Nominations Still Open for Blight Brigade’s “Dirty Dozen”

4302 Nottingham was one of the Blight Brigade’s Dirty Dozen. Image courtesy of Susan Newell

Is there a vacant house near you that’s in such bad shape it’s dragging down the whole block? If so, we want to hear about it.

Although Morningside is in much better condition than it was a few years ago, there are still some blighted vacant houses scattered throughout the neighborhood that need to be dealt with. That’s why we restarted the Blight Brigade, which we introduced in the March issue of The Morningsider.

Our first task is to identify the dozen mostblighted vacant properties in Morningside, aka the “Dirty Dozen.” MCO board members have already started canvassing the neighborhood, but we need your input as well.

If you want the Blight Brigade to make your worst eyesore a priority, please send the address to me at sdnewell50@gmail.com, along with a photo of the house. If there’s no address on the house, include the address of a neighboring house. For example, you can say “It’s directly across the street from 1111 Beaconsfield” or “It’s just to the left of 2222 Somerset.” If we don’t get the information we need to identify the location, it can’t be included in the Dirty Dozen. Those who’ve helped canvass the neighborhood will decide together which houses get attended to first. We hope to have that task completed by the end of May.

Keep in mind as you survey your street that if a house is vacant but neatly boarded up, it’s not a good candidate for the Dirty Dozen. The photos here will give you a good idea of what we mean by the “worst of the worst.”

Next, we’ll find out who owns each property. Sometimes that’s easy, but usually it requires some digging through various public records. Our approach to the property owner will vary, depending on who they are.

4143 Three Mile Drive is also included on the Dirty Dozen list. Image courtesy of Susan Newell

If it’s an investor in Texas, for example, we can put pressure on the property owner directly or on the city to hold the property owner accountable. The Nuisance Abatement Program gives the Land Bank the power to seize a property that an absentee owner refuses to take care of. That process may have already begun, though the Land Bank is not transparent about specific addresses.

Too often, blighted properties are owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority. If so, we can take our concerns directly to the DLBA at one of their regular Community Engagement meetings, as well as to our Councilmember Latisha Johnson, our District 4 Department of Neighborhoods Manager, Nick Barnes, to the Council as a whole, and if necessary, to the media. It pays to be the polite but persistent “squeaky wheels.”

In some circumstances, we’ll need to advocate for demolition of a badly blighted property. In other cases, we may decide to clean up the property ourselves and bill the property owner.

If the blight on one property is abated, we can add another property to the Dirty Dozen list. If your nomination for the Dirty Dozen doesn’t get chosen, please be patient. We can add new houses to the list as we take others off. We may not be successful with every property, but one thing is sure – without effort there’s no chance of success!

Please join us in this important project. We’re happy to train anyone who is willing to help strategize, identify blighted properties, research property ownership, or contact our public servants - either in writing or in person. It takes a village to make the village beautiful!