in 2011, newsweek was calling south bend one of the ten dying cities. the new mayor had a plan to change that. first he said the basics should be easy. that is, we should be picking up the trash. mark neil served as the new mayor city controller. so you will see pete even today, he loves riding around in the garbage truck with the sanitation folks looking at what the newest technology is. right. from traffic and sewers, mayor pete was on a mission to bring people back downtown and get south bend off of america s worst cities list. a critic at part of rerate issalization, rediscovering the river the city was built on. so today this is the new heart of the city or a part of what the cities is becoming again? yes. so the thing about the river. south bend was built in a very industrial period 120 years ago when rivers were treated as something between a conveyor