Bing rejects state plan to tear down blighted structures.

[Wesley Mouch]

The problem is too much spending per resident, getting more money from the Fed only delays the inevitable.

Yes.

This is the major point of contention. There is a large camp that believes that all of this is only a shortage of money due to the current economic crisis.

I believe it is structural. Fixing will require structural changes.

[firstandten]

I'm starting to think Bing is ineffective as mayor and part of the problem.

Mayor Bing led us to believe that he would have a leadership style that would be transformational in nature when in reality he has a transactional style of leadership. That in itself is not bad, but that is not the kind of leader the city needs right now.

[gvidas]

Did this circle around? WARM released a full inventory and valuation of the materials they recovered from deconstructing [[instead of demolishing) a 2-story house in Hamtram. $40k at wholesale prices. Elsewhere [[Model D, I think) they're quoted as saying it cost about $20k to deconstruct it.

Even if those numbers are off -- if the recovered materials from future deconstructs will be worth less [[many of the houses which need to be demoed have burned, etc), and the labor were to cost more -- that's at least one full-time employee for a year. $20k = $400/wk for 50 weeks, or $10/hour full time for a year.

[detroitsgwenivere]

Did this circle around? WARM released a full inventory and valuation of the materials they recovered from deconstructing [[instead of demolishing) a 2-story house in Hamtram. $40k at wholesale prices. Elsewhere [[Model D, I think) they're quoted as saying it cost about $20k to deconstruct it.

Even if those numbers are off -- if the recovered materials from future deconstructs will be worth less [[many of the houses which need to be demoed have burned, etc), and the labor were to cost more -- that's at least one full-time employee for a year. $20k = $400/wk for 50 weeks, or $10/hour full time for a year.

The house that was deconstructed was pretty big and had plenty of valuable material to salvage. I walked around in it while the students were hard at work.

WARM has a whole training and certification program dedicated to deconstruction and wants to open a store to sell all the reuseable materials. Imagine having your floors replaced with beautiful 60+ yr old hardwoods you can't find in any store!