R2000-67 AUTHORIZING CONTRACT OR CONTRACTS

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SPACE, REDEVELOPMENT AND THE NEW DEVELOPMENT PERIOD: Befc�re we can begir� to discuss the targeted economic development plan for Decatur, it is first essential to further explore the status and condition of affected people, interwoven with the over- all and hnlistic physical changes and redevelopment which have taken place in the city. 1 am a life-long resident of Decatur and have watched it grow into a highly productive site, one bearing national and intemational significance. The economic lifeblood of Decatur has been, in large part, its continued and incr�ased investment in structural/physical redevelopment. Eventu- ally, however, large tracts of vacant land were gone, having been absorbed by major manufactur- ers and other businesses. Next, I witnessed land developments pushing outward, creating prosperous peripheral areas, having the eifect of declining worth and value of traditional central city neighborhoods—invest- ment was tilted out and away from the central business district and the inner city in order to build, rebuild, improve and maintain. The result has been a constant magnetic pull of people, skills, talent and treasures from inner city communities to outlining and peripheral enclaves, re- sulting in their becoming depopulated, poor and deteriorated — investment was withheld and economic obsolescence and physical deterioration accelerated. Inner city areas of Decatur began to loose their luster in relation to other more choice areas. Houses began to age, failed to be structuraily rehabilitated, and would begin to be inhabited by home seekers with lower incomes. Former single and muiti-family dwelling units were converted into commercial uses. Commercial spaces saw a downward spiral in rents,quality and prestige. Between 1970 and 1980, 1 saw Decatur de-emphasize the maintenance of the densely developed working-class cottages of the inner city in favor of promoting life in the suburbs, which repre- sented the new life of economic security, progress, leisure, and consumption. Not seeing the blade of the economic axe descending on its downward arch, inner city people were unable to detect that retaii trade began to follow affluence and that many of the retail firms began to blend their places of business within the newly formed `�uburds." (A classic example was Decatur's twenty five year practice, 1946-71, of building and locating shopping centers in peripheral areas, just outside the central business district and the inner city.) Surrounded by affluence and pros- perity,the inner city of the Decatur would become the only place open to the poor. Decatur's central city#aced an unprecedented crisis during the 1980s. Depleted of its resources (erosion of job opportunities in the industrial base brought on by financial restructuring, discov- eries/changes in technology, the introduction of the microprocessor into production, communi- cation and financial transactions, and the emergence of a worid economy), disadvantaged by aged and obsotete infrastructure, and strapped with an increasingly dependent and dangerous population, redevelopment and reinvestment in central city spaces were essential to recovery. Because of technologicaUeconomic displacement, middle ciass residents—with their incomes, skilis and other access to resources—are the centerpieces for the inner city recovery prescrip- tion, as such residents will heip boister the other economic-related pieces which wiil nurse the areas back to health: (1) housing markets, (2) retail markets, and (3)tax bases. Instead, the inner city eroded for lack of these and other economic-related staples. No matter how great the need in Decatur's inner city, there are serious impediments and chal- lenges to the proposition: 1. Markets are uncertain. Demand for buildings and the services they provide are often cloudy and tenuous in areas where the prevalent market pattern is depressed. Skilled negotiators are needed for establishing investor confidence and for increasing demand for housing and/ or commerce in a previously distressed area. 3