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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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How knocking down 1,600 houses in Flint will reshape the city's neighborhoods
Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com By Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com
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on October 27, 2013 at 7:00 AM
FLINT, MI – Every day, Michelle Beehler walks her dogs by six vacant homes along Baltimore Boulevard on the city’s north side and wonders what lurks inside those empty houses.
Drug dealers and addicts? Prostitutes? Something worse?
But Beehler sees signs of hope as officials embark on a plan to knock down 1,600 blighted properties.
blightMap.jpg.png
“I know it’s not going to totally go away, but it will cut down on (illegal activity)," Beehler said from the front porch of her home near Dupont Street. “If the house is gone they don’t have a place to do that stuff and they have to go somewhere else.”
Baltimore and Dupont are among six streets in Flint that will see 159 vacant structures demolished as part of an effort to knock down 1,600 homes using $20.1 million in federal funds.
During a ceremonial demolition at 2010 Barth Ave. on Oct. 14, officials touted the project as the largest single federal award for blight demolition that Flint has ever seen. They talked of the changes that would result in removing 25 percent of the Flint’s 5,600 abandoned homes.
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling believes the effort will ultimately make the city safer – no small feat for a city that has ranked as among the most dangerous in the nation.
“The demolition initiative will be successful because they’ll be more residents going to sleep at night without a danger – a bad property outside their window,” said Flint Mayor Dayne Walling. “It’s expected that they’ll be an improvement in safety and security, especially in the areas that had a concentration of abandoned properties.”
But work must be done after a vacant structure is demolished to ensure blight does not return.
After homes are demolished and the foundations are removed, clean fill dirt is brought in and low-maintenance grasses are planted on the vacant lot.
Genesee County Land Bank Executive Director Doug Weiland said there will be funds set aside to care for the lots for five years following demolition.
“We anticipate that a lot of the vacant lots will be bought by neighbors to enlarge their lots,” he said.
The entire project is expected to take 18 months.
“The long term goal is to stabilize Flint’s neighborhoods and housing market,” Walling said. “Those efforts won’t be able to be measured for a couple of years and the reality is that there are a few thousand more properties that need to be demolished.”
The U.S. Treasury allowed MSHDA to create a blight elimination program using $100 million in federal money originally set aside for mortgage relief. The June approval of the program was the first of its kind in the nation.
Detroit will get $52.3 million for the program. Flint will receive $20.1 million, Saginaw $11.2 million, Pontiac $3.7 million and Grand Rapids $2.5 million.
The blighted homes, which are all owned by public entities, are broken into five areas – tipping point neighborhoods, re-investment neighborhoods, buffer areas, key corridors and those houses around Carpenter Road Elementary
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Flint’s application originally called for 365 houses targeted for demolition in key corridor areas in the north central portion of Flint. The key corridors include areas along North Saginaw Street, East Pierson Road and Martin Luther King Avenue.
Weiland said the demo list will be reevaluated consistently in order to knock down the most houses possible.
The average cost to bring a house down is $10,600, depending on the amount of lead and asbestos abatement needed and the materials the home is made of.
If houses do not need a lot of abatement, Weiland said it will free up money to knock down more homes.
Near the center of the city and expanding out are re-investment neighborhoods, which previously had 70 houses slated for demolition. Re-investment neighborhoods are neighborhoods near schools with recent investments in new or renovated housing through the Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
On the edges of the city are tipping point neighborhoods – which have less than 20 percent vacancy rates – with 370 houses previously proposed for demolition. These neighborhoods have some of the more stable neighborhoods in the area immediately surrounding the city of Flint that have recently experienced an increase in vacancy and foreclosure.
Flint’s application originally listed 1,079 houses in buffer areas, which are areas surrounding re-investment and tipping point neighborhoods. They include neighborhoods with higher vacancy rates than its adjacent target areas. Demolition in these areas will help stem the spread of blight into tipping point and re-investment neighborhoods, according to the proposal.
Many of the houses that will be taken off the list, Weiland said, surround the historic Civic Park neighborhood area.
The top five streets in Flint that will have the most vacant homes knocked down include:
•Dupont Street with 33 along a 3-mile stretch
•Baltimore Boulevard will have 31 vacant structures knocked down on seven blocks
•Martin Luther King Avenue will see 30 come down over a 1.4 mile block
•Bishop Avenue has 23 on four blocks
•Fleming Road has 21 across eight blocks and 21 homes will come down over four blocks on Pulaski Street
City officials said more than 450 homes would come down by the end of February.
