Detroit's 3,000 demolished home goal within reach

[begingri]

By The Associated Press

Not much was left standing on a block-long section of Robinwood after demolition crews roared through late last year, leveling about 10 vacant homes on the east side Detroit street.

Excavators and bulldozers are expected to return soon as part of Mayor Dave Bing's plan to rid the city of 3,000 blighted and dangerous houses in one year. The goal is to have that many of the homes leveled by the end of April.

Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Director Kim James told The Associated Press the city should be able to reach that mark. It's about 1,150 demolitions shy of doing so.

About 1,850 vacant and abandoned houses have been torn down across Detroit since April 2010. The 13 companies hired by the city to do the work have picked up the pace and are bringing down 300 to 400 houses each month.

There are nine obviously vacant houses and seven that appear to be lived in on Robinwood Street between Van Dyke Avenue and Veach Street. Most have their doors and windows boarded up, while others sit dark with their empty insides visible to anyone walking by.

For a city with thousands of abandoned houses, tearing down such structures "is a good thing," said Donald Neal, 42, who lives in the Robinwood area.
"We got a lot of people out here that could be predators," Neal said Thursday. "We have elderly people and children who can be victimized."

Bing estimates that up to 12,000 vacant houses pose dangers to the community and need to be cleared out.

The mayor vowed that another 3,000 houses would come down by April 2012. He wants 10,000 demolished by the time his four-year term ends in December 2013.
Only 860 empty houses were torn down by the city in 2009.

"We inherited and continue to deal with this challenge at a time of unprecedented housing foreclosures," Bing told the AP in a statement Thursday. "We are committed to removing these dangerous eyesores from our neighborhoods and will continue to work with our community to do so."

A database of addresses has been compiled with about 6,600 houses currently on Detroit's demolition list. More than 5,000 of those structures have been assigned to contractors.

But the task of clearing out the stockpile of vacant houses across the 139-square-mile city has proved monumental.

In 1997, then-Mayor Dennis Archer pressed for federal help to tear down 8,000 to 10,000 houses and buildings that were beyond rehabilitation.

A survey that a data gathering organization released last year placed the number of vacant and abandoned homes in Detroit at about 33,000.

Even with the increased demolitions last year, some parts of the city still are waiting for eyesores to be removed.

"Tearing houses down is very slow," said retiree Phillip Ellis, 61, who lives on Heyden Street in Northwest Detroit. "People are stripping houses and tearing them down quicker than the city is."

Ellis said he and the few neighbors who remain have sought the city's help for more than two years.

At least 400 houses in the Brightmoor neighborhood, which includes Heyden Street, have been demolished or are scheduled to come down, James said.

"We have calls all day long, every day" from residents wondering when demolitions will occur, James said. "We ask them to just please be patient."

Standing between the city's efforts to plow over even more houses and cart away the remains are time and money.

In many instances, the process — from identifying the properties to contacting owners to getting approval for demolition — can take months.

Detroit also has a budget deficit of at least $85 million and is relying on upward of $25 million in federal and state funds to pay for the first two years of demolition under Bing's plan.

The city is exploring additional "innovative funding sources" in the corporate and philanthropic sector, mayoral spokesman Dan Lijana said.

But Robert Esters, whose family lives in the Robinwood area, worries that as vacant houses are torn down nothing will replace them, leaving already empty neighborhoods even more barren.

"The most dangerous ones need to be torn down," said Esters, 34. "But there are a lot of brick structures that can be rebuilt. You've got six people living on a block when there should be more."



AP Photo

A vacant home is shown through the charred remains of former residence in Detroit, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. Wrecking crews in the Detroit are well on their way to knocking down 3,000 vacant and abandoned homes promised by Mayor Dave Bing.


Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/in...shed_home.html

[NorthEndere]

But Robert Esters, whose family lives in the Robinwood area, worries that as vacant houses are torn down nothing will replace them, leaving already empty neighborhoods even more barren.

I hope he realizes that is the point.

I also wish that the city could find more of the owners of these long-derelict properties and put the burden on them where it should have been in the first place, instead of on the long cash-strapped city and on the neighborhoods in which they sit. People always talk about how bad Detroit looks, but rarely does anyone ever talk about the folks that left these properties to rot beyond repair many of them living comfortably and seemingly anonymously within the metro because there is no way the city could keep up with this level of abandonment.

[stasu1213]

I will be glad when the structure that sits on the corner of Canton and E Vernor is torn down. It is just an empty shell that was once duplexes. There is another one that sits next to it on Vernor. Kids walk past those structures every day and someone could be hiding in them. I hope that those two structures are not owned by Matty Moroun. He owns blighted properties throughout the city. He doesn't care to fix them up right away. He doesn't give a damn if someone is snatch into one of his blighted properties to be assaulted or raped.

[Crumbled_pavement]

My biggest issue here is that the amount of abandoned/burnt out houses are increasing at a far faster rate than the city can tear them down. I wish the city would focus some energy to decreasing the number of houses from even becoming abandoned/burnt up to begin with.

[kraig]

My biggest issue here is that the amount of abandoned/burnt out houses are increasing at a far faster rate than the city can tear them down. I wish the city would focus some energy to decreasing the number of houses from even becoming abandoned/burnt up to begin with.

But, what can the City do? Sure they can fine the owners. But, the fines in some cases are more than the owners could get for the property. Good luck there. At this point, it's safer for the public just to tear these things down as fast as possible.

[Chuck La Chez]

I think Phillip Ellis and Robert Esters should STFU and stop being drains on progress.

[DetroitPlanner]

But, what can the City do? Sure they can fine the owners. But, the fines in some cases are more than the owners could get for the property. Good luck there. At this point, it's safer for the public just to tear these things down as fast as possible.

Unfortunately this is all economics. We have a glut of housing in metropolitan Detroit. Its not just Detroit proper that is being abandoned. The only thing that can save us is a huge upswing in this region becoming a more attractive place to do business.

[Hermod]

But, what can the City do? Sure they can fine the owners. But, the fines in some cases are more than the owners could get for the property. Good luck there. At this point, it's safer for the public just to tear these things down as fast as possible.

If you put the squeeze on the owner, the owner "sells" the property to some homeless bum on the street. The bum is glad to take deeded title for a couple of fifths of the good stuff.

[Hypestyles]

more federal help is needed.. infrastructure stimulus.. including job training for demolitions/construction business.. hiring locals..

[kraig]

If you put the squeeze on the owner, the owner "sells" the property to some homeless bum on the street. The bum is glad to take deeded title for a couple of fifths of the good stuff.

Sell to the homeless? Sigh.