The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-10-21
Washington
Merry-Go-
Round
BY DREW PEARSON and
ROBERT S. ALLEN

-. ALLEN
A TLANTA. Oct 21.-This metrop-
L oils Of the Southland has be-
come a laboratory for one Of the
most important of New Deal urban
experiments-Slum clearance.
People here would prefer you did
not call it "Slum clearance" because
they claim they never had any
slums. Atlanta is not a beautiful
city, but it is proud and efficient,
and it prefers the term low cost
housing
At any rate, Atlantans are glad to
shanties which feature the Negro
quarter in almost every southern
city, and in doing so, they have won
the distinction of almost complet-
ing the first low cost housing pro-
ject Of the New Deal.
IN doing so, furthermore, Atlanta
l. has come face to face with GER
tain problems which may be typical
of the heartaches in store for all
slum clearance projects in every
part of the country. That is why
housing experts in Washington have
taken out their microscopes as far as
Atlanta is concerned.
Chief problems encountered are:
l. To collect taxes from low cost
housing projects, since they are
owned by the Federal government,
which can not be taxed.
2. To reduce the cost of the new
buildings low enough to meet the
budget of the average Stun" oc-
cupant.
g. To attract that occupant into
the new buildings even though the
cost is sufficiently low.
ONE day some years ago, At
~ lantas chief of police was pa
trolling the Negro Stun area, view
ing it from the brow of a low hill.
The lawleSsness that he saw so
aroused him that he lost his bal
ance, according to the story, and
Slid all the way down the hill into
the Slum area.
The chiefs name was Beaver, and
since then the place has been
called Beaver Slide.
The things that Beaver saw have
continued ever since. 1t has been
a place where no self-reSpecting
person worked or cared to work.
Here and there a woman took in
washing. But for the most part,
what money came in. came from
illicit sources. 1t was to Beaver
Slide that farmers brought their
corn" to be bootlegged to all
Corners, white or black Prostitution,
gambling, and brawls were the
means and the methods of Beaver
Slide living, while those of a play
full disposition made passes at each
other with "switch-blade knives"
But Beaver Slide kept its crime
to itself, and had its own code of
retribution. It's disorders trouble
the city Of Atlanta only when they
were disorders of health, for,
though black morals may be winked
at and segregated, contagion knows
no color line.
TT is on the site of Beaver Slide"
l. that the new project known as
| university" now stands.
The question now is: Will Beaver
Slide move into University? 1t is a
test question, not merely important
to Atlanta, but to housing author
tiles everywhere, as gauge for the
entire country.
And the answer is No.
When the people of Beaver Slide
who carried their few sticks of fur
niture out of the Shacks and stood
| by to watch the Secretary of the
Interior pull switch, blowing up
one Of their homes, they established
new Dark Town" around Larkin
and Hunter-sts.
They did not wait for the clean
new brick houses, and they never
will.
There are two reasons for this.
One is the fact that the people
of Beaver Slide can't pay even the
low rental Of SIS a month a room.
The other is that they wouldn't live
in the new houses even if there were
no rental at all.
They prefer the shadows of the
alleys to the immaculate conspicu-
BUSINESS of the new buildings.