Thanks for Giving Back to Flint

ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

The fundraising campaign to demolish 6608 Parkbelt Drive in Flint in now complete. More than 150 donors gave everything from $1 to $1,000 to help us reach our goal. In the end, we raised $11,113. It's a reminder that even people who haven't lived in Flint for years still want to do their part to help all the current residents who are doing such inspiring work in the city. Flint has a storied past, but I think this shows that it also has a future.

“The land bank is very grateful to all the generous donors who have contributed and made this campaign a success,” said Douglas Weiland, executive director of the Genesee County Land Bank. “You can rest assured that the results in this one neighborhood will not only be significant in eliminating this blighted house and the detrimental effect it has had, but it is also a great reflection on our society that people still come to the aid of others that they don’t even know. The neighborhood residents will benefit from your generosity for years to come.”

Here is the tentative schedule for the demolition of the house provided by the land bank:

September: Complete all demolition inspections, surveys, and request utility cuts.

November/December: Pending utility cuts, complete demolition, backfill lot, and complete winter grade inspection

May: Complete final grade, seed, and mulch lot. Conduct final inspection.

June: Make lot available for sale as a side lot to eligible adjacent homeowner.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the campaign. They are listed below using their Indiegogo username.

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The Coyne Family

Eva Grace

Tax Foreclosures Translate Into More Land Bank Holdings in Flint

An abandoned house on Humboldt Street in Flint's Civic Park neighborhood.

After the latest round of tax foreclosures, 14 percent of all parcels in Flint are now owned by the Genesee County Land Bank.

The land bank concept was made a reality in Michigan by Dan Kildee, now the Democratic U.S. congressman representing Flint. It was partly a response to Kildee's frustration with speculators treating Flint houses like disposable property and his desire to demolish derelict, abandoned housing, discussed in my profile of Kildee for Slate:

For many years, Kildee had no real way of making this vision—Utopian or not—a reality. As the treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint, he oversaw a tax foreclosure process that often took seven years to complete, and private speculators always had first dibs at public auctions. Kildee simply couldn't get his hands on very many abandoned houses. So he helped craft legislation in Michigan in the '90s that enabled public "land banks" to quickly gain control of delinquent property—and the revenue it often generates. Once it acquires a property, the land bank can sell it, rent it, or demolish it. It also collects interest penalties and principal from property owners behind on their taxes, rather than selling off the debt at a reduced rate to private investors, as many municipalities do. 

The flow of property to the land bank isn't likely to dry up anytime soon. Ron Fonger of The Flint Journal reports:

The number of properties in foreclosure is almost exactly the same as 2012, when the county took on another 2,772 parcels for failure to pay 2009 property taxes.

[County Treasurer Deb] Cherry said the large number of vacant properties in Flint will likely keep the number of foreclosures consistent for several more years.

"The good thing is, it at least has stabilized. At least the number did not go up, (but) we see the same pattern — it's maintaining," Cherry said.

Flint Fires

Last night's spate of fires in Flint just before planned layoffs of police and fire fighters has people on edge, especially in Carriage Town and the Grand Traverse area. Residents were out patrolling the neighborhoods last night, and there are plans to board up abandoned houses today.

Bill Gainey, who owns the Hiram "Hardwood" Smith house near downtown, emailed me with an update:

Our neighborhoods are under attack. Especially Carriage Town. They seem to be targeting vacant Land Bank houses that are next to another vacant house. This is terrible. I was on patrol for the better part of last night and more of us will be patrolling tonight. This is a lesson for all of us. We should not have any houses wide open for someone to walk off the street and torch it.

Al Jazeera Comes to Flint

Carriage Town and the Urban Alternatives House

The Urban Alternatives House (left) sits next to a partially restored structure on Garland Street. (Photo courtesy of Gordon Young)

An abandoned home at 519 Garland Street in Carriage Town is being transformed into the Urban Alternatives House with funding from the Genesee County Land Bank and UM-Flint.

It will become a classroom space for university students, the community and visiting school children, according to the project website. The house will maximize energy efficiency and introduce sustainable, innovative ways to manage energy and water use. In the lot adjacent to the house a vegetable garden will be planted to encourage more active and healthy living and provide a demonstration site for urban agriculture.

