The Leadership of Letty Wickliffe

After Walter Wickliffe’s death, his sister, Letty, led NCPOA for nearly thirty years. Open housing laws had ended the area’s de facto segregation, and she welcomed an increasingly diverse group of neighbors onto the Area Planning Committee, NCPOA’s decision-making body. In the words of U-M architecture prof Jim Chaffers, who worked with NCPOA for many years, she sought to create a neighborhood where “everyone is welcomed.”

Wickliffe herself articulated it this way:

What is NCPOA?

• IT IS PEOPLE – PEOPLE not interested in percentages of White or Black, Jew or Gentile, poor or affluent, or political party; but PEOPLE determined to become involved in the solution of problems that affect themselves and others.
• IT IS PEOPLE – PEOPLE learning how to exchange ideas based on their experiences, needs and dreams of a better life for themselves, their children and grandchildren.
• IT IS PEOPLE – PEOPLE rejecting paternalistic attitudes from city officials, business people, or selfish interest groups.
• IT IS PEOPLE – PEOPLE seriously examining their physical neighborhood, seeing how adjacent areas flow into and out of each other, considering present land use as it relates to them and to other people and planning for improvements.
• IT IS PEOPLE – PEOPLE developing plans with the assistance of professional planners and expecting to see those plans incorporated into the city Master Plan.
• IT IS PEOPLE – PEOPLE working together, recognizing that all people have similar problems, being willing to forget petty interests, extending a helping hand to a neighbor without expecting pay.
• IT IS PEOPLE – PEOPLE reasserting their rights as citizens and discovering effective ways to work together for self determination.

-From North Central: The Next 20 Years

With the help of Chaffers and his students, the Area Committee played a strong role in shaping city plans for the area. In 1974, City Council adopted a resolution that calls for consulting NCPOA on planning issues in our area—anticipating the recent rule requiring pre-planning reviews with neighbors by thirty-five years.