I was asked to respond to a series of questions about philanthropic and investment needs in my area. Here are the questions, followed by my answers:

1.       What are the top Lending, Investing and Giving opportunities?
2.       What are the pressing issues in the community? What has changed from last year and how can we be more responsive?
3.       What are the emerging needs/trends within the broad issue areas: such as Affordable Housing, Workforce Development, Education, Neighborhood Preservation, Health/Human Services – Critical Needs?
4.       Are there certain issues [survey sponsor] is or can be addressing through volunteerism? Please give examples. 
5.       Are  Nonprofit Board memberships, VITA, Financial Literacy in Schools (youth) and for Adults important needs in your community. Please specify which ones.
6.       Do the Bank of America Nonprofit Impact Series webinars and Connect to Own webinars (which provides nonprofit capacity building training to assist nonprofits) address community needs? If you are unaware of these webinars, do you see a need/added benefit for them in your community? How can [survey sponsor] complement these efforts?

My answers:

1.       Downtowns are making a comeback, and that trend presents some investing and lending opportunities. The city of Wilson, with some private investment partners, has recently rehabbed two downtown commercial buildings into residential lofts. These projects are rentals, but similar projects could be created with owner-occupied condominiums. Similarly, older residences in the downtown perimeter could be a good investment for lenders willing to be flexible with buyers interested in renovating older homes. By doing this, neighborhoods could be stabilized and residential decay could be stanched. Giving opportunities abound in this same downtown area. Historic preservation organizations and low-income housing nonprofits, such as Habitat for Humanity, can encourage redevelopment of older neighborhoods. Donations to these nonprofits can create a symbiotic relationship with investment strategies in the same area.
2.       The largest impediment to economic growth and success, in my opinion, is the low level of education in too many eastern North Carolina counties. Lack of education and social skills present an insurmountable barrier to good jobs. Too many eastern North Carolina families suffer from multi-generational aversion to education. Parents who did not have a good public school experience will not encourage their children to study and work hard. They will not push their children to learn; the parents may even harbor hostility toward teachers and other authority figures, and this hostility is passed down to the children. Single-parent families tend to exacerbate these problems because of the lack of a loving authority figure and the inconsistencies and uncertainties related to coming and going of adult males in the home. Bringing stability to children can be a first step in breaking this cycle, but greater efforts are needed to improve parenting skills and raise the priority for education. Since last year, home construction and renovations have picked up. If this activity can be routed to help low-income families through lower-cost home ownership, the impact can be long-lasting.
3.        The trendiest concern in the community seems to be hunger in children, but I question the validity or at least the urgency of this issue. Advocates cite statistics about “food insecurity,” a term too vague to track with any certainty. Federal SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps) provides food assistance to millions. Some surely slip through the cracks, but I do not think the need is as great as the publicity this issue receives would imply. Education and affordable housing, it seems to me, are more urgent and carry the possibility of long-term solutions rather than just supplying the next meal. Historic preservation can work in conjunction with affordable housing efforts if underused or abandoned structures are renovated as affordable housing. I don’t question the need for crisis assistance of various types, but I think the best philanthropic investment will be in long-term solutions to deeply rooted problems.
4.       Every nonprofit needs volunteers. [Survey sponsor] can create a culture of volunteerism and encourage employees to volunteer in a variety of different ways, getting employees (who may already volunteer) to work outside their comfort zone. Any volunteering is valuable. Volunteering that alters the lives of the volunteers and the clients is the best of all.
5.       Our community is fortunate to have many committed nonprofit board members, but it can always use others with different skills and ideas. Financial literacy education is needed in schools and among adults as well. In my career, I hired many young college graduates who had a degree and good skills but had little concept of what it meant to live on a budget, pay taxes and save for the future. Financial literacy is a needed course of study in both elementary and secondary education. Financial literacy is also a crying need in the adult population, especially the lower-income population. An example: an applicant for low-cost housing explained that her biweekly paycheck is electronically deposited into her bank account. The day the money hits the bank, she goes to the bank, takes out all the money in cash and carries it around in her purse, paying bills in cash until the next paycheck. She saw nothing wrong with her system, which is not uncommon. Many adults do not understand interest rates, savings accounts, or how to keep track of their money. Smarter financial decision-making could boost the entire economy.
6.       Frankly, I have not found the [survey sponsor] webinars particularly valuable. Because they are aimed at such a broad audience, and my situation is somewhat unusual because our nonprofit is so small.
 

