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Alex Pollack

Alex Pollack image Alex Pollack image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
November
Year
1975
OCR Text

Mayor's Merchant Assistance Program

If the image of Detroit doesn't change it won't be because Alex Pollack didn't try.

The mission of Pollack, and his staff at the Mayor's Merchant Assistance Program, is to improve the physical appearance of the city- and hence its image in the eyes of its residents.

It's a hell of a job.

To many, Detroit has the image of a city where dope pushers, pimps, hitmen, and other sinister elements feed of the lives of honest working people; where murderers, muggers, and rapists lurk in dark alleys looking for easy prey. To the world, Detroit is "Murder City."

Pollack, nevertheless, believes he can change that image. He admits he won't be able to change the political, social, and economic conditions of city life but he thinks he can change the physical appearance of the city. And by promoting a positive image of Detroit, he hop to affect people's attitudes toward it.

Pollack and his staff are part of the Office of Industrial and Commercial Development Commission. They operate out of a small office on the fifth floor o the C.D.C. Building at 350 E. Congress.

Through the Merchant Assistance Program, they provide services to merchants who desire physical changes in their buildings. Theirs is an action-oriented program emphasizing the creation and implementation of original and realistic designs that attempt to fit the budget and needs of the merchant.

From the beginning of a renovation idea to the implementation, Pollack's design team has input every step of the way.

Perhaps the best-known example of Pollack's work is the Eastern Market, which had been showing signs of deterioration. The Bureau of Markets had just $1,700 to rejuvenate its buildings. Pollack designed murals for the entrance-ways to the sheds-huge chickens, a pig and a bull.

Other projects completed by the Merchants Assistance Program include the Campus Merchants Mall at Wayne State, the Kern Block, the Consumer Information Center, the History Mobile, Hot Sam's and the Shelby Hotel.

Pollack's team is also interested in bringing conga drummers to the downtown area; building street furniture in human shapes; making cosmetic changes in police precincts; and placing flower carts on the city's side walks.

Pollack earned degrees from Florida universities in architecture and urban and regional planning. Before he was "discovered" as a result of his work at the Eastern Market, he worked for Detroit's City Planning Commission. He exudes a lot of faith in Detroit: "I want to plant the seeds for the recycling of the city," he says.

-Albert Nickerson