A house for sale at 18th Street and Lafayette Blvd. near Ste. Anne's Basilica in Southwest Detroit. Credit: Laurén Abdel-Razzaq, BridgeDetroit
The best way for city officials to revitalize Detroit’s distressed neighborhoods is to start with the neighbors themselves.
Detroit residents are hopeful that Mayor Sheffield will expand upon the work of former Mayor Duggan in rebuilding the city’s distressed neighborhoods. He laid the foundation for the rebuilding process for more than a decade by improving neighborhood infrastructure, refurbishing commercial strips, clearing abandoned homes, cleaning parks and vacant lots and building greenways. Notwithstanding these actions, however, much of the rebuilding within the neighborhoods themselves remains to be done. It can best be accomplished by the city increasing its partnership with community-based redevelopment corporations and providing more financial and technical support to them.
John Mogk
Such corporations offer an alternative path to indiscriminate resident removal through clearance or gentrification. With few exceptions, neighborhoods in the city that have maintained stability or made gains in the rebuilding process in the past few decades have been led by community-based corporations.
A lesson can be found in the redevelopment of the pre-World War I, 20-block neighborhood built adjacent to Ste. Anne de Detroit at Lafayette and Ste. Anne in Southwest Detroit. Like most neighborhoods in the city, it experienced rapid population loss and abandonment beginning in the 1960’s; By 1995, the neighborhood was 50% vacant, with many remaining homes in need of repair or labeled not salvageable. At the same time, the Ambassador Bridge company was attempting to expand into its blocks and take over land.
That is when a small group of neighborhood leaders and Ste. Anne’s parishioners joined to halt the decline, stop the expansion and rebuild their neighborhood. They succeeded.
Beginning in 1996, a redevelopment plan was prepared for completion within 10 years and a community-based nonprofit corporation, Bagley Housing Development Corporation, was formed to coordinate the work. Under the leadership of Vince Murray, a Ste. Anne’s parishioner, a small staff was hired and a storefront office opened. The corporation developed strong working relationships with the city, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Michigan State Housing Development Authority and funders, all eager contributors to achieving the goal.
Sainte Anne de Detroit. (Laurén Abdel-Razzaq, BridgeDetroit)
Implementation of the plan progressed over 5 stages. Initially, abandoned homes were identified for rehabilitation or removal, along with occupied homes in need of repair and 11 affordable homes were built.
Through 2002, another 11 affordable homes were added and 24 occupied homes were repaired. As development expanded, 23 more affordable homes were built, a 65-unit affordable senior housing project was finished, Ste Anne’s historic elementary school was rehabilitated as a charter school, 40 more occupied homes were repaired, and a mini-park, alleys and sewer lines were refurbished by the city.
By 2003, a revitalized neighborhood that met the needs of residents was taking shape. Over the next three years, more than 100 more affordable housing units were added, 130 homes repaired and a market-rate housing development begun.
Simultaneously, the city refurbished the local recreation center and the neighborhood food market expanded in size threefold.
A mural off Bagley Street across from the Roberto Clemente Recreation Center in Hubbard Richard. (Laurén Abdel-Razzaq, BridgeDetroit)
The neighborhood plan was completed by 2007, before the rebirth of downtown and while the nearby Michigan Central Depot still stood in ruins, serving as a nationally recognized symbol of Detroit’s industrial blight.
Neighborhoods can be rebuilt for their residents if the city supports a community-based redevelopment corporation, assists in its planning, partners in its work and helps assure involvement of other public and private organizations committed to the rebirth. The model established by Bagley Housing Development Corporation in rebuilding the neighborhood adjacent to Ste. Anne de Detroit provides the framework for getting the job done.
John E. Mogk is a distinguished service professor at Wayne State University’s Law School. He teaches courses on property, state and local government law, land use planning and urban development.
John E. Mogk is a distinguished service professor at Wayne State University’s Law School. He teaches courses on property, state and local government law, land use planning and urban development.
More by John E. Mogk
Op-Ed: How to rebuild Detroit’s distressed neighborhoods? Look to Southwest Detroit
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The best way for city officials to revitalize Detroit’s distressed neighborhoods is to start with the neighbors themselves.
Detroit residents are hopeful that Mayor Sheffield will expand upon the work of former Mayor Duggan in rebuilding the city’s distressed neighborhoods. He laid the foundation for the rebuilding process for more than a decade by improving neighborhood infrastructure, refurbishing commercial strips, clearing abandoned homes, cleaning parks and vacant lots and building greenways. Notwithstanding these actions, however, much of the rebuilding within the neighborhoods themselves remains to be done. It can best be accomplished by the city increasing its partnership with community-based redevelopment corporations and providing more financial and technical support to them.
Such corporations offer an alternative path to indiscriminate resident removal through clearance or gentrification. With few exceptions, neighborhoods in the city that have maintained stability or made gains in the rebuilding process in the past few decades have been led by community-based corporations.
A lesson can be found in the redevelopment of the pre-World War I, 20-block neighborhood built adjacent to Ste. Anne de Detroit at Lafayette and Ste. Anne in Southwest Detroit. Like most neighborhoods in the city, it experienced rapid population loss and abandonment beginning in the 1960’s; By 1995, the neighborhood was 50% vacant, with many remaining homes in need of repair or labeled not salvageable. At the same time, the Ambassador Bridge company was attempting to expand into its blocks and take over land.
That is when a small group of neighborhood leaders and Ste. Anne’s parishioners joined to halt the decline, stop the expansion and rebuild their neighborhood. They succeeded.
Beginning in 1996, a redevelopment plan was prepared for completion within 10 years and a community-based nonprofit corporation, Bagley Housing Development Corporation, was formed to coordinate the work. Under the leadership of Vince Murray, a Ste. Anne’s parishioner, a small staff was hired and a storefront office opened. The corporation developed strong working relationships with the city, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Michigan State Housing Development Authority and funders, all eager contributors to achieving the goal.
Implementation of the plan progressed over 5 stages. Initially, abandoned homes were identified for rehabilitation or removal, along with occupied homes in need of repair and 11 affordable homes were built.
Through 2002, another 11 affordable homes were added and 24 occupied homes were repaired. As development expanded, 23 more affordable homes were built, a 65-unit affordable senior housing project was finished, Ste Anne’s historic elementary school was rehabilitated as a charter school, 40 more occupied homes were repaired, and a mini-park, alleys and sewer lines were refurbished by the city.
By 2003, a revitalized neighborhood that met the needs of residents was taking shape. Over the next three years, more than 100 more affordable housing units were added, 130 homes repaired and a market-rate housing development begun.
Simultaneously, the city refurbished the local recreation center and the neighborhood food market expanded in size threefold.
The neighborhood plan was completed by 2007, before the rebirth of downtown and while the nearby Michigan Central Depot still stood in ruins, serving as a nationally recognized symbol of Detroit’s industrial blight.
Neighborhoods can be rebuilt for their residents if the city supports a community-based redevelopment corporation, assists in its planning, partners in its work and helps assure involvement of other public and private organizations committed to the rebirth. The model established by Bagley Housing Development Corporation in rebuilding the neighborhood adjacent to Ste. Anne de Detroit provides the framework for getting the job done.
John E. Mogk is a distinguished service professor at Wayne State University’s Law School. He teaches courses on property, state and local government law, land use planning and urban development.
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John E. Mogk
John E. Mogk is a distinguished service professor at Wayne State University’s Law School. He teaches courses on property, state and local government law, land use planning and urban development. More by John E. Mogk