Drive around the city of Benton Harbor, in the southwestern part of Michigan where upscale Chicagoans now like to vacation, and the decay is obvious. The town looks like “four square miles going out the world backwards,” as one local educator describes it.
“We have gangs and drug dealing,” reports Mayor Bill Wolf. “Lots of people drive through in nice cars, buy crack, and then leave town.” Last year Benton Harbor had nine homicides. So far this year there have been eight, six of them drug-related, according to city manager Steve Manning. And that homicide count does not include a controversial January incident in which a white police officer gunned down a young black man who was falsely identified, it’s contended, as a murder suspect. The officer, a 29-year veteran, was fired and has been charged with manslaughter.
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Local leaders fault Money both for attributing Benton Harbor’s admittedly dire statistics to the entire surrounding area and for not giving the town itself credit for recent advances. Elizabeth MacDonald, the Money reporter who filed from the scene, says the magazine’s findings reflect the circumstances not only of Benton Harbor but of adjacent Saint Joseph and outlying townships–an area with 170,000 residents. Furthermore, MacDonald contends, whatever progress has been made by the city of Benton Harbor was overshadowed by poor showings on the indices of health care, housing, and culture. “[Benton Harbor] is bereft of most anything culturally,” says MacDonald.
“Everything here has not gone to hell,” says Dr. Harzel Taylor, a 69- year-old dentist who has lived for years in a well-tended frame house in a now-crummy neighborhood on a hill overlooking the downtown. “Now, there are lots of negative things in Benton Harbor–I’m not going to snow you–but the situation is not insurmountable. We can overcome.”
As if in rebuke, Saint Joseph stood flourishing just to Benton Harbor’s south. “Saint Joe had more foresight than Benton Harbor,” says Taylor. “The city planned better. When they tore down the old courthouse, they built a new one. They did things in a systematic way; they kept abreast.” Today downtown Saint Joseph boasts quaint streets alive with flowers. Buildings are fully rented. There are hotels and a couple of museums, and lots of boutiques and restaurants. By most accounts, Saint Joe has had an easier time keeping its industry; though the Whirlpool plant moved, Whirlpool headquarters are still there.
At roughly the same time, Benton Harbor elected a new mayor, Wolf, who is in the boat-supply business. Though Wolf is white, he was able to beat the incumbent, Wilce Cook, and another hopeful by promising to end city hall’s history of “crisis management.” Taylor says that Cook, a nurse, is a nice man but was ineffective. “I voted for Wolf,” he says. “I felt a change was necessary.”
Main Street in Benton Harbor still has three abandoned movie theaters and no retail stores to speak of, but bright awnings now accent some building fronts. Ultimately, the CEDC foresees the reopening of a ship canal that was filled in for parking in the 50s. Boat slips will line the reopened canal, CEDC planning director Susan Lackey predicts, and on its banks will flower restaurants and a river walk. Nearby, Hadley has already developed something similar: he bought an old motel on the Saint Joseph River and has converted it into a time-share resort, with boat slips, a pool, and a restaurant. It’s notable, however, that the resort’s promotional video makes no mention of Benton Harbor. “We’re marketing the Saint Joseph River and southwestern Michigan,” Hadley explains.
