Night of hell: Arsonists burn 5 houses, apartment building in 1 sad block of Detroit
If you count the drug house and squatters, W. Robinwood has eight occupied houses, and the remaining 82 lots are either empty or have abandoned, dilapidated houses.
Photo essay: Explore blighted area to be turned into 140-acre forest in Detroit
The largely abandoned area is littered with trash, tires, furniture, rotting homes and discarded boats.
Debris falls from neglected Metropolitan Building in downtown Detroit, hits truck
The 15-story gothic-style building is owned by Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority, which has let the building rot while spending $285 million in public funds for a new Red Wings arena.
Investor who wanted Packard Plant scraps buildings, late on taxes
When one of our photographers approached the scrappers to inquire about the illegal operation, they tried to run him over with a truck.
What’s in store for Detroit’s long-idle Chinatown?
Key to the transformation is a tattoo artist and a nonprofit that has been wildly successful in Midtown.
Fire guts apartment building known for enormous Obama ad off I-75 in Detroit
The 104-year-old building was popular on Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook.
Demo begins on storied high-rises at Brewster-Douglass housing projects
Brewster-Douglass is considered the nation’s first publicly funded housing project for black people when it was built in the 1930s.
Biohazards, medical records languish in abandoned Detroit nursing home
A Grosse Pointe Park company closed the building and left behind bloody syringes, prescription pills, medical supplies and thousands of confidential medical records stacked from the floor to the ceiling.
Blight authority to level 35-block area, 68 homes in northwest Detroit
The area is riddled with abandoned, burned-out homes, dead trees and discarded tires and garbage.
New security at Packard Plant chases away long-time scrappers
Over the past two years, scrappers have grown bolder and more reckless, causing fires, tearing down buildings and trying to topple the enormous water tower.