Tell Me That Detroit Is Not An Artist’s Dream

An Obama administration task-force issued a “detailed” study of blight in Detroit on Tuesday and recommended that the city spend at least $850 million to quickly tear down about 40,000 dilapidated buildings, demolish or restore tens of thousands more, and clear thousands of trash-packed lots. Sounds like Brooklyn in the ’70s, right?

Using state law as a starting point, the authors defined blighted lots in a number of ways, including properties that are no longer structurally sound, have been damaged by fires, or become neighborhood dumping grounds. Hundreds of workers spent months driving around the streets here, observing and photographing the city’s approximately 377,000 parcels and feeding that detailed information into what is now, in essence, a complete computerized census of its buildings and lots.

Tags: architecture, art, artist housing, land use, Property, sculpture, site specific, studios