"Special programs geared for K-12 students will be presented at the UAH," said UM-Flint Associate Professor Richard Hill-Rowley. "The focus of these programs will be on the science aspects of energy use and conservation. A premise behind these programs is the need to introduce ideas about climate change to these students and use the site to explore ideas of sustainability, walkable communities, and locally grown food."

Flint Foreclosures and Federal Funds

More than $223 million in federal money is headed to Flint and other Michigan cities to deal with abandoned property. Greta Guest of The Detroit Free Press reports:

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan made the announcement today at Detroit’s Butzel Family Center, along with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing.

The money will be used to acquire thousands of foreclosed, abandoned and blighted properties in targeted areas throughout Michigan, which had the eighth highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year. About 1,500 would be rehabilitated, 2,500 demolished and 4,650 placed in land banks, which erase liens on property to compile land for future development.

Go here so see where the funds will be spent in Flint.

The money arrives at a time when a record number of Genesee County residents are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure.

Ron Fonger of The Flint Journal reports:

Although the majority of property owners who are delinquent in their tax bills at this time of year end up paying before March 31 rather than losing their properties, officials are nervous about this year because of continuing high unemployment and weakness in the local economy.

"That's more properties to maintain," said Doug Weiland, executive director of the county Land Bank. Increasingly, properties lost for back taxes aren't vacant land but are home to run-down houses, increasing the expense of keeping buildings secure until there is money for rehabilitation or demolition.

What's worse, Weiland said there are no signs that this will be the last year with so many potential foreclosures. In Flint alone, there are about 10,000 vacant homes, he said, most of which remain in private hands. "My guess is about 6,000 of those properties have been abandoned, then people stop paying taxes," and the parcels end up in the county's hands, Weiland said.

Land Bank Job Up for Grabs

Eight candidates are now vying to replace Dan Kildee as county treasurer and chair of the Land Bank. The job pays $82,749.

Ron Fonger of The Flint Journal reports:

A committee of county Chief Probate Judge Jennie E. Barkey, Clerk Michael J. Carr and Prosecutor David Leyton is scheduled to meet Wednesday to decide weather to immediately select a replacement for Kildee or whether to conduct interviews before making their decision.

Dan Kildee's New Gig

Ron Fonger of The Flint Journal reports:

The Ford Foundation said today it is committing more than $1 million to a new national land use group being headed by county Treasurer Daniel T. Kildee.

Kildee has told The Flint Journal he will leave his county job at the end of this year to lead the yet-to-be-named organization, which is also being funded by a Mott Foundation grant.

"The Ford Foundation has been investing in new approaches to metropolitan development for several years, both in Michigan and across the county," said George McCarthy, director of Metropolitan Opportunity at the Ford Foundation. "That experience shows us that city leaders are eager for fresh solutions to today's challenges, including foreclosures and abandonment, metropolitan sustainability and shifts in population.

Shrinking Cities in Michigan

Dan Kildee may be moving on from the Genesee County Land Bank, but his ideas are spreading.

Vince Bond Jr. of Great Lakes Echo reports:

Time could be running out for abandoned and dilapidated homes plaguing the property values of some Michigan neighborhoods.

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MHSDA) is seeking $290 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its New Michigan Urban Neighborhood plan targeting the 12 largest municipalities, including Lansing, Detroit, Highland Park, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

Others target areas are Pontiac, Wyandotte, Hamtramck, Battle Creek, Flint, Saginaw and Benton Harbor.

The projects would revitalize neighborhoods by renovating or demolishing abandoned houses while improving the potential for private businesses looking to open shops in thriving areas, said Rick Ballard, director of the MSHDA office of community development.

If the plan is funded, about 6,000 abandoned, foreclosed or vacant properties will be acquired and redeveloped, 2,500 structures will be torn down, and 1,500 homes will be built or rehabilitated.

Changes at the Land Bank?

Is Dan Kildee leaving the Genesee County Land Bank? The Flint Journal repeats the rumors here, complete with an intriguing quote from Kildee: "I'm not ready to announce anything yet," he said.

UPDATE: Go here for the Blogging for Michigan post that runs down how this story broke. This is a great example of the state of journalism...stories breaking on blogs and Facebook, with the understaffed Flint Journal getting involved very late in the game. And as far as I can tell, none of this is confirmed.

