New blight removal efforts in Detroit are getting a major boost and the effort has local leaders psyched.
Thursday, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and others announced local contractors have began demolishing 19 homes in the area near Samuel Gompers Elementary School.
Crews will also be out clearing overgrow bushes, scrubs and illegally dumped debris in over 100 vacant lots in the area.
“This is just another step in rebuilding the city,” said Mayor Duggan. “We have taken down more than 7,000 vacant homes in the last 18 months, but we don’t take them down for the purpose of demolition, we take them down for the purpose of rebuilding.”
The Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation pumped $500,000 into the ambitious project and promised another $200,000 to Motor City Blight Busters to improve the city.
“The project that we are about to undertake is not transformational,” said City Councilman James Tate. “None of us are going to fool you into believing that, but it is a major, major piece in what is going to help this community to its next, and prayerfully, best version that we have ever seen.”
“Personally, I believe Detroit is on the front porch of the greatest urban comeback story in this nation’s history,” said John George from Motor City Blight Busters. “We’ve got to work together to make it better.”