Historic preservation tax credits: just a liberal plot

It's hard to explain the N.C. General Assembly's killing of historic preservation tax credits on simple philosophical or economic grounds. Since 1998, the credits have fostered $1.5 billion in investments in 2,300 projects in 90 of the state's 100 counties. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory is for them. Republican Secretary of Cultural Resources Secretary Susan Kluttz is for them. Scores of local officials are for them, even outraged at the potential loss of billions in investment while dooming the preservation of local landmarks.

Under the soon-to-die tax credits, owners of income-producing properties qualify for a 20% tax credit for approved renovations of historic structures. Non-income-producing properties, such as homes, qualify for a 30% tax credit. Income-producing properties can also receive a 20% federal credit. The credits have provided the final incentive for the revival of center-city buildings in towns and cities across the state. Look no farther than the Nash Street Lofts, which opened recently in downtown Wilson in a former retail building that was so far gone that it would have otherwise been razed.

 So why would Republicans in the legislature want to eliminate the highly effective and private-investment catalyzing tax credits? After all, what could be more "conservative" than conserving historic buildings, converting structures that already exist instead of building anew?

I can only conclude that some members of the legislature have determined that historic preservation tax credits are a "liberal" cause. After all, liberals such as Jim Hunt, Betty McCain and Richard Moore supported the tax credits. And living downtown in old buildings with loft apartments is a youthful, Generation Y, liberal thing to do. These legislators would prefer to give tax breaks to cronies who run big corporations that pollute North Carolina's air and water, ravage natural beauty and abandon depleted buildings and towns.

Historic home will soon be gone

I may be the only one who thinks so, but I think it's a shame that efforts to save the home of former Wilson Mayor and County Commissioner John Wilson have fallen flat. Preservation of Wilson is handing the property back to United Way, which received the property after Wilson's death. The United Way will almost certainly raze the house to create more parking.

The house on a tiny lot behind the United Way building, 509 W. Nash St., intrudes into the United Way parking lot and is, quite frankly, an eyesore. It was an eyesore the last several years that Wilson lived there because he never made repairs or renovations to the old cottage and allowed the house to nearly fall in around him. He lived there nearly his entire life.

Despite what you might think of Wilson — and most people considered him a slightly loony eccentric — he held political office from the 1950s, as mayor, into the 1980s, as county commissioner. His tenure was not progressive or transformative like the terms of long-time Rocky Mount Mayor Fred Turnage, who died recently. Wilson was a true believer in all manner of conspiracy theories, from European bankers controlling U.S. presidents, to United Nations' secret "black helicopters," to abundances of oil secretly hidden away to drive up prices and so on. You never knew when he might interrupt a board meeting with an off-the-wall observation about international intrigue.

As editor of the local paper during Wilson's final decades, I was often bemused by his wild theories and sometimes challenged him to document accusations he made in letters to the editor. He read articles from fringe publications that claimed all sorts of Nazi/Communist/international banker conspiracies to rule the world. When I told him I doubted the veracity of some of these charges and asked why they never appear in any mainstream publication, Wilson always had a ready answer: "They're afraid to publish the truth." Only the periodicals to which he subscribed had the courage to tell the truth about the Bildeberg gang, the Trilateral Commission, the Swiss bankers, the oil fat cats and so on, he claimed. Still, he was an unceasingly polite and courteous man.

