EDITORIAL

Posted: Nov. 1, 2009

Saving the most salvageable neighborhoods

Detroit must address blight in its healthiest neighborhoods first

Drive through Detroit's poorest, most depopulated neighborhoods: Vacant, boarded-up and burned-out buildings stare into the streets. They are the scars and festering flesh of a wounded metropolis. On blighted blocks, trash flows out of windows and doors like vomit. The most devastated neighborhoods, on the near east side, are probably 80% vacant. But even historically vibrant communities -- Palmer Woods, North Rosedale Park, East English Village, Boston Edison -- are now at risk and, with them, the tax base that supports much of Detroit.

In a city that continues to lose 15,000 people a year, nearly one in five Detroit houses is vacant, posing a staggering challenge for Mayor Dave Bing or his successor: how to best use the city's scarce resources to demolish or redevelop some of the city's tens of thousands of vacant buildings.

Shoring up Detroit's eroding middle-class neighborhoods, or the parts of poorer neighborhoods, such as west-side Brightmoor, that are still stable, is the most immediate problem. To address it, the city must work more closely with nonprofits, block clubs and neighborhood groups that are already on the front lines of fighting blight.

Detroiters and their elected leaders also must begin planning now for a radically smaller city, whose population may officially fall to 750,000 in the next census. "The city's master plan has always been out of touch with reality," said John Mogk, a Wayne State University law professor and urban planning expert. "The 2010 census will bring shock and awe."

The ravages of vacancy

Detroit's Office of Foreclosure Prevention reports that 17% of Detroit's residences -- nearly one in five -- went through foreclosure by the end of 2008, with many more added this year. U.S. Postal Service data show that 17% of Detroit's addresses appear to be vacant -- and that's not counting tens of thousands of empty lots.

Despite the promises of former mayors Dennis Archer and Kwame Kilpatrick, city demolition efforts have fallen further and further behind. Detroit has demolished fewer than 5,000 buildings in the last five years. The city has roughly 32,000 structures in its dangerous building inventory, but fewer than 2,700 are under demolition orders. Detroit's annual demolition budget would barely cover the cost of taking down a few large downtown buildings.

The problem will only get worse. With an unemployment rate of nearly 30%, Detroit has an estimated 78,000 vacant houses -- and that number is expected to reach nearly 100,000 by late next year, according to the Local Initiatives Support Corp., which reports that unemployment and upwardly adjusting mortgage rates are continuing to drive Detroiters from their homes.

Blight now threatens some of Detroit's most recent efforts to build quality affordable housing, as vacant homes reduce surrounding property values and create safety problems and fire hazards. "We own 24 apartment buildings, and almost everyone has a vacant house within a stone's throw," laments Timothy Thorland, executive director of Southwest Housing Solutions. "We've got to stabilize our assets."

Southwest plans to use a neighborhood stabilization grant from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority to demolish blighted homes near its housing projects. Thorland says the company will use the cleared land for green space, community gardens and off-street parking.

Detroit's inventory of abandoned lots has been snowballing since the mid-1950s, when the city's population peaked at 1.85 million. Since then, Detroit has lost an average of 4,000 homes a year.

Steps toward stability

Vacant land is an obvious problem, but it also provides opportunities to dramatically reshape the city. Immediate priorities include:

• Identifying neighborhoods whose stability and population density should put them first in line for limited demolition funds.

• Developing detailed plans to downsize the city. Detroit approved a new master plan this summer, but it fails to address the city's need to downsize and consolidate. The city should examine what Youngstown, Ohio, has done to consolidate neighborhoods and hire an outside planning firm to make neighborhood population projections.

• Putting Detroit's new land bank on the fast track by tapping federal neighborhood stabilization money. The bank needs to start buying land before the end of the year to capture a portion of the tax revenues for future operations. The land bank should take control of property seized by the government for unpaid property taxes and resell the parcels, enabling Detroit to assemble land for green space or economic development.

• Changing state and local laws and policies to make it easier for property owners to avoid foreclosure. Incentivizing lenders to allow delinquent borrowers to remain in their properties as renters would keep some structures from becoming vacant.

• Securing more demolition money. The city has nearly $20 million for demolition this year -- enough to tear down about 3,000 houses -- but most of it comes from federal stimulus aid. A realistic land use plan could help Detroit make the case for more federal demolition money.

The health of Detroit's neighborhoods depends on the city's ability to tear down and redevelop vacant properties and, eventually, consolidate scattered households in viable neighborhoods. Detroit has had some success redeveloping its downtown, with new casinos, stadiums, offices and housing, but it has failed to improve its residential neighborhoods. The mayor elected Tuesday must engage the region's network of talented nonprofit, community and neighborhood organizations to raise Detroit from rubble and ruin.