Up close: 8 most abandoned neighborhoods in Detroit

4. Grixdale Farms

% of unoccupied buildings: 36.9%
# of unoccupied buildings: 1,839

Across from the Palmer Park Golf Course is one of Detroit’s most ravaged neighborhoods and a hotbed of prostitution. Some streets such as Robinwood and Goldengate are more than 80% abandoned and often are targets of arson. But in the middle of the neighborhood are two architecturally significant streets lined with double-wide lots – Grixdale Avenue and Hilldale Avenue, which are faring better than the rest of the neighborhood but are still losing occupants.

3. Petosky-Ostego

% of unoccupied buildings: 37.8%
# of unoccupied buildings: 2,614

With large brick homes and two-family flats, this area was booming in the 1920s with a growing Jewish population. But the area eventually gave way to rampant crime, poverty and abandonment. Some blocks are lined with garbage, burned-out brick homes and overgrown lots.

2. NW Goldberg

% of unoccupied buildings: 41.2%
# of unoccupied buildings: 1,439

More than a century old, this west-side neighborhood has an abundance of abandoned, wood-frame houses. To the west is a largely vacant stretch of West Grand River and to the north is a blighted span of West Grand Boulevard. Both streets used to be bustling with activity. The area is just south of the origin of the 1967 riot.

1. Westwood Park

% of unoccupied buildings: 41.7%
# of unoccupied buildings: 146

Westwood Park sits between struggling Brightmoor and the middle-class enclave of Grandmont-Rosedale. The small working-class neighborhood of 402 houses and buildings came to life in the late 1930s. But a decades-long exodus that began in the 1960s hasn’t let up, partly because the housing stock is weak and unappealing.

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  abandoned, blight, Detroit Blight Removal Task Force, homes, motor city mapping, Real estate, Vacant

Steve Neavling

Steve Neavling lives and works in Detroit as an investigative journalist. His stories have uncovered corruption, led to arrests and reforms and prompted FBI investigations.

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