He never seemed to have a job. Once, when asked about his occupation in an election campaign interview, he responded, "Now that's a good question." I assumed he received enough inheritance to live on, but not enough to keep his house repaired. He hoarded those fringe publications, along with other reading material, in stacks all over his house, which he heated with a wood stove fueled by rolled-up newspapers. He drove old cars or rode a bicycle and never passed up a free meal. He was a character we're not likely to see the likes of ever again.

The tug of history and nostalgia

The Boggan-Hammond House in Wadesboro

I was born and raised in Anson County, about 40 miles east of Charlotte and 10 miles from the South Carolina border. When I finished high school, I was eager to leave there and have been back only for visits, which have grown quite rare since my parents died. None of my siblings stayed in the poverty-stricken area, either.

Nevertheless, the mooring lines of experience, sentiment and nostalgia still tug at my heart, and I pause on my occasional visits just to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the place that once was so familiar. Those sensory stimuli once were my whole world. All four grandparents and nearly all of my aunts, uncles and cousins lived in the area, and none of us wandered far from home in those days. Even now, I can drive down a country road and be suddenly overwashed by a lost memory by a house or a turn in the road.

Since leaving the place more than 40 years ago, I have come to better appreciate its history. Anson was one of the first counties of North Carolina, originally stretching from the Pee Dee River on the east to the Mississippi or (depending on whom you ask) the Pacific on the west. From it was carved all of the westward counties along North Carolina's southern border.

That long history (the county was founded in 1749) has become a source of pride for remaining county residents as the once-dominant cotton mills have all closed and more and more county residents have taken jobs requiring long commutes to Charlotte. I joined the Anson County Historical Society to keep up with what is going in the area that gave me birth and nurturing. For a county with so little wealth and so few residents (around 25,000, about the same number as 50 years ago), the Historical Society is surprisingly vibrant and ambitious. The society owns, if I'm counting right, five historic buildings, including the oldest house in Wadesboro, a medical museum, an office building and a "museum of early America."

The society's latest newsletter (which, by itself, is a big undertaking) issues a plea for $135,000 for the repair of the Historical Society's restored but badly deteriorating properties. The low wealth of residents and the high costs of repairs make this plea a desperate one. The founders and foot-soldiers of the Historical Society are aging and dying. It seems possible that the entire association could expire.

The Anson County Historical Society has a Web site and is a 501(c)3 corporation, making gifts tax deductible. The address, if you're interested, is 206 E. Wade St., Wadesboro, NC 28170.

• • •

In a recent post, I complained about the frustrations of job-hunting using the N.C. Employment Security Commission's job listings. Since that time, I talked to a very helpful Job Service agent who cheerfully and professionally provided the information I needed. This morning, I received an e-mail with the contact information for jobs I was interested in. I had asked the Job Service for an e-mail instead of a less-efficient and more time-consuming telephone call (actually two calls were required). So I'm pleased to report that ESC can be helpful and even responsive to individual clients' requests. I withdraw my complaints.

Intended to be a museum, it's an eyesore

Remember this place? I ran across it earlier this week when I was out shooting pictures for Preservation of Wilson. It's the last remaining section of the Wilson Collegiate Institute, which became a Confederate military hospital during the Civil War. The original building stood on Green Street, if my memory is correct (I can't find any documentation online). Built sometime before the Civil War as Wilson Female Seminary, it housed wounded soldiers, many of whom died and were buried in a mass grave in Maplewood Cemetery. In 1872, it became Wilson Collegiate Institute and educated, among others, future Gov. Charles B. Aycock and newspaper publisher Josephus Daniels, according to the city's Web site. Around 1898, the large structure was divided into six houses, and the section depicted in the photo above is the last remaining segment.

