Universities a Big Part of Urban Renewal

In a recent news item (with several images from Detroit) for the Associated Press, Corey Williams writes about the ways a number of universities are being good neighbors and assisting in the economic development of their cities, including Wayne State University (Detroit), the University of Cincinnati, Rutgers (Camden, New Jersey), and Stanford University.

A really good, related article from SCUP's Planning for Higher Education is Higher Education and Health Care Institutions as Stimuli for the Revitalization of Camden, New Jersey, through Capital Expansion, Collaboration, and Political Advocacy, which also addressed Camden, New Jersey.

From the AP article:

"We use the euphemism today and call it Midtown, but it was the Cass Corridor and everyone knew what the Cass Corridor was," Wayne State President Irvin Reid said.

When Reid arrived in 1997, he set about transforming the reputation of the faded community bordering the 200-acre urban campus, with Cass Avenue as its main thoroughfare.

As developers added upscale condos and townhouses costing up to $600,000 per unit, the university also went to work.

Wayne State has spent more than $1 billion in the past decade for on- and off-campus housing and building projects.