Posts Tagged ‘Michigan’
Michigan Initiatives Quarterly Update: April – June 2021
This quarterly update from Community Progress’ Michigan Initiatives team highlights important revitalization news and resources from across the state. For specific inquiries or to share how your community is addressing vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties in Michigan, email Payton Heins, Director of Michigan Initiatives at pheins@communityprogress.org.
Read MoreMichigan Quarterly Update: January – March 2021
This quarterly update from Community Progress’ Michigan Initiatives team highlights important revitalization news and resources from across the state. For specific inquiries or to share how your community is addressing vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties, email Payton Heins, Director of Michigan Initiatives at pheins@communityprogress.net
Read MoreCOVID-19 Impact on Michigan Communities: Risks, Interventions, Resources
There is no question. Michigan communities are encountering and will continue to feel the impacts of the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis. As unemployment skyrockets, state and local revenue sources diminish, and public health costs soar, immediate action must be taken to preserve homes and businesses now and into the future. To help, the…
Read MoreBringing Michigan’s land bank leaders together in rural Marquette County
Land bank leaders gathered in Marquette, Michigan, last month, on June 13-14th, for the third annual Michigan Land Bank Leadership Summit. The event drew over 40 participants, representing over 20 land banks. This year, the Michigan Association of Land Banks also invited participants from counties interested in starting a land bank to join the discussion…
Read MoreThis Tax Day, making the case for property tax reform in Detroit
Ineffective property tax systems can have a detrimental community impact. They weaken the delivery of services that improve quality of life for local residents – from essential functions like public safety, to supportive services like enforcement of property maintenance standards. Many of the cities that we work in face a shrinking population, widespread property…
Read MoreTwo new resources to inform short- and long-term vacant land reuse
When it comes to vacant land reuse, perhaps no other city in the nation faces as great of a challenge and as much of an opportunity as Detroit. Currently, Detroit has an inventory of more than 100,000 vacant parcels without buildings. In terms of land mass, that’s around 20 square miles of empty land, roughly…
Read MoreNew research finds investment in neighborhood stabilization pays off—and more is needed
“House prices have sufficiently recovered and foreclosure activities have sufficiently abated.” That was the faulty argument made this past July to support a U.S. Senate proposal that would have rescinded federal Hardest Hit Funds – a critical source of funding for neighborhood stabilization efforts in communities hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis – in order…
Read MoreHow Detroit Taught Itself to Demolish Vacant Houses Safely
Cross-posted from Next City, this article is one of a ten-part series inspired by the 2015 Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference. “It kind of used to be like the Wild West a few years ago,” Regina Royan recalls, thinking back on how buildings were being demolished in Detroit prior to 2014. The old norms, she says, lacked oversight. “We realized…
Read MoreWhat does it take to eliminate blight? New framework offers a model
The City of Flint Planning Commission recently adopted Beyond Blight: City of Flint Blight Elimination Framework. With a five-year implementation timeline, the Framework uses an in-depth, data-driven approach that brings increased transparency and clarity to the City’s work — and, in so doing, it offers a model other cities can learn from. News release >> Framework summary…
Read MoreHow Marquette County Land Bank took on property at an abandoned air force base
Land banks can be useful in communities of all sizes. While land banking has been established as an important tool in the urban revitalization toolbox, our new report, Take it to the Bank: How Land Banks Are Strengthening America’s Neighborhoods, also shows how land banking works in more rural areas. Marquette County is located in…
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