This section stood on Oak Avenue. I've been told that graffiti left by Confederate patients is still visible on the rafters. For more than a decade, a small group of Wilsonians fought to prevent demolition of the dilapidated and abandoned structure and then to move it to a more suitable location, where it could be used as a history museum. Several years ago (a Wilson Times online archives search turned up no references to this event), the unit was moved to its current location on Goldsboro Street near the CSX railroad tracks. Emilie English, a tireless proponent of preserving the old building, led a group from United Daughters of the Confederacy that succeeded against the odds to save and move the building. Unfortunately, the group exhausted its funds with the expensive move, and no efforts have been made to restore the structure. English is now in a nursing home.

The historic building is an eyesore in an area where individuals have begun restoring some of the old mansions in the Woodard Circle area. City Council Thursday night postponed a request from the Community Health Center to turn over the city's old fire station (recently used as Hope Station) to the clinic because some local residents wanted to see the old station become a museum. The building pictured here was also intended to be a museum. The Wilson Collegiate Institute is one of the more historic buildings in Wilson, but without an expensive restoration, it will be nothing more than an eyesore.

Without a persistent and determined champion like Emilie English, the building's future is far dimmer than its past.

Goldsboro shows off preservation strategy

The city of Goldsboro turned out its top brass for a presentation to an entourage from Wilson Wednesday afternoon. Mayor Al King, City Manager Joe Huffman and Police Chief Tim Bell were all on hand as Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. executive director Julie Thompson presented a series of slides showing Goldsboro's amazing success in turning abandoned properties and vacant lots into taxpaying assets while attracting millions of dollars in private investment.

Preservation of Wilson board members watched the impressive presentation jealously. POW would like to repeat Goldsboro's success in Wilson. One of the keys to their success, the Goldsboro officials said, was having everyone involved, from city staff to city council members to enthusiastic private citizens who are investing in the downtown Goldsboro restoration. If broad support is essential, the turnout Wednesday in the Goldsboro City Hall Annex was not a good omen.

Only one Wilson City Council member — Doris Jones — attended. Mayor Bruce Rose was also there, reiterating his support  for historic preservation. City Manager Grant Goings and city historic preservationist Lu-Ann Monson were there. POW executive director Kathy Bethune had invited all of the Wilson City Council members. Only Jones came; the other six council members missed out on seeing the benefits Wilson's neighboring city has reaped from a philosophy of preserving, reusing and renovating historic properties.

Bethune had also invited Wilson County Manager Ellis Williford and all seven county commissioners. None attended. Wilson County has been indifferent or hostile to historic preservation, so their absence was not surprising.

Thompson and Huffman said that in talking to civic groups about Goldsboro's preservation efforts, they do not talk so much about the public good involved in preserving the city's historic architecture and neighborhoods. What they emphasize are the economic benefits of the program.

Like other cities (including Wilson), Goldsboro had been intent on demolishing abandoned, dilapidated housing. In 2005, the city appropriated $100,000 for demolitions, but the city planner estimated it would cost $1 million to demolish all the boarded-up houses. The shock of that number prompted the city to take a different tack. The city put $100,000 into a revolving fund that would option or buy historic properties and market them to new owners with historic preservation covenants in the deed. Seeing the success, the city added $50,000 to the revolving fund. Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. marketed the properties through Preservation North Carolina, which options and sells historic properties throughout the state and has had phenomenal success in places such as Edenton Mill Village, where old mill houses worth $26,000 in 1997 are now selling for 10 times that. Scores of essentially worthless properties and vacant lots have now been returned to the tax rolls, generating millions of dollars in taxes.

DGDC and PNC have preserved and sold dozens of houses. DGDC now "controls" (not necessarily owns but has the right to market with protective covenants) 28 houses, Thompson said, just from the city's $150,000 investment. DGDC, a nonprofit tax-exempt corporation, options or buys properties; the city takes no ownership role, although it does pay DGDC's four-person staff.

In addition to preserving historic properties, DGDC has worked with Self-Help Credit Union to build low- to moderate-income "infill" homes on the lots where houses had been demolished. These houses are built from historic designs that complement the existing older homes, creating a consistent neighborhood streetscape. These infill properties have added additional millions in property values on lots that had been essentially worthless.

