Good Intentions of Detroit Residents Are Tested by Blight (NY Times)
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When Mayor Mike Duggan took office in January, about 30 percent of the buildings in Detroit were in disrepair. Overhauling how the city handles blight has been a top priority. He has pushed for a more efficient demolition system, to get tenants into vacant homes that can be salvaged and to seize neglected properties.
If the city has its way, those efforts will rid its salvageable neighborhoods of ugliness and danger and halt the spread of blight. They will entice private developers to start investing in neighborhoods that were long ignored in Detroit, whose decline led to the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation.
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As of the beginning of November, the city had knocked down nearly 200 homes in the North End this year; nearly a third of the neighborhood’s homes were in fair or poor condition, or worse, when the year started.
Yet significant hurdles lie ahead. Foremost: money.
The Detroit Land Bank Authority, which Mr. Duggan has asked to lead the fight against deterioration, is currently funding its efforts with $52 million in federal money that will expire next year. The bankruptcy resolution set aside $440 million for removing blight in the coming years, yet a task force report said that cleaning up the city would cost as much as $850 million, and as much as $1 billion more to remedy industrial blight, such as old factories.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/us/good-intentions-of-detroit-residents-are-tested-by-blight.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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