Rage Ten

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Wednesday, August 24, 1

975

Page Ten THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday, August 20, 1 ~75

DOWNTOWN AREA
City restoration: Little work
Continued from age 3) a go to encourage downtown "Right now, we're working a dollar commitment by the city

things would be for the eight-
hour-a-day worker to park in
the top floors of the parking
structures, and leave the first
floor available to the shopper.
As it stands now, the first
floors are generally devoted to
whoever gets there early in the
morning, and that's almost al-
ways the worker," Monroe says.
THE IMPETUS for most of
the downtown revitalization ef-
forts seem to be centering
around one organization, Ann
Arbor Tomorrow (AAT), and its
executive director, Guy Larcom.
Ann Arbor Tomorrow is a non-
profit, voluntary organization
whose principal purpose is the
improvement of downtown Ann
Arbor. It was set up three years

planning and development, to
aid in acquiring capital for
downtown projects, and to co-
ordinate and represent citizen
viewpoints on the downtown
area.
Larcom, City Administrator
for Ann Arbor for 17 years, be-
came executive director of AAT
upon his resignation from city
government. His knowledge of
city procedures and laws has
helped AAT become an effective
intermediary between private
investors and the city.
UNDER ITS charter, AAT
cannot engage directly in pro-
ject development or financing.
But it can make information
and advice available to prospec-
tive developers.

with two developers who would
like to build a senior citizen's
project downtown. To h e I p
them, we show them where land
is available for building so that
they can go to the property own-
er. We don't lobby the cty in
any way, but since we know
city procedures and city plan-
ning, we introduce the develop-
ers to people at City Hall so
that they can see the right per-
son to get whatever advice they
need," Larcom explains.
Even though the downtown
seems totbedoing welldLarcon
feels Ann Arbor cannot sit back
and relax.
"DOWNTOWN is at a crucial
point. If special efforts aren't
made by the private sector, and
unless the city does something,
I think you'll achieve a status
quo, properties will get older,
they'll deteriorate and the area
will go down," Larcom says.
The most limiting factors on
downtown dvelopment are two-
fold, Larcom says. One is get-
ting enough evidence to show
there is a downtown market for
more retail shopping and office
space.
"We can assume there is a
market but you're not always
able to prove it," he says.
THE SECOND factor is to get

for improvements.
"By improvements, I mean
walkways, trees, sitting areas,
that kind of thing. It's sad that
Ann Arbor is a city of trees and
there are damn few trees down-
town.
"It would be great if the city
would say they recognize that
the downtown is as important
as all the other things they're
trying to do. There are funds in
CDRS, but we haven't seen
them yet," Larcom says.
LARCOM feels that you can-
not think of downtown in the
same way you would a shop-
ping center.
"Downtown is a place wherre
people live, work, get educated
and have fun," says Larcom.
According to Monroe, there
are things that the downtown
has to offer that the shopping
centers can never offer.
"Downtown has a character,
a diversity, a kind of life that
there isn't in Briarwood or Ar-
borland" said Joe Monroe.
When the stores close there,
you're done, and this is not the
case in downtown. You have
nighttime entertainment and a
continual flow of people. We
have to try and build on that."

Israel to
gt$2
(Continued from Page 3)
constructing an oil reservoir iq
Israel for its long-term needs.
SPECULATION on provisions
of the proposed Sinai pact dom-
inated the Israeli and Egyptian
press.
The T el A v i v newspaper
Ha'aretz reported that under the
agreement the United States
would make a secret commit-
ment to Israel to ensure that a
buffer force remains in the
Sinai even if U.N. troops were
withdrawn in the next three
years.
The Israeli Foreign Ministrv
declined comment on the report.
AT THE U.S. State Depart-
ment, a spokesperson said he
could not comment on the Is-
raeli report because the Unit".J
States is conducting the nega-
tiations.
Other newspapers wrote tha)t
any secret understanding would
require approval by the U S
Congress.

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