Past attempts to remake parts of Detroit fall short From The Detroit News: http://de
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
Detroit —Mayor Dave Bing wants to save Detroit by persuading residents to leave their homes for better neighborhoods, but the city has struggled to accomplish the smallest of relocation projects — even when they involve cash incentives.
Two of the most recent initiatives that required moving residents have dragged on for several years, cost millions of dollars and prompted criticisms that the efforts exacerbated blight and left nearby neighborhoods in limbo.
In one case, the city has spent $19 million buying land for an industrial park on the east side that has attracted one tenant. In another, an effort to build a safety buffer near Coleman A. Young International Airport has cost at least $28 million and lasted 17 years, even though it was supposed to wrap up in 18 months.
Critics say the ongoing projects should be a warning to Bing, who plans to announce details in the next few months of his Detroit Works Project to possibly consolidate residents into seven to nine neighborhoods. It's a larger scale than other land-use efforts, but the mayor has little cash to buy properties, won't condemn land and may instead only offer residents tax-foreclosed homes in nicer neighborhoods.
"It is going to be tougher than he thinks," said Alan Ackerman, a property rights attorney who questions whether non-monetary incentives will work. "Emotionally, people don't want to be told where to move."
City officials defend their record and said they've made good progress in the industrial park and safety buffer projects. They warn that comparisons to the Detroit Works Project are unfair because that effort will be voluntary. Residents who stay in their homes, however, may not receive full city services.
"They are two totally different projects, with different goals, guidelines and expected outcomes," Bing spokesman Dan Lijana said.
Because Detroit Works is unprecedented, no comparisons are perfect. But experts said Bing must overcome bitterness about Detroit's history of urban renewal and forced relocation.
The city's past is rife with examples — the bulldozing of the Black Bottom neighborhood in the 1960s for the Chrysler Freeway; the relocation of thousands of Poletown residents in the 1980s for a General Motors Corp. plant and the clearing of Rivertown in the 1990s for a failed plan to cluster casinos near the Detroit River.
"There's a historical layer of distrust that they will have to grapple with," said Lyke Thompson, director of Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies.
Industrial area goes fallow
It may be called the I-94 Industrial Park, but from Eddie Siedlarz's front porch on St. Cyril Street, it looks more like a prairie.
Most neighborhood houses are gone, replaced by fields of tall grass, mounds of uprooted trees, tires, discarded Christmas trees and other garbage.
Continued at: http://detnews.com/article/20110309/...#ixzz1GAlHEG4Z
