Targeting blight helps stabilize neighborhoods

No other city has a story quite like my Detroit. Growing up, I vividly remember a vibrant city with neighborhoods like mine, full of character and people like Ms. Moody who made the neighborhood children homemade ice cream each summer.

Fast forward to 2007, when economic conditions in the region caused the population of our beautiful 140-plus square mile city of over 1.8 million residents to decline — but the properties those residents occupied and the buildings they worked in remained.

Today, the impact is still evident.

Opportunity rising e Detroit Demolition Department was born in 2020 under Proposal N for Neighborhoods, the bond-funded initiative to demolish 8,000 blighted houses and stabilize 6,000 more for resale. As we got to work, we took a data-driven approach with safety and transparency as our top priorities. I understood to be successful in this process, we would need to have an e ective communication strategy. Public mistrust of the prior program was apparent.

Strong leadership, reinvestment and community partnerships have helped stabilize and improve residency rates in recent years, but residential and commercial property blight became a major issue for Detroit to contend with.

I’ve spoken at hundreds of community meetings, created a demolition dashboard for live updates and even shared meals with residents at their kitchen tables to educate the com-

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munity on the process and restore trust.

As expected, with Proposal N’s steady progress and an increase in previously vacant properties being purchased by Detroiters, the current amount of residential demolition has signicantly reduced. We’re on a steady path to resolve residential blight and now, under Mayor Mike Duggan’s leadership, the necessary resources and funding have aligned for us to formally tackle the city’s commercial blight.

Residents take part e demolition team regularly elds comments and questions from residents and suburban neighbors about the commercial properties. Many ask why we’re spending millions of dollars on a process that erases our history rather than preserving and rehabilitating these buildings. e city has announced plans and, in several cases, begun to remove or renovate the city’s most infamous vacant buildings. Among these are Lee Plaza, the Packard Plant and the former Michigan Central Train Station. Across the city, vacant schools and mid-sized commercial buildings that border residential corridors are also being addressed in a concerted and intentional e ort to remediate blight holistically. We’re not only addressing popular downtown areas, but also focusing heavily on residential neighborhoods where the majority of longtime Detroiters live, work and play.

Unfortunately, due to years of neglect, exposure to the elements and even res or vandalism, the commercial structures the city has identi ed for demolition are too deteriorated to salvage.

We receive questions and concerns from Detroiters from every district and neighborhood. What they all have in common is the desire to see their communities return to their former glory — bustling, diverse neighborhoods complete with safe, attractive homes and local businesses to patronize inside city limits. Our commercial demolition program exists to provide a fertile ground for just that — to make our neighborhoods ripe for residential, recreational and industrial development.

We’ve celebrated incremental successes so far. After years of corrosion and multiple res, neighbors lamented the remains of the old Frank Beard School near Lafayette and Waterman. Just across the highway, there’s active construction on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, set to open in 2024. e crumbling building has been removed, making the site that much more attractive for new development opportunities.

We’re also nearing completion of the demolition e orts at the former LaChoy Headquarters, which until recently languished with just three of its four retaining walls remaining. is facility borders the forthcoming Joe Louis Greenway, and its removal clears the way for continued construction on this community-fo- cused project.

We have a unique opportunity to e ect immediate and tangible improvement across the city. e Demolition Department exists solely to serve city residents — to help improve standard of living, increase property values, and render every neighborhood safer and more beautiful.

We know that respecting Detroit’s rich history is paramount, but actively setting the stage for an equally rich future is just as critical. As a 26-year employee of the city, I don’t think we’ve ever been closer and more able to impact the future for our residents and provide such opportunity for the next generation.