Observations of Detroit after a visit

[Honky Tonk]

Have any of you who worry that if dilapidated houses are demoed that the neighborhood is forever doomed to be urban prairie ever heard of new construction? Sure, not everyone can afford to build from the ground up, but a desirable location with vacant land has possibilities. A pile of bricks with broken concrete and a collapsed roof requires removal, not renovation.

Viable houses are for sale all over the city. Removing blight doesn't change that. Should the house on the left be saved? Do YOU want to move into the house on the right with the lovely neighbor on your left waiting for renovation?

Great photo and good post. I get the idea from reading some of these replies that people are posting who either never set foot in Detroit, or have an unrealistic idea of what it would actually take to rehab the house on the left. Most of the blighted homes are like the one on the left. 40's, quickly and cheaply built, to satisfy the growing need for housing during the boom years. Very costly to maintain and heat these days.

[Hermod]

Great photo and good post. I get the idea from reading some of these replies that people are posting who either never set foot in Detroit, or have an unrealistic idea of what it would actually take to rehab the house on the left. Most of the blighted homes are like the one on the left. 40's, quickly and cheaply built, to satisfy the growing need for housing during the boom years. Very costly to maintain and heat these days.

I would put those houses at pre-1940 and most likely 1920-1929.

[Honky Tonk]

I would put those houses at pre-1940 and most likely 1920-1929.

You're probably right. I grew up in one of those, and my parents kept it well maintained. Even so, in the summer it was sweltering hot, in December through February, bitterly cold, with the furnace, and later added A/C running ragged. Remarkably, it's still standing. But if it was neglected and burned, I couldn't see spending any sizable investment to "restore" it.