DETROIT — One of the first things 84-year-old Mahalie Wilson sees when she steps out of her home on Detroit’s east side is the brick, steel and concrete skeleton of the long-vacant Packard plant that looms over the neighborhood.
Built in the early 1900s and still churning out high-end cars into the 1950s, the massive complex that was once one of the city’s industrial jewels is now one of the nation’s foremost examples of urban blight — an inescapable reminder of Detroit’s better days.
“I deal with it,” Wilson, who’s lived within shouting distance of the plant since 1969, said recently from behind her front security screen door. “I’ve got used to it. I don’t pay it any attention.”
Detroit has aggressively taken on its blight problem since emerging from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history eight years ago, and has razed more than 20,000 abandoned houses in that time. That work is ongoing, but it has been largely covered by federal funding and the city still must figure out how to pay for the much more expensive demolition or find developers to repurpose scores of abandoned or aging apartment buildings, factories and other massive eyesores.
The problem is hardly unique to Detroit — Baltimore, Milwaukee and Dayton, Ohio, are among the many cities looking to rid themselves of old structures. But it might be most pronounced in Detroit because of its relatively rapid decline during the decades of white flight, when white, middle-class families left for the suburbs and beyond, and the city lost more than half of its people.
Like the Packard plant, many factories in Detroit were located close to workers’ homes. As the buildings faded and became blighted, so did Wilson’s neighborhood and others across the city.
“For me, it’s absolutely clear — older industrial sites closed due to white flight,” said Andre Perry, a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
“In many cases, Black people moved in because of the lower property values, hoping that some development comes their way,” he added. “When development dollars are needed to go to Black spaces, it’s hard to come by.”
If Mayor Mike Duggan has his way, parts of the 3.5 million-square-foot, 40-acre Packard plant complex will be demolished by year’s end. Other portions will be redeveloped. It’s among 100 large structures the city has identified to be torn down or renovated.
“This is emblematic of the…
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