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Steve Myers
Site Admin
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It's the latest in a series of initiatives to come out of Flint City Hall since Mayor Don Williamson took power two weeks ago.
While he was short on actual details Friday, Williamson called the news media together to say he's not only speeding up demolitions, but he's also got an idea for building new houses in their place.
With the mayor at the controls of an excavating machine, neighbors in Flint's east-side Arlington Heights neighborhood watched as he helped bring an end to the torched home that sat as an eyesore on their street for some seven months.
They hugged and cried and poured themselves some congratulatory champagne as the structure finally came down. The mayor and head of Genesee County's Land Bank said it was symbolic of a new stage in demolition for the city.
"We will declare war on old houses," Williamson said.
John Carpenter, a retired real estate agent and developer and long-time friend of Williamson's, has been put in charge of developing the new homes.
But just how much it will cost to build them? Where the money will come from? Who can qualify for one? And where they will be located? That information was not shared.
The mayor did make some vague reference to interest in them.
While the mayor's staff was short on dollar amounts and numbers, Dan Kildee from the Land Bank did say they're hoping to demolish some 400 abandoned homes in the city this year.
Kildee says the city has requested him to make 26 of those properties available right away for the new housing program, and most of those, so far, are on the east side.
Fill Story and video:
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/071604_NW_da_housing.html |
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Fri Jul 16, 2004 6:02 pm |
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