Map of first 500 Demos

**DetroitPlanner** · April-01-10, 01:40 PM

Map of first 500 to go. Shows Brightmoor and the East Side are getting addresed first.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100331/NEWS01/100331082

**Detroitnerd** · April-01-10, 01:57 PM

Seems to me they're spaced out too far to have the effect of taking areas off the grid. Or is this at all related to that?

**DetroitPlanner** · April-01-10, 02:30 PM

These are the worst of the worst. 500 out of 10,000 is only 5 percent. The clearing of land into large parcels will need to be a long iterative process. This cut addresses the ones that are way too far gone. Conversely, the map does not show a relationship to current neighborhood density. Therefore one house on a block might be all that is needed to clear the whole block. You would need to zoom in closely, flip the map to areial, and know if anything has been built or removed since the date of the last flight. In addition, these internet map companies are not very savy with areials and sometimes fly with full leaf cover. This diminishes a lot of what you can get out of an areial.

**bike4beer** · April-01-10, 02:38 PM

I picked one address that had a few others on the same street.
Street view below.

Looks like this street has already reverted to a forest.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=14219+...87.15,,0,10.43

**Detroitnerd** · April-01-10, 02:45 PM

I often bike on this stretch of St. Aubin.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=14219+...06899&t=h&z=17

**Crumbled_pavement** · April-01-10, 03:57 PM

I'm going to get much hate for this but they can tear down just about all of Brightmoor. That place is a complete dump now. A cardboard box is an improvement on 90% of the housing stock there. The other 10% is only marginally better than a cardboard box.

**casscorridor** · April-01-10, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Seems to me they're spaced out too far to have the effect of taking areas off the grid. Or is this at all related to that?

Take a look at the map again. There are three main clusters -- Brightmoor, the area near Gratiot-6 Mile/7 Mile [[Osbourne?), and the northern near east side [[clear line between Kerchavel and the north, the villages being south).

The hardest hit Michigan zip code of the foreclosure crisis was the Gratiot-6 Mile/7 Mile area. Wouldn't be surprised of Brighmoor was close behind. I'm surprised the State Fair area isn't on this list, as it has been literally ransacked in the last 5 years. Block by block, house by house have been abandoned, stripped or burned, all in a matter of a couple years.

I think this evidence suggests that contrary to popular belief, the core neighborhoods around Downtown are pretty resilient. But the fact remains that each neighborhood is different. Some outer neighborhoods thrive, others are quickly being torn apart. Some inner neighborhoods thrive, while others continue the gradual decline they have been witnessing for half a century. But I think the outer neighborhoods are seeing the most striking and fast change.

**esp1986** · April-01-10, 04:11 PM

Notice, many of the first few are in the area of City Airport [[On Gratiot just a couple miles from Downtown, and yes, I refuse to accept the current name which is synonymous with corruption). Bing has said a few times, that better utilizing this airport could be a key to reinvigorating the business community, as Metro Airport is way the hell from the city. One of the airport's biggest downfalls is that it is landlocked, but much of the land surrounding it is vacant. Seeing as he is looking to outsource the management of the airport, there is a very good chance, that land could become part of the airport [[I know, there is no money). If the airport comes to be managed by another company, they could conceivably take the land, and develop it for airport use, to enhance their profits by expanding the airport's business.

**Detroitnerd** · April-01-10, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by esp1986

Notice, many of the first few are in the area of City Airport [[On Gratiot just a couple miles from Downtown, and yes, I refuse to accept the current name which is synonymous with corruption).

Actually, to the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever officially named Detroit City Airport as the Coleman A. Young airport. Have they? I think they tried to sneak that one in.

**DetroitPlanner** · April-01-10, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by Crumbled_pavement

I'm going to get much hate for this but they can tear down just about all of Brightmoor. That place is a complete dump now. A cardboard box is an improvement on 90% of the housing stock there. The other 10% is only marginally better than a cardboard box.

Many of the homes in Brightmoor were built at a time when it was technically not within the City Limits. Originally these homes were built with no code, no water, and outhouses. These were built mostly to be temporary housing by southern immigrants coming to town to work in factories. The American Planning Association has an interesting presentation on its website that explains the area with great detail. It takes about an hour to listen to. If you're interested message me and I will send you a link.

BTW I don't have a problem with the Airport's name, but I'd like to know what makes it 'International'?

**Crumbled_pavement** · April-01-10, 04:42 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

Many of the homes in Brightmoor were built at a time when it was technically not within the City Limits. Originally these homes were built with no code, no water, and outhouses. These were built mostly to be temporary housing by southern immigrants coming to town to work in factories. The American Planning Association has an interesting presentation on its website that explains the area with great detail. It takes about an hour to listen to. If you're interested message me and I will send you a link.

