From the Flint Journal via Flint Expatriates:
Former Genesee County Treasurer Daniel Kildee is pushing for reforms to allow local governments to sue property owners who don’t take care of their homes- the proposed system would allow the Genesee County Landbank to recover costs of cleaning and fixing up homes, according to Flint Expatriates.
I’m curious to see if this idea goes further. A few years ago, when I was writing stories about vacant properties in Lorain, Ohio, Kildee’s Genesee County Landbank was often cited as a model other cities should copy.
Kildee …

Great article in the Plain Dealer about the city East Cleveland–Ohio’s poorest city–its new mayor and the seemingly impossible task of turning it around.

Gary Norton is young (37) and well educated (he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and earned his master’s degree in public administration at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs). And that’s a big change in a city that has been characterized by political mismanagement and corruption. Former Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor was convicted on bribery charges in 2004.

Norton’s election has injected fresh hope in the largely black, inner-ring suburb of Cleveland, which has lost more than 1,500 homes to foreclosure in the past two years–about 500 per mile, the highest in the state.

Folks in Youngstown have developed a pretty straightforward strategy for dealing with blight: cover it up with some pretty artwork.

Art Youngstown last weekend unveiled its Wrap the Arts project, in which a desolate parking lot and chain link fence served to display works from some of the region’s talented artists, residents and community organizations.
Forty large, weather-resistant paintings were wrapped around the lot, on the corner of Wick Avenue and Broadway Avenue on city’s North Side.

The public is invited to view the installation of the project on October 24 between noon …

National Public Radio had a piece over the weekend about community opposition in Detroit to tearing down this beautiful but crumbling landmark.
Detroit City Council has postponed the planned demolition in response.
“It is not an eyesore to us who live here,” one advocate for the building said. “We see what it was, what it is and what it could be.”
-KG
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When you live in a city with lots of problems, it’s easy to get discouraged. What can one person do?
For Youngstown resident Debra Weaver the answer is trees. The self-employed attorney launched a program with two friends to turn vacant lands into controlled urban forests while helping combat global warming.
She calls her volunteer group Treez Please.

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When you live in a city with lots of problems, it’s easy to get discouraged. What can one person do?
For Youngstown resident Debra Weaver the answer is trees. The self-employed attorney launched a program with two friends to turn vacant lands into controlled urban forests while helping combat global warming.
She calls her volunteer group Treez Please.

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