Miller, Nemeth, Parent: the downtown builders

1972 – 1988

Jerry Miller (1972–1976): Miller won the election of 2 November 1971 — Janet Allen, the Republican nominee, would have been the city's first woman mayor — and took office as the renewal era wound down and the city's population slide steepened. The landmark of his term was begun in it: the Century Center, the Philip Johnson convention hall on the West Race, broke ground in 1974 on the site of the old Oliver power plant. In May 1975 Miller lost his own party's primary to Peter Nemeth — an incumbent mayor unseated by his own party, a rare event in the record — and left office at the year's end.

Peter J. Nemeth (1976–1980): Nemeth (born 1941/2) served one term, and its monument opened on 1 November 1977: the Century Center, the city's bet that a convention hall on the river could anchor a downtown the malls were emptying. The local telling has the mayor at the piano for the center's first guests. Nemeth left office in 1980 still popular enough that, seven years on and after years of silence in city politics, his endorsement of Joe Kernan in the 1987 primary was treated as an event.

Roger O. Parent (1980–1988): Parent (born 1938), a Notre Dame man (M.A. '66), served two terms, and his administration built the recreational downtown: on 29 June 1984 the East Race Waterway reopened — the 19th-century mill race, filled and forgotten, dug out and rebuilt from August 1982 as North America's first artificial whitewater course. In January 1986 his Redevelopment Commission designated the Studebaker Corridor Development Area, declared the old plant district blighted and set its tax-increment machinery in motion — the legal beginning of the Studebaker land's long second life. And he championed the building of Stanley Coveleski Regional Stadium, opened in 1987, a ballpark whose cost and siting were fought over hard enough that the controversy shadowed his standing; in 1987, with the stadium fight fresh, Parent chose not to seek a third term, and several of his council allies lost their primaries with him.

Sources:

1. The mayoral-election record — the elections of 1971 and 1975 (Miller's primary defeat by Nemeth) and Parent's decision against a third term in 1987.
2. Century Center and the City of South Bend — the center designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, construction from 1974, opened 1977; Aaron Helman's account of the opening, 1 November 1977, Mayor Nemeth at the piano.
3. The St. Joseph River record — the East Race: proposed for reopening 1973, construction from August 1982, reopened 29 June 1984, North America's first artificial whitewater waterway.
4. South Bend Redevelopment Commission, Resolution No. 762 (1986) — the Studebaker Corridor Development Area designated, declared blighted, a development plan approved and a tax-increment allocation area established; plan dated 10 January 1986.
5. Jack Colwell, South Bend Tribune (27 March 1987) — Nemeth's endorsement of Kernan; the Mayoralty of Joe Kernan record — the stadium controversy and Parent's 1987 decision.