’s actions. The purpose
is to make people aware of what happened, gather information, analyze the situation,
and make their own judgment on the purpose of this program and its long-lasting
effects. This exhibit provides plenty of information on the procedures, and
policies that HACA used during Urban Renewal Project. To have a closer look,
please visit special collections.