Detroit is Creating a New Model

Hantz Farms drive to take over nearly 2000 publically owned lots on the East Side is an opportunity to think very differently about how we approach land use. We urge the City Council to put in place productive, visionary principles, policies, and practices to guide this and all future efforts at development.

There are some things everyone agrees upon. First, Detroit neighborhoods suffer from neglect. Public policies and private developers have focused their efforts downtown. On those rare occasions when developments moved into smaller communities, long-term residents were evicted, driven out, or displaced. This history fuels much of the opposition to Hantz. It is not a distant history. It is a pattern repeating itself today in the Cass Corridor as it transforms to Midtown, in Corktown, parts of southwest Detroit, and the east side.