Blight Brigade Attacking Problems on Two Fronts
Is there an empty blighted house in Morningside that really bothers you? Do litter and big piles of trash that sit for weeks get you down? The Blight Brigade is here to do something about it, but we need you to step forward to help.
As we outlined in the March issue of The Morningsider, the Blight Brigade has two main jobs:
Reporting owners of derelict properties and holding them responsible for cleanup and maintenance
Organizing neighborhood clean-ups.
To deal with blighted vacant properties, we’ve surveyed the neighborhood to identify the worst of the worst, and from those we’ll select the “Dirty Dozen.” Those are the properties we’ll focus our blight-remediation efforts on first. So far we’ve received about 30 nominations, most of which are owned by the Detroit Land Bank.
The Dirty Dozen will be selected based on several factors:
What work needs to be done to make the house more presentable. Are there major structural problems, or does it just need to be cleaned up?
Our capacity to get the work completed. Do we have the volunteers to do it?
Who the owner is and how much leverage we have with them
Inclusion of all areas of the neighborhood
What tactics we can use to make it happen.
First we need to research the owners and check their property tax status. Our approach to the property will depend on who owns it. For houses owned by individuals, we might clean up the property and bill the owner.
For houses owned by the Land Bank, we can attend the DLBA’s community engagement meetings to pressure them to take care of our designated properties. If they refuse, we can clean up the properties ourselves and shine a light on their refusal in the local media. We can make sure that all the mayoral candidates tell us how they would address the problem of blighted DLBA properties. Perhaps contracting with block clubs and community organizations to maintain those vacant properties would be one solution.
As for the general problem of litter and illegal dumping, we can organize neighborhood clean-ups, monitor sites where there is repeated illegal dumping and protect it with barriers and/or report the problem through SeeClickFix, the Department of Neighborhoods, and the Ombudsman’s Office.
If you want to nominate a property for the Dirty Dozen or be part of the Blight Brigade in any way, please email me at sdnewell50@gmail.com or text me at (313) 587-5484. It takes a village to revitalize a village!
