After more than half a century with the name East Detroit, some residents began to complain in the 1980s that a nominal association with troubled Motown had cut property values and spooked developers. "When people from other states hear you're from East Detroit, they ask whether you have to carry a gun," George Lawroski, leader of the suburb's rechristening movement, told the New York Times in 1987. Critics said the name change would be inconvenient and expensive, but in 1992, with a nod to such ritzy neighbors as Grosse Pointe, residents voted to rename their town Eastpointe.