In 2007-08, Goldsboro's program generated about $6 million in public investment and $10.4 million in private investment, Thompson said. This kind of success has brought statewide attention to Goldsboro, which has restored (with public and private money) the downtown Paramount Theater (which is older than Wilson's Edna Boykin Cultural Center) and the historic city hall. The restoration of City Hall with its rooftop gilded statues and the construction of the City Hall Annex cost Goldsboro about $11 million.

Goldsboro is far from being finished. The old city train station will be restored to its past glory and is to be used as a stop on a planned commuter rail line that will take riders to Raleigh. Center Street, where a railroad track once ran down the middle, is to be renovated to create a broad pedestrian path in the median and wider sidewalks on each side.

In December 2007, my wife and I toured Goldsboro with her father, who had grown up there in the 1920s and '30s, on DGDC's Christmas homes tour. The restored private homes gave me some insight into what a good historic preservation program can do. Wednesday's presentation explained the finances and administration of this effort.

The Wilson participants at Wednesday's presentation were impressed and enthusiastic. It seems obvious that this strategy is transportable, that it can work in other places, including Wilson. The key, as several Goldsboro speakers emphasized, is getting public officials behind it. As Mayor King warned, "Don't listen to the nay-sayers." He said he had been repeatedly told that the city should "just bulldoze" the historic City Hall, but city management and elected officials ignored the vocal minority. City Hall's restored grandeur and the annex's seamless connection to the old building proves the nay-sayers wrong.

Wilson has a similar stock of historic buildings and vacant lots that Goldsboro has. Wilson can do what Goldsboro has done, if public officials get behind it. Unfortunately, the solitary Wilson City Council member (one out of seven) who attended Wednesday's presentation does not bode well for Wilson's capability.

Homes tour shows Wilson's overlooked potential

Saturday's Christmas Tour of Old & Historic Homes displayed a few of Wilson's fine older homes in various degrees of renovation. The quality of the houses was  an affirmation of preservation advocates' long-frustrated confidence in Wilson's stock of historic and architecturally significant homes.

A number of homes on the tour were owned by people who moved here from out of state after finding the homes available at reasonable prices and with excellent "bones" that made preservation and renovation possible. Wilson residents might not appreciate the valuable landmarks all around them, but fresh eyes from elsewhere instantly recognize them. Two homes on Goldsboro Street near the railroad tracks are especially notable. The George Stanton House at 400 Goldsboro Street is still in the early stages of rehabilitation, but new owners Roy Mapstone and Rick Womack have already brought about an amazing transformation in the former rental property. Unfortunately, much of the distinguishing features of the house had been removed by the time the new owners bought it. Mantels, doors and stained glass that once made this house a showplace are missing. Nevertheless, the 12-foot ceilings, the grand staircase and the spacious entertaining rooms hint at the extravagance this house once knew.

Across the street, the David Woodard House that had served as offices for Eastern Carolina Legal Services is being restored by John Newsom and Corrie Dengler. Their ambitious plans are to remove the law office walls, lighting and other changes and restore the house to its Victorian elegance. They appear to be well on their way.

Other houses on the tour showed the variety available in Wilson's historic homes. The Barnes-Bell House at 1501 W. Nash St. has been beautifully restored to its 1922 richness. It is one of a number of Wilson homes built in the 1920s when tobacco and general prosperity created the wealth sufficient to justify magnificent homes.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Golden East Apartments in the former Coon School and the Greenwood/Cobb-Winstead-Tatum House at 208 Hill Street. Thee latter is an 1896 cottage that, like so many of Wilson's older homes, had been turned into rental units. Now restored as a single-family home, the old cottage retains its original charm. Restored by investor Penny Womble, it is now the home of retired teacher Jane Emerson.

Between the magnificence of the Barnes-Bell House and Emerson's modest little cottage are a range of bungalows, Dutch colonials and other fine homes scattered throughout Wilson's older neighborhoods. Saturday's tour showed the potential. Perhaps it opened some eyes.