Justice

We Now Have Highly Detailed Maps of Detroit's Blight

A process called "blexting" and a neighborhood-focused property auction may help fix the city's crippling property woes.
People enter and exit a home being auctioned in the Boston Edison neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan May 17, 2014. The city of Detroit and the Detroit Land Bank are auctioning off homes throughout the city to try and aid communities with abandoned homes.Reuters

Detroit, a bankrupt city simultaneously experiencing its death and rebirth, depending on whom you ask, now has a more concrete guide to revitalize its neighborhoods and fix its growing inventory of troubled properties.

A 331-page report, titled Every Neighborhood Has a Future ... And it Doesn’t Include Blight,” was released earlier this week by the Detroit Blight Removal Task Force (an organization put together by President Obama last fall). Referring to blight as a "cancer," it recommends the removal of 40,000 unsightly properties within five years.