Detroit pays Core City to remove debris and cut weeds on some vacant properties in central Detroit, but only three times a year. Most vacant land in Detroit never gets tended, Rhyan said. Sometimes the only thing that really works is city officials helping, as much as possible, a core group of people who really want to help their neighborhood come back. Ed Gilliland, director of advisory services at the National Council for Urban Economic Development in Washington, D