Monday, July 25, 2011

Just An Idea

Detroit is offering cash incentives to workers who agree to buy or rent a home there.
Hey, I heard how they got some real issues in that town with all the vacant buildings, crime, a shrinking population...

I seen an aerial photo of a 'typical' Detroit neighborhood, and it looked to me like fully 1/3 or more of the city was vacant: abandoned homes and empty lots. My suggestion is to allow the neighbor of any vacant lot to assume control and ownership of said lot with the understanding that the property be kept up (no trash piles, over grown weeds, junk cars) while also not acquiring any increase in property tax liability.

Now, with all these homes that possess larger yards, the vacancy issue goes away while the values of the homes increase (somewhat). Keep the crime rate in check and you'll eventually find people who want to live in these restructured neighborhoods.

4 comments:

Bike Bubba said...

For that matter, I'm told that the city of New York owns tens of thousands of vacant buildings--mebbe time to sell 'em or tear 'em down there, too?

VLW said...

You couldn't pay me enough to move to Detroit.

Brian said...

I've long thought Detroit would be a great place to open up a brewery (just a brewery, not a tavern.) Lots of disused industrial space to be had on the cheap, and unlikely that local government will have much time to bother you.

That said, this was the reasoning of some guys that I knew who did this in east Durham (similar deal, smaller scale) and they ended up having to spend an awful lot on security, because of all the copper in a brewery.

Bike Bubba said...

Isn't the old Stroh's brewery vacant?

OK, like Brian says, the copper is gone, gone, gone...