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10. SUPER BLOCK PROPOSAL - FIRST BANK & TRUST COMPANY (Cont'd) nati naley and who tell us that this will not happen ; that it won't go on a pi ce -meal kind of basis. If you recall, when we initially put this pro - pert on the market, we had no inquiries, no bids to develop on that kindd, of b sis.° Mrs. Allen said, "When Alex Shoe Store and those other stores were being torn down, and when they hadn't yet moved, it was said that you had a pers n who was interested in buying thEit piece of property, right on this side of the Odd Fellows Building, and so there was a "mad rush to get Alex and all those others out of there, so you could clear the land for that pers n. Now what happened? That is a building that could have been put up at tat time and they were willing to go. I don't know what happened." Next to the Odd Fellows Building, on the east side to the alley, Mr. Brownell advi ed on that parcel we had a proposal' for a one -story building = -a restaurant. Our verall plan was that we would not have any one -story buildings, per Mr. Nimt . Mr. Brownell said the restaurant that wanted to be located downtown is o erating,'but not at that 'location. They had wanted'it for a drive -in restaurant and we didn't think it was appropriate for 'that purpose. The,t pieca of land had previously been put up for bid and advertised, and no one bid n it, and no one has bid on it since. We also put up some 'land on Michi- gan 3treet for sale and advertised it, both legally and block advertising and no one bid on it, and no one has bid on it since. So, we have made some attempts. He said he was in Chicago with HUD people recently and while there met with our consultants and discussed this matter, and it "is under discussion now or some of the things we may do. We have also met with the representative with the Development Corporation joint venture recently, so we are negotiating two ays. Commissioner Wiggins said, "It seems that our best real chance to realize the pote tial that we all feel` is, or can be here, is in the super block approach in t is kind of a financial problem. Basically, if you look at the country gene ally, you will find that downtowns have not been rebuilding in the: same structure pattern that they have been before, and 'there is a very good reason for rhis. At the time that the downtown South Bend was originally constructed, the transportation picture was entirely different. The people used public transportation because that's what there was, and the central city was it from that standpoint. There is little question, but that in view of the energy situation as it is now and as it will be in the future, given ten (10) years' time people are going to be back to public transportation, pretty much on the kind of basis that they were once before. I guess Henry Ford kind of said it a 1, when he got the Model T going, he said it will never be the same again, and fie wasn't just talking about the car. He was talking about all the things- - Amer can's romance with the motor car and the personal transportation- -what they have meant and changed in terms of cities, in terms of where people work and how they work and the rest of it." Mrs. Allen replied, "In light of the proposed oncoming public transportation agai , I guess one of the things that bothers men mainly is that you are selling our streets. You are selling Washington Street and you are also selling Michi- gan Street, and if the super block is put up there, and then understandably it would be 40 years before you could ever open those streets again, and I feel we need more motion downtown. Everything has to go on Main Street now and St. Joseph Street. We have closed off the biggest street we have, and I feel this should at least be open for pedestrians, if not for traffic. It should have small through lanes for traffic." 15