Planned Blight?

I have been living in Southwest Detroit/Corktown for 5 years now and am very disturbed by one thing in particular.... The Idea of one billionaire being able to acquire property after property for what seems to be the sole purpose of adding blight to the neighborhood... Yes there is the obvious one Michigan central station and early on thats all I thought there was too it but as I have gotten more and more entrenched in the politics in the area I have heard that he owns the YMCA on Clark and won't sell to anyone. Also in Hubbard Richard an area where Bagley Housing has done so much to rehabilitate that area from blight has one eye sore that I was told Matty jacked the price up and bought at auction only to leave it blighted and as a detriment to an up and coming area... Then there is the Roosevelt Warehouse which was only recently boarded up after a man died inside.... These are just the ones I know of in SWD. Anyone have a complete list of Matty's property holdings in SWD? I know there are like a billion Matty threads on here but none really address his want to blight the area as a whole... Please feel free to add to his list of blighted properties or correct me if I am some how wrong. I personally believe Matty or the DIBC should not be allowed to acquire one more inch of property till he has restored each of his properties to livable workable condition which we all know will never happen with Matty thats not how he rolls....

The YMCA is owned by a different slumlord.. I mean developer. Same guy everyone wants to blow for the fleamarket shops at the Kresge building on Woodward, Dennis K.

OK so the Y is out at least out for Matty I had just heard that one from a friend in the area... But still it seems like a conscious effort is being made to blight our communities as acquiring these properties for no other reason than for bargaining chips... Please feel free to add to the list of Matty/dibc properties or other slumlords you know....

all the profiteer land speculators need to be fined heavily for all the properties that they own but are allowing to fall further into disrepair every year.. either fix it up, sell it or knock it down-- on your own dime.. for whatever stupid reasons, its like local leadership in general is scared to take an aggressive stance on blight removal.. do these businesspeople donate to political campaigns or something?

there was a map in detnews a year or so back with all of mattys properties in the SW area, for the life of me i cant' find it though.

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Originally Posted by DetroitHabitater

there was a map in detnews a year or so back with all of mattys properties in the SW area, for the life of me i cant' find it though.

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Ya know, Chicago has strict blight laws. Property owners with vulnerable buildings must secure them with VPS-style window and door coverings.

Why don't we have the same ordinances?

Detroit has soild blight laws, the best in the metro area, but the City enforcement is still weak. Even government agencies have to struggle to get as much as a copy of the code. The County taking of unsecured properties was a good step forward and so was the blight court, but the problem has been ignored for so long there's now over 10,000 abandoned homes in Detroit. Its why I like the idea of Federal funds to level many of them and bring the numbers down to something manageable.

Detroit's blight law says that if your property is open to trespass, it can be seized. I've seen the County successfully take and sell many uninhabited boarded properties, but I've never seen them successfully take an occupied property or one secured by VPS. I've even seen them convince the Judge to order VPS at the owner's expense and that was a three story apartment complex.

If I were to take photos of all the blighted structures in my neighborhood, who would be the best people to send it to, that could uplift the issue?

Wayne County's Nuisance Abatement Program. The Prosecutor's Office started it under Duggan as a proactive way to support drug forfeiture and now the County Exec has it under Ficano because they're not criminal cases. Last I heard it operated only in Detroit because Detroit had the most need and most effective blight-nuisance ordinance. A 2006 link says For more information contact Mike Russell at 313.967.2203 or mrussell@co.wayne.mi.us. If that doesn't help, try the contact link on the County's land bank website. Thats how the defaulted properties are sold. I know they used to get tons of requests based on Fox 2's praising of the program and that the standard policy is to pick a few blocks at a time and file on every abandoned property in that area before moving on.

Community involvement is at the core of Wayne County’s Nuisance Abatement Program. The nuisance abatement team works with community-based groups to identify and monitor nuisance properties. Property that is a blighting influence and abandoned is inspected and a thorough title search is conducted. The Nuisance Abatement Team files a nuisance abatement suit against the last identifiable owner seeking renovation or demolition of the property.

If no one responds to the lawsuit or if a defendant unsuccessfully challenges the lawsuit, Wayne County asks the court for title to the property as a remedy to abate the nuisance. This is a last resort. The Nuisance Abatement Program’s goal is to rehabilitate the properties. In 2006, 965 lawsuits were filed, 410 properties have been renovated or are under agreement and 70 properties were sold by auction on the county’s website. This is a social rather than a revenue making program. Default judgments can be set aside if the owner is willing and able to rehabilitate the property.

http://www.modeldmedia.com/developme...aynenap62.aspx
http://www.waynecounty.com/landbank/about.asp
http://www.metromodemedia.com/devnew...dbank0091.aspx
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-121316393.html