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The
ROAD TO RICHES?
Oak Park's
long-serving
mayor has been
anxiously
awaiting the
highway's
arrival. Will
her city
prosper?
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
harlotte Rothstein sits
in her office, thumbing
through papers and sip-
ping cup after cup of cof-
fee. She has recently
returned from a Na-
tional League of Cities
conference in Atlanta.
Just days before the
opening of Interstate
696, Oak Park's mayor
of nine years is calm, yet
anxious. Optimistic the
highway will boost
development, Rothstein
is busy planning for
Oak Park's revival.
Cutting through the
middle of the communi-
ty is the last 9.1-mile_
link of a highway, which Oakland County
planners say will shift the entire region's
geography.
In fact, • county planner Jack Driker, an ad-
viser on the 1-696 project, says the missing link
connecting 696 from Lahser Road to 1-75 will
relieve traffic on cluttered suburban roads,
make existing shopping centers within the vi-
cinity more accessible and pave the way for
new development along the highway's route.
"Retailers in downtown Royal Oak will draw
more customers residing west of Greenfield
because of the shortened travel times the
freeway will offer," Driker says. "Tel-Twelve
Shopping Center (in Southfield) will be more
accessible to residents of Royal Oak.
"The net effect of much improved access will
be greater opportunities and options for
buyers, renters and job seekers, as well as
merchants, landlords and employers;'
Driker says. "The market will be
more competitive, fluid and dynamic."
Driker says completion of the
freeway creates a "regional cir-
cumferential beltway" comprising
1-275, 1-696 and 1-94.
"The link up of this beltway will have
a greater impact on the region's geog-
raphy than any infrastructure project
CHARLOTTE'S DREAM
NORMAN MOSS, 67, Oak
Park retired printer, "It's
about time. I moved my
family to Oak Park in 1955
because the freeway
would get me to work
down on Jefferson in
about 10 minutes."
since the completion of the Lodge
Freeway."
This, he says, also provides a myriad
of opportunities for already built-up
cities like Oak Park to enjoy more
growth.
On Rothstein's drawing board for
Oak Park are plans to woo developers
into the city to build a new high-rise rental
apartment building and a garden-apartment
\ Tigers win World Series.
ME
t•E
29 9
1984
MIU
complex. She wants to attract singles and
young professionals with families.
She also is calling for the approval of wine
and beer licenses for the city's eating estab-
lishments — which for the first time would
allow liquor to be served in restaurants in the
historically dry city. The city has no bars; its
leaders prefer things that way.
Her goals are lofty, but some of them appear
to be materializing as the highway is indeed
bringing more business to Oak Park.
"We are financially solvent and have a bal-
anced budget," Rothstein boasts. "It will take
another five years to get back to
where we want to be."
On the northwest side of Oak Park,
5.5-square, ,.`miles and close to four
decades old, is a community of about
14,000 Jews, including Detroit's
largest Orthodox community. Within
a two-mile radius are Jewish-style
bakeries, kosher butchers, 11 temples
and synagogues, the Kollel Institute
of Advanced Learning, the Workmen's
Circle Yiddish school, Machon
L'Torah Jewish Learning Network of
Michigan and Yeshivah Gedolah.
Oak Park is centrally located in the
route of the 28.2-mile east-west connecter. To
make room for the highway, the city lost 195
parcels of land, about 500 residents and millions
of dollars from its tax base.
Yet somehow Rothstein managed to boldly
stand up to federal officials to recoup some of
the city's economic losses. For example, in
return for taking away residential homes for
the highway, she took a few trips to
Washington to persuade federal officials to
provide government funding for the recently
opened Teitel Federation Apartments.
"She is the' heroine for us," says Helen
Naimark, executive director for the Federation
Apartments.
When plans were first unveiled for the
highway, then Oak Park Mayor David Shep-
herd and attorney Mark Schlussel asked the
Michigan Department of Transportation and
the federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development to provide something in return
for taking away so much housing within the
Jewish community.
Resulting from these meetings was a long
court battle, which was finally settled by HUD
officials, in essence telling Jewish community
leaders to reapply for government funds.
Mayor Shepherd died during the fight, leaving
its fate in the hands of long-time council
member Rothstein, who took over his position.
Still, the funding requests were turned down
three times.
"Mayor Rothstein got angry and went to
Washington, talking with anyone and every-
one who could help," Naimark says. "She
Oak Park Mayor Charlotte
Rothstein is optimistic the
highway will boost
economic development in
the city. Now she is busy
planning for the city's
revival.
Intifada
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1987
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