密歇根新闻广播 比尔福特想要买破旧的密歇根中央车站

 

So Bill Ford¹ wants the Blue Oval to buy the decrepit² Michigan Central Depot³. You know that toothless edifice⁴, empty and decaying since 1988, towering over Detroit's Corktown. It's an 18-story high reminder⁶ of the industrial and financial decline that has been synonymous with this town.

Until very recently.

It's hard to overstate just what it would mean for the city if Ford Motor established its cars-of-the-future labs and testing on the west edge of downtown.

It would be huge – if the scion⁷ to one of America's great industrial families can pry⁸ Matty Moroun's aging fingers off the historic train station. Businessman Moroun has owned the building for more than 20 years and done virtually nothing with it.

The guy with his name on the building sees a circle of life kinda' story here. His ancestral home is County Cork⁵, Ireland, namesake of Detroit's oldest neighborhood. His great grandfather, ol' Henry, began his motorcar business in the Motor City.

And Ford wants to compete. It wants hip⁹ millennial¹⁰ talent uninterested in working in suburban¹¹ office parks. It wants to play in the mobility¹² and self-driving vehicle spaces. It wants to be part of Detroit's reinvention. And until it's opening of what it calls, quote, “The Factory” in Corktown, it pretty much hasn't been.

What if the Blue Oval manages to make the station and that corner of Corktown the center of the Dearborn automaker's mobility-and-autonomy development? It could be the biggest economic infusion¹³ in Detroit since mortgage king Dan Gilbert moved his first wave of employees here from Livonia.

Not so much for the number of jobs Ford's move would bring. But for the symbolism: here would be next-century, tech-driven transportation being developed for markets around the world in a building opened 105 years ago.

Powerful is too weak a word to describe what this could mean – if it happens. This could be the beginning of the next wave for Detroit. It would be outside of downtown. It would answer a plea offered with greater urgency as Gilbert's empire spreads: what about the neighborhoods?

Ford would be offering one answer.

It would bring a global business imprimatur and massive financial infusion to the historic neighborhood. In taxpaying jobs. In increased business activity, much of it focused on next-generation technology.

It would increase property values and, yes, probably increase rents. Isn't that what investing in “the neighborhoods” is supposed to be all about? Use private capital to eliminate blight¹⁴ by renovating¹⁵ dilapidated real estate and increasing the tax base?

You can't have it both ways. Can't campaign for more investment in the city's neighborhoods and then complain when it comes and drives values higher.

That's pretty much what happened downtown. Generate jobs and tax revenue. Convert unproductive property into productive economic activity. Attract Detroiters and non-Detroiters back to the city. Show cynics that Detroit's arc of reinvention keeps bending higher and wide.

This could be huge, folks. And if Bill Ford gets his way, it will be.

Daniel Howes is a columnist¹⁶ at The Detroit News. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.

1 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

2 decrepit   

adj.衰老的，破旧的

参考例句：

• The film had been shot in a decrepit old police station.该影片是在一所破旧不堪的警察局里拍摄的。
• A decrepit old man sat on a park bench.一个衰弱的老人坐在公园的长凳上。

3 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。

4 edifice   

n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室)

参考例句：

• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。
• There is a huge Victorian edifice in the area.该地区有一幢维多利亚式的庞大建筑物。

5 cork   

n.软木，软木塞

参考例句：

• We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
• Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。

6 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

7 scion   

n.嫩芽，子孙

参考例句：

• A place is cut in the root stock to accept the scion.砧木上切开一个小口,来接受接穗。
• Nabokov was the scion of an aristocratic family.纳博科夫是一个贵族家庭的阔少。

8 pry   

vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起)

参考例句：

• He's always ready to pry into other people's business.他总爱探听别人的事。
• We use an iron bar to pry open the box.我们用铁棍撬开箱子。

9 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

10 millennial   

一千年的，千福年的

参考例句：

• Both Russia and America looked to the future to fulfill their millennial expectations. 俄国和美国都把实现他们黄金时代的希望寄托于未来。
• The millennial generation is celebrating the global commons every day, apparently unmindful of Hardin's warning. 千禧一代显然对哈丁的警告不以为然，每天都在颂扬全球“公地”。

11 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

12 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

13 infusion   

n.灌输

参考例句：

• Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
• Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。

14 blight   

n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残

参考例句：

• The apple crop was wiped out by blight.枯萎病使苹果全无收成。
• There is a blight on all his efforts.他的一切努力都遭到挫折。

15 renovating   

翻新，修复，整修( renovate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The increased production was largely attained by renovating old orchards and vineyards. 通过更新老果园和葡萄园，使生产大大增加。
• Renovating that house will cost you a pretty penny. 为了整修那所房子，你得花很多钱。

16 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。