BTW I don't have a problem with the Airport's name, but I'd like to know what makes it 'International'?

Thank you for this post. I have often wondered why that area faired so poorly over the last few years. Yes, if you don't mind, please send me the link for the presentation.

**Ray1936** · April-01-10, 05:04 PM

I googled a few and there's no doubt they need razing. Made for an interesting hour or so.

**cman710** · April-01-10, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by casscorridor

The hardest hit Michigan zip code of the foreclosure crisis was the Gratiot-6 Mile/7 Mile area. Wouldn't be surprised of Brighmoor was close behind. I'm surprised the State Fair area isn't on this list, as it has been literally ransacked in the last 5 years. Block by block, house by house have been abandoned, stripped or burned, all in a matter of a couple years. .

I agree regarding the State Fair area. There is a Street View now for West Robinwood, east of Woodward. Follow this street view two blocks and you can see that nearly every house will need to be demolished. The whole situation is a great shame.

**TKshreve** · April-01-10, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by cman710

I agree regarding the State Fair area. There is a Street View now for West Robinwood, east of Woodward. Follow this street view two blocks and you can see that nearly every house will need to be demolished. The whole situation is a great shame.

Wow. That is a bad street.

**Crumbled_pavement** · April-01-10, 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

The American Planning Association has an interesting presentation on its website that explains the area with great detail.

Wow, that is one depressing presentation.

**RickBeall** · April-01-10, 11:34 PM

One amazing street view. It looks like all the homes were occupied about 5 years ago, given the level of neglect.

**agirlintheD** · April-02-10, 12:02 AM

Wow...just wow. Even though we know Detroit is in dire straits, this was certainly eye opening. First of all, I'll take some heat for this, but given the huge amount of money that it's supposed to take for this demolition project, couldn't the city do it "cheaper" by having some inmates [[not the worst of the worst of course) do some "community service" and assist with the demolition?
Secondly, the Robinwood street posted by cman...is that the same area Brad Edwards did the story on Marabel Chanin?
How sad our city has literally been reduced to rubble.

**LeannaM** · April-02-10, 12:30 AM

Don't prisoners have to be chained together when they do community service? If a wall collapsed it would be hard for the prisoners to get away.

**mcsdetroitfriend** · April-02-10, 02:36 AM

5050 Newport isn't a house, nor is it really a Newport street address, it looks like its a Harper Ave address....doesn't look like it's doing any harm either, helping the economy with its billboard, though it is directly in front of those damn pedestrian bridges over 94, and maybe theres a backdoor I'm not seeing from google earth which is harboring drug addicts hiding from the terrible music coming out of Harpos, or the racist bouncers

**rid0617** · April-02-10, 03:30 AM

It is literally amazing to see that many houses vacant on Robinwood. Such a waste of what looked like a nice neighborhood

**jjw** · April-02-10, 07:08 AM

hmmm. This one is also suspicious. I vote April Fools Day.

**DetroitPlanner** · April-02-10, 07:37 AM

Originally Posted by Crumbled_pavement

Wow, that is one depressing presentation.

Totally a neighborhood designed and executed to be a throw-away. This makes quite a contrast to its neighbor to the East in Rosedale.

**cman710** · April-02-10, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by agirlintheD

Secondly, the Robinwood street posted by cman...is that the same area Brad Edwards did the story on Marabel Chanin?
How sad our city has literally been reduced to rubble.

Yes, this is the street on which Marabel Chanin lived. In fact, Mlive.com had a story that links to video from the initial story done on Marabegl. You can find the link here.

For a sad follow up piece, see here. And for yet another follow up piece, see here.

The Google Street view does not give a great view of her house, but here it is.

This is a very sad story all around. It is astounding to think that in a matter of five years, a neighborhood can go from generally functioning and occupied to this state of abandonment.

In terms of demolition priority, I am not entirely surprised this is not first on the list. If no one still lives on the block, then I can imagine sites with people living nearby would be a higher priority. It does look like a handful of houses remain occupied, but it is too difficult to tell without driving by.

**Bella** · April-02-10, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

Many of the homes in Brightmoor were built at a time when it was technically not within the City Limits. Originally these homes were built with no code, no water, and outhouses. These were built mostly to be temporary housing by southern immigrants coming to town to work in factories. The American Planning Association has an interesting presentation on its website that explains the area with great detail. It takes about an hour to listen to. If you're interested message me and I will send you a link.

BTW I don't have a problem with the Airport's name, but I'd like to know what makes it 'International'?

Is it possible that I could get the link for this?