Minister Malik Shabazz is a divisive voice in Detroit, but his popularity is gaining among Detroiters who fear the state will seize the city’s crippled finances and take over gems like Belle Isle.
“Oh, God,” Janet Howard said, fearing the spreading flames would devour the entire block of Garland and Canfield, where an arsonist also set a blaze the day before. “Please. Please, God.”
Scrapping thieves have become alarmingly more daring and audacious as police have virtually ignored an organized scrapping operation that has sprung up at the abandoned Packard Plant in Detroit.
The city is preparing to seize the Packard Plant because of unpaid taxes that the owner refuses to pay. He maintains he owes no taxes because the city won’t provide basic services to protect his property from arsonists, vandals and thieves.
Bing is expected to call a 1 p.m. meeting in council chambers in what almost certainly will be a bitter, combative session. Crowds have grown more hostile, and the mayor and council’s relationship is dysfunctional.
Today, state Rep. Fred Durhal is expected to announce he’ll throw his hat in the ring, and Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon likely will follow within the next two weeks.
These aren’t just any public meetings; they will drive the direction of the city’s future – and ultimately our lives.
The recreation center, which closed in the 2000s, became a source of hope and pride for children and teenagers at a time when the growing African American population was confined to segregated slums.
Rows of burned out townhouses and high-rise apartments are decaying, windowless and tagged with graffiti. Broken furniture, garbage and dead trees are strewn across the 30-acre ruins near downtown.
The nation’s first federally funded public housing project for black people is coming down on Detroit’s east-side, removing a behemoth eyesore looming over I-75, Mayor Dave Bing announced today.