DETROIT FREE PRESS
By JENNIFER DIXON Detroit Free Press
Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 ; Page: 5A
Edition: METRO FINAL ; Section: NWS
Illustration: Photo ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press
Memo: NO POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Dateline: ATLANTA

Less than two years after he moved his Rolls-Royce dealership from the suburbs to the inner city, Jim Allen is buying more land to display an expanding selection of Silver Seraphs, Corniche convertibles and Bentley Arnages now wedged, bumper to bumper, on his small lot.

"Look at my lot. You can't get in," says Allen, surveying the sleek Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, priced from $35,000 used to $350,000 new.

Allen says the central location and the promise of federal tax breaks convinced the dealership to move from Roswell, north of the city, into what was a rotting Uniroyal tire store.

Allen, the dealership's managing director, says new car sales rose seven-fold -- from three to 21 -- in his first year in the zone. He's also moving an average of 10 to 12 used cars a month.

But finding zone workers to take advantage of the federal tax credits has been a problem. The dealership does random drug testing and that has cost some zone residents their jobs, Allen says.

There have been other problems:

In April, fire ripped through the historic Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill, a building being renovated into more than 500 lofts at a cost of $45 million.

Some board members complain that the $100 million in federal money isn't filtering into the neediest areas. As Vice Chairman Wallace Jackson, a zone resident, puts it, "by and large, the neighborhoods are still beat up."

Joseph Reid, executive director , says the zone has generated $1 billion in public and private investment. More than 700 jobs have been created, new homes are being built, public housing is being torn down and ground is being cleared for an $80-million business park in the shadows of Coca-Cola's headquarters.

The new development worries some residents.

"People in this neighborhood can't afford $400, $500 a month for an apartment," says Frank Favors, a zone resident. "They're taking away the neighborhood from the people. The neighborhood has died. It has done died."
 

Caption: Dealer Jim Allen surveys his empowerment zone site from a Rolls-Royce. His sales rose in his first two years at the new location.

Patrick Hunt changes the sign at an Atlanta nightclub, the Peacock, which he helps run. He sums up his city's empowerment zone: "It's not really working for our people."

Wealth glitters, but not for everyone.

----------------------------------------------------

This electronic version may differ slightly from the printed article.
The Detroit Free Press archives are stored on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream, a Knight Ridder company.