June 1, 2014 | Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Blight Removal Task Force unveiled its much-anticipated report last Tuesday, a massive 331-page book packed with data, maps, graphics, and multiple recommendations on eliminating city blight in five years or less. Since the release, the Free Press has examined the findings and recommendations. Here are some questions and answers:
May 27, 2014 | Detroit Free Press
About a year before Mike Duggan ran for mayor, he invited Erica Ward Gerson, the chairperson of Children’s Hospital of Michigan, to lunch to seek her advice.
As Gerson recalls, Duggan told her, “I’m thinking of running for mayor, but the core problem in the city is land use and blight, and if we can’t fix that we can’t fix anything else. And if I can’t come up with […]
May 27, 2014 | The New York Times
DETROIT — A task force convened by the Obama administration issued the most detailed study yet of blight in Detroit on Tuesday and recommended that the city spend at least $850 million to quickly tear down about 40,000 dilapidated buildings, demolish or restore tens of thousands more, and clear thousands of trash-packed lots.
May 23, 2014 | Michigan State University Extension
If you took high school chemistry, you likely learned about the periodic table, a table that listed all chemical elements found in nature, including lead. What you probably didn’t learn in that class was how poisonous lead can be to humans and other animals. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are 24 million homes in the United States today where residents are […]
May 16, 2014 | MyFoxDetroit
The Director of Environmental Quality visited several of the worst illegal dumping sites in the city Friday.
One of the sites included a cluster of homes that were filled from top to bottom with tires.
May 9, 2014 | Pest Management Professional
FAIRFAX, VA—More than nine out of 10 allergists surveyed (97 percent) believe a pest-free home is an important step in preventing asthma and allergy symptoms, according to a recent survey conducted by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) supported by a grant from the National Pest Management Association (NPMA). The survey was conducted among medical professionals at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of […]
May 6, 2014 | MLive
The term ‘environmental justice’ is not heard often, especially in reference to Detroit, the birthplace of the industrial revolution, says Guy Williams, Michigan resident and CEO of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, who has spent the last two decades taking action to change that.
On Greening of the Great Lakes, Williams tells host Kirk Heinze about the double-edged impact of being a historically industrial city and about his vision for Detroit as a global model […]
May 2014 | Hour Detroit
In a neighborhood near Henry Ford Hospital called Northwest Goldberg, a boarded-up home at the corner of the block is surrounded by overgrown trees and broken glass. It’s a common example of “ruin porn” overplayed by the media.
Eliminating decay in Detroit is a monstrous undertaking, but if Reclaim Detroit and the Detroit Blight Removal Task Force do what they intend to do, things are about to change — for the […]
April 23, 2014 | Press Release
DETROIT – April 23, 2014 – CLEARCorps Detroit, an organization working to create healthy homes in the city, will be participating later this month in a national meeting to share best community-based practices for correcting home health hazards.
The event, organized by the Advancing Safe and Healthy Homes for Children and Families Initiative (ASHHI) and sponsored by The Kresge Foundation, takes place April 26-29 in St. Pete Beach, Florida.
There, CLEARCorps Detroit representatives […]
April 20, 2014 | BBC News
Many Western nations have experienced significant declines in crime in recent decades, but could the removal of lead from petrol explain that? Working away in his laboratory in 1921, Thomas Midgley wanted to fuel a brighter tomorrow. He created tetraethyl lead – a compound that would make car engines more efficient than ever. But did the lead that we added to our petrol do something so much […]