The population in Detroit has been declining. The resulting vacant buildings are squatted in, vandalized and/or used as crack houses. That’s a nightmare for law enforcement. Tear down the buildings and those activities will no longer have homes.
Actually, if you wanted to make this interesting...let the city use the court system and seize property as no taxes are filed or ownership is declared null. Use some stimulus money have 500 guys hired with dozers, trucks and shovels...and start tearing down various areas. Then bring in a crew with seedlings and trees. Over ten years...they might actually recover fifty percent of the city. The catch here is that no one should be allowed to offer money to the city for thirty years for this recovered property...and let the forest start to show maturity.