The Numbers Game

Some numbers simply can't be nuanced. The Genesee County Land Bank newsletter The New View has these sobering statistics in an article about a series of community forums being held to address Flint's housing and population issues.

"Flint's population is about forty five percent smaller than it was in 1960. Thirty two percent of residential properties are abandoned. With a surplus of abandoned properties, sale values continue to decline. This year, the average sale value of a single family home in Flint is $16,400."

You can go here to sign up for the newsletter.

Tearing Down Flint on Fox

Thanks to Randy Gearhart for passing this along.

Vikings on Ice

Let's set aside Flint's future and talk about Flint's past for a minute. 1976, to be exact. We know Dan Kildee as the country treasurer and head of the Land Bank, but it's time Dan Kildee the Northern High School hockey player got a little recognition.

(Photo courtesy of Dan Kildee via Facebook)

A Smaller, Greener Flint

Genesee County Land Bank Chairman Dan Kildee. (Photo courtesy of Jon M. Brouwer/Grand Rapids Press)

When temporary Mayor Michael Brown told a Rotary Club luncheon last month that one solution to Flint's woes might be "shutting down quadrants of the city," it sounded more like wishful thinking than actual policy. In fact, a Brown spokesman claimed it was just an off-the-cuff remark.

But a front-page story in yesterday's New York Times indicates that the concept is gaining momentum. It's even got an environmentally pleasing name; it's a "greening strategy."

As you might have guessed, Genesee County Land Bank Chairman Dan Kildee, who also happens to be the county treasurer, is leading the charge.

“Decline in Flint is like gravity, a fact of life,” Kildee told David Streitfeld of The New York Times. “We need to control it instead of letting it control us.”

(Streitfeld's article builds on a good piece by The Flint Journal's Ron Fonger published a month earlier.)

One thing the Times story inexplicably failed to mention is that Youngstown, Ohio has already put a similar plan into action that would be an obvious model for Flint. I mentioned this in an earlier post about shrinking Flint, and Fonger zeroed in on it in his Journal article:

The Land Bank chairman said he's prepared to promote talk about shrinking Flint by helping to bring in an expert on the subject, like Youngstown, Ohio, Mayor Jay Williams.

In Youngstown, the city is demolishing homes but also monitoring neighborhoods that have largely been abandoned, and is offering up to $50,000 in grants for remaining homeowners to relocate, according to news reports.

Flint is in the process of updating its master plan for the first time since 1965, so now would be the time to map out a "greening strategy" and make it official city policy.

For a racially diverse — some would argue racially polarized — city like Flint, it’s bound to be a controversial process. Namely, which parts of Flint get eliminated? And what happens when the predominantly white power structure selects predominantly African American sections of town to turn into verdant pastures? I don’t think I’m going out on limb in predicting that the north end will go before Mott Park or East Court.

And do you offer out-of-state speculators who own abandoned property the same payment as an actual Flint resident living in a house slated for removal? There's no question this whole process would be very complicated.

Are you wondering what this might resemble if it’s handled badly? Look at the mess Flint has made trying to close schools in its shrinking, cash-poor educational system. Shrinking the entire city could make that fiasco seem like a model of cooperation and efficiency.

Don’t get me wrong. I think this is a good idea. Flint has become a poverty-stricken town trapped in the boundaries of a once-prosperous city. Providing services for 34-square miles just doesn't make sense. But it will take leadership in the mayor's office to pull this off, something that's been in short supply for a long time in Flint. (Given his temporary status, I'm not including Mike Brown in this negative assessment. His short stint as mayor has reminded us what a competent, rational leader looks like after the Don Williamson years.)

At least Kildee seems to know what he's up against:

"I am pretty well sold on this, but the challenge is to do this openly, with participation of the citizens," Kildee told the Journal. "Really, the question is whether the city is going to let this happen in the most destructive manner or the most constructive."

UPDATE: Kildee appears to be on the porch of a house on Sanford Place, a dead-end street off W. Third Ave. in Carriage Town. It's not on Google Street View, but here's a shot of the street from Third Ave.


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The Return of Victory Gardens

Flint has something Los Angeles wants — urban gardens.