Word: detroit
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Detroit has more industry and less charm than any other large American metropolis, and its downtown is not regarded as one of the world's great garden spots. Businesses have been fleeing for years to the northern arid western suburbs, with the result that the city center has become little more than a financial hub by day, a graveyard at night. Fortunately, Henry Ford II decided five years ago to preside over an enviable rebirth on the Detroit River. The big "catalyst," as Ford put it, would be construction of the $337 million Renaissance Center, consisting of shops, offices...
This week "Ren Cen" celebrates its official dedication-though hammers and drills still echo through many of the project's cavernous passages. The 73-story Detroit Plaza Hotel has only three-quarters of its 1,400 rooms ready for occupancy. A reflective-glass cylinder, the hotel has an eight-story atrium lobby with a central pond and curved balconies-all standard elements of the style of Portman.* Few shops and restaurants have opened their doors, since the 350,-000-sq.-ft., tri-level mall housing most of them is still under construction. Ren Cen's four 39-story...
...same, Ren Cen is a prodigious accomplishment. Henry Ford is a man of considerable force, and when he talked about business showing a commitment to the salvation of downtown Detroit, other people listened. First he set up the Detroit Downtown Development Corp. as a subsidiary of Ford Motor and assigned top real estate and financial people to staff it. Next he discussed the project with his competitor, Richard C. Gerstenberg, then chairman of General Motors, over lunch at the GM building; by dessert, Gerstenberg had pledged his active support. Four months later, GM announced that it would invest $6 million...
...detractors cite various drawbacks. Some companies have already vacated office space in other downtown buildings to take up lodging in Ren Cen; that scarcely does much to invigorate other quarters of central Detroit. To keep older commercial buildings competitive, the city has given them real estate tax breaks, depleting total assessed valuations in town (outside Ren Cen, that is) by $6 million. Critics contend that the self-contained character of Ren Cen will do little to encourage people to use the rest of downtown Detroit, which remains a fear-filled area despite a recent slowdown in violent crimes...
Through projects like the waterfront, Boston has successfully avoided the fate of cities like Cleveland and Detroit, whose center cores become armed camps and lifeless ghost towns after dark, but it still has not begun to meet the basic need of every person for decent shelter. Urban renewal and restoration have become codewords describing upper class conquest of lower class territory. The leveling of the West End, once a solid working-class community of ethnic neighborhoods, and its replacement with the luxury apartments of Charles River Park--drab highrises with acres of parking covering former working-class homes...