Detroit’s desolate middle makes downsizing tough

Christine MacDonald and Darren A. Nichols
The Detroit News
March 9, 2010

Mayor Dave Bing is committed to downsizing Detroit, but experts say his emerging plan must confront a difficult challenge: The most vibrant areas of the city also are farthest from downtown.

The most viable neighborhoods, with the fewest vacant lots, are on the fringes, near the suburbs. The ones with the most abandoned houses and vacancies are closest to downtown.

“We have a downtown core and then we clearly have an outer ring,” said Douglass Diggs, interim executive director of the recently formed Detroit Land Bank, a primary agency in the city’s downsizing push. “The question is how do you link those two?

“Looking at the maps it seems like the real challenge is what to do with the middle part.”

The question is at the heart of debate about how Detroit should reinvent itself to save viable neighborhoods as population declines from a peak of 1.8 million in 1950 to about 900,000 today. The disconnect is illustrated by two neighborhoods: Lahser-Berg near Southfield, where nearly all homes are occupied; and Briggs near the old Tiger Stadium, where wildlife outnumber residents.

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