What is blight? asks Louis Aguilar in the Detroit News.
He answers: In a city described as the world capital of abandoned buildings, that is a $520.3 million question.
Aguilar notes there is a tremendous amount of energy and policy-making going on in Detroit to get rid of all the empty buildings and trashy lots in the city, by 2020 or sooner.
The extent of blight in the city is widespread and deeply entrenched, according to city officials. The city has lost more than 1 million residents in the past six decades. A 2009 count found 91,000 of the city’s residential lots had become vacant land, and another 30,800 were abandoned structures. Orr often has cited data that says Detroit is riddled with 78,000 vacant structures, of which 38,000 are in potentially dangerous condition.
The Detroit Blight Task Force creation of a data bank of all abandoned structures; Mayor Mike Duggan's creation of a Department of Neighborhoods and his retooling of the Detroit Lank Bank; Bill Pulte, an heir to building giant Pulte Group, creation of a nonprofit coalition to deal with the problem. Pulte, on Wednesday, announced he’s turning over operations to the city’s Land Bank.
