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Oct 25, 2011
City of Flint demolishes 775 houses in one year, according to report; Mayor calls it a record
City of Flint demolishes 775 houses in one year, according to report; Mayor calls it a record
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
By Kristin Longley | The Flint Journal
FLINT, Michigan — It took decades for urban decay to take hold and spread in Flint, choking out what used to be some of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods.
It took 365 days to knock acres of that decay down.
Armed with excavators and bulldozers, federally funded city crews leveled 775 of Flint’s estimated 10,000-plus vacant houses and commercial buildings between Oct. 4, 2010, and Oct. 5 of this year, according to a demolition report released this month.
That’s a record for the city, said Mayor Dayne Walling.
The demolition work represents about $3 million spent in one year on what officials hope is a continued change to the city’s landscape, parts of which are mired in excess vacant homes and an epidemic of blight.
“We’ve been waiting for this,” said the Rev. Robert Allen, 63, who’s lived in Flint for 45 years. “I’m glad to see them do it. It’s much needed, and a lot of them aren’t going to be livable again. They’re very old homes.”
The demolition report, presented Oct. 10 to the Flint City Council, gave Flint officials a one-year snapshot of how some of the city’s more than $30 million in federal grant funds have been spent.
In May, the state ranked Flint No. 3 of 12 cities for its inefficiency in spending the federal stimulus funds to fight blight.
Along with demolition, the funds were earmarked for rehabilitation, acquisition and other “neighborhood stabilization” activities, such as the $16 million Smith Village housing development.
But with nearly one of every four houses in Flint sitting empty, it’s clear funds for demolition are sorely needed.
About $1 million for demolition is available until the end of the fiscal year in June, Walling said, and another 150 to 200 units will be demolished by then, depending on their size.
About half of the 775 houses in the report were “emergency” demolitions.
“There’s nothing worse than an abandoned building that presents a threat to public safety and welfare,” Walling said. “So every one of these demolitions represents a step forward towards a more safe and clean environment.”
Read more at Mlive.com.
