Bing's Demolition Derby

[Hempdiddy]

In an effort to reduce blight and eliminate potential hot spots for crime, Mayor Bing is committed to demolishing 3,000 dangerous, abandoned and dilapidated buildings this year. His goal is to demolish a total of 10,000 dangerous structures by the end of his term in December 2013.

He calls it the Residential Demolition Program. "The city has $40 million available for the demolition project. As a cost of $10,000 per house, that means 4,000 homes will be torn down." and "Federal funds, including roughly $14 million from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, are expected to cover the first two years of demolitions."

My question is this: Who or which entity is actually doing the demolition work? This program is funded in part by federal dollars and I'm interested if anyone knows who the demolition contract are going to. Is it a city department? Independent contractor?

Thanks for your replies on my first post in this wonderful forum!

[Magnatomicflux]

Welcome to the board! I have no information for you lol

That "residential demolition program" sure has a nice ring to it however!

[Pcm]

I'm pretty sure there is no city department that does demolitions.

Farrow is certainly getting a chunk of the work, they were quoted and photographed in an article in the past few weeks taking down a home that someone was murdered in.

[Hempdiddy]

Yep, I just checked the Farrow page. I agree with the comment about them getting a bunch of work from the plan. I wonder which other entities are part of the operation?

[Pcm]

Out of curiosity, why are you interested in which demo firm gets the contracts? Are you in the demolition business?

[Hempdiddy]

No, I'm a city planner [[not in Detroit) with a Urban Planning degree from Eastern Michigan and a graduate degree from the University of Florida. I take a keen interest in the decision making process and the political jostling that goes on at City Hall. Detroit's city hall is of particular interest,.... for obvious reasons.