Found out how much Detroit spent on demolition in 2020 and it threw me

I was digging through old city records for a property bid and stumbled on the numbers for the demolition program. They spent around $290 million across 5 years tearing down blighted houses. That stat surprised me because I remember when we used to board up places and just leave them for a decade. Now you drive down Gratiot and see empty lots where three houses stood, and it kind of hits different. Do any of you remember the backlog before the blight task force got going, or am I just dating myself?

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harperschmidt2d ago

Oh boy, that takes me back to when my cousin bought one of those boarded-up places on the east side and spent a whole summer fighting the city over the backyard fence.