City Administration Responds to Charlie LeDuff’s Report on Blight
More houses are coming down, but why is it costing more than it used to?
Host Stephen Henderson talks with Craig Fahle, Director of Public Affairs for the Detroit Land Bank, and Alexis Wiley, Chief of Staff for Mayor Duggan, about the city’s response to Charlie Leduff’s report on blight removal. Leduff appeared on Detroit Today on October 23.
- Demolition an Ongoing Process: Fahle says that the amount of houses paid for are about half of what has been demolished because of the way the process works. “We don’t consider a demolition complete until all the paperwork has been filed,” Fahle says.
- Comprehensive Blight Removal: Wiley stressed that the demolition effort directly helped the city and not just a concentrated area. “This is not money that’s being spent in Midtown or Downtown, this is money that is directly working in Detroit neighborhoods,” Wiley says.
- Transparency: Fahle insisted that the meetings with demolition companies were not collusion, as Leduff reported. “These were not secret meetings. There was a representative from the State of Michigan involved in the discussion,” Fahle says.
Hillary Crawford/WDET
To hear more of their conversation, click the link above.
