City to attempt deconstruct/salvage vacants instead of straight demolition.

[brizee]

Once again just by not messing himself Duggan looks better than the previous admin.

Another pretty simple solution that you have to ask, WHY wasn't it done before?

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...urns-salvaging

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I am all for trying this, but I am glad it is just a pilot program for 10 houses. I would be surprised [[pleasantly, but surprised) if it turns out to cost less money per house to salvage as opposed to straight demolish. When you look at so many of the dilapidated structures, with fire damage, extreme warping and weathering, water damage, etc, it is hard to imagine that there is enough reusable material to justify the cost of reclaiming it. But they should run the pilot and see. I just don't want the feel-goodyism of reusing some floorboards and a mantlepiece to eat up the city's demo budget and leave more structures standing that could have been torn down. I would LOVE to be wrong about this.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

I like the "skim" approach that they reference - taking 1-3 days to salvage valuable items rather than a total deconstruction. Salvaging these materials can create a whole new market for them, and jobs associated with that, and would be a great resource for those renovating homes in the city.

Plus its not as though there is an endless supply of empty landfills to dump things in. We as a society still have a long way to go to use resources more wisely.

On a broader front, I just like the realization that there still is "value" even in a lot of these vacant structures.

[Honky Tonk]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...urns-salvaging

Once again just by not messing himself Duggan looks better than the previous admin.

Another pretty simple solution that you have to ask, WHY wasn't it done before?

It actually has been done before, just not on as large of a scale, and without City involvement.

http://www.aswdetroit.org/

http://reclaimingdetroit.org/tag/reclaimed-wood/

http://urbanwood.org/

and my favorite:

http://www.recyclehere.net/

[gvidas]

Speaking only as a customer of theirs, with no inside perspective, it seems that Reclaim Detroit has put a lot of time and energy into finding the right balance between complete deconstruction and complete demolition.

Also, I don't remember seeing it here, but they were recently made the official demo contractor of the Detroit Land Bank.

http://www.modeldmedia.com/devnews/ReclaimDetroit.aspx

[motz]

If the city were able to hire, say, Reclaim Detroit or Architectural Salvage Warehouse to deconstruct and/or sell these items and take a chunk of the profits, I think that'd be awesome. Take the money made from selling the items and put it back to deconstruct more homes, which generates more items to sell, which means more dilapidated/dangerous homes removed. Yay all around!

Not to mention, it means keeping some of the intact portions of these historical homes in use, keeping the beautiful craftsmanship and the amazing quality of some of these works out there... makes me happy!

[wolverine]

Once again just by not messing himself Duggan looks better than the previous admin.

Another pretty simple solution that you have to ask, WHY wasn't it done before?

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...urns-salvaging

Surprised this isn't already actual law. It's like day and night when I see buildings in my neighborhood carefully deconstructed with salvaged materials, masonry and wood stacked and packed nicely. Meanwhile in Detroit, they pull down the Lafayette or Charlevoix into dusty mess and probably ground up all the bricks instead of selling them off as reclaimed masonry.

[canuck]

If the city were able to hire, say, Reclaim Detroit or Architectural Salvage Warehouse to deconstruct and/or sell these items and take a chunk of the profits, I think that'd be awesome. Take the money made from selling the items and put it back to deconstruct more homes, which generates more items to sell, which means more dilapidated/dangerous homes removed. Yay all around!

Not to mention, it means keeping some of the intact portions of these historical homes in use, keeping the beautiful craftsmanship and the amazing quality of some of these works out there... makes me happy!

Detroit has a lot to offer in quality reclaimed materials and objects that could bring in some money but also be used in new construction locally. Just think old bricks, and stone lintels etc...