But not all residents will be happy with where the demolitions are at.
Willie Fowler, who lives in the 4600 block of Dupont Street, thought multiple vacant homes around him were coming down.
When the preliminary demo list was released by the Genesee County Land in August, Fowler thought a home next door to him would come down. Turns out, the demolitions won’t stretch that far north.
“Why they come by here and tear out the pipes if they weren’t going to tear them down,” Fowler asked.
Still, Fowler is hopeful that one day his granddaughter will be able to ride her bike up and down the sidewalk near his home and he won’t have to fear for her safety.
“I’d feel a lot better because people can’t hide in them – the drug dealers won’t be selling their drugs up in there,” he said. “We would have a lot better life if (the vacant homes) wasn’t there.”
Alvin Gayden or his family have lived in their home at the corner of Odette and Dupont streets for almost 40 years.
Ten years ago, Gayden said was worth $90,000.
Now Gayden won’t even replace his front lamp because it always gets busted out by vandals and it cost $150 to fix it each time.
“You come through here at night – man it’s scary,” he said, counting the abandoned homes within eyesight and stopping when he gets to eight. “All the vacant homes. No lights. It’s dark. It’s scary.
“I wouldn’t be caught walking down one of these streets at night.”
Gayden said his well-kempt, light blue home is worth just $16,000.
“It was a nice neighborhood at one time,” he said.
With just one vacant home coming down near him, Gayden hopes future demolition work will get rid of more near him.
Not everyone agrees that the houses need to come down though.
Charlie Williams has lived in the 100 block of Pulaski since he was a teenager.
“I think they should go in there and fix them up,” said Williams, a retired auto worker, while looking at two boarded up homes across the street from him. “It’s a nice neighborhood and they’re all nice houses. I’ve been in most of them.”
Dominic Adams is a reporter for MLive-Flint Journal. Contact him at dadams5@mlive.com or 810-241-8803. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google.
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sun Oct 27, 2013 8:39 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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You would think this demolition plan was created by Walling by the way the Journal quotes him. Could this be because of the next Mayoral race coming up? The city doesn't need to pay for a public relations person when they have the Flint Journal.
Complaints and police moved a drug gang out of a home in the 600 block of Welch. They moved to an alley in the commercial 800 block of Welch and are terrorizing that area. At least the City of Flint finally cut the chest high grass in front of the the former Flint Area Enterprise Community that they own. |
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Sun Oct 27, 2013 8:45 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Five things to know about demolishing a home in Flint
Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com By Dominic Adams | dadams5@mlive.com
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on October 27, 2013 at 7:30 AM, updated October 27, 2013 at 7:39 AM
FLINT, MI – With demolition underway for 1,600 homes in Flint, here's five things to know about the process for knocking down a blighted property.
1. The average cost for the Genesee County Land Bank to demolish a home is $10,600. The breakdown includes:
•Property inspections and surveys: $300 to $600
•Abatement and disposal of hazardous materials: $0 to $15,000
•Utility cuts: $250 to $600
•Demolition permit: $75 to $350
•Structure and basement removal: $2,300 to $25,000
•Backfill with clean soil and initial site grading: $1,200 to $2,000
•Final grade, seeding and mulching: $500 to $750
2. Since 2003, the land bank has demolished more than 3,000 structures in Flint.
3. The average cost in Michigan for demolishing a single family home is $12,000.
4. Asbestos is a pain in the pocketbook. Some structures loaded with the hazardous material can cost as much as $15,000, the land bank said. Houses that are severely burned often do not have inspection or abatement costs. All debris must be treated as hazardous and disposed of in special landfills with higher tipping fees, the land bank said.
5. Local ordinances require basement removal to prevent hazards for neighbors and potential future developers.
Dominic Adams is a reporter for MLive-Flint Journal. Contact him at dadams5@mlive.com or 810-241-8803. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. |
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Sun Oct 27, 2013 8:56 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Once again it is the Flint Journal to the rescue by answering all of the complaints heard in the community regarding demolition costs. This time they are shielding the Land bank. It would appear the Journal has not forgotten those who helped them with the tax abatements.
Why is it that several years ago the cost was significantly less and almost half. Shanedr commented on the Journal story that some of the expense if Flint stripping away the federal funds to bolster the city bottom line. Under Brown all of the city fees have been increased. property inspections and higher demolition fees are revenue sources. |
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Sun Oct 27, 2013 9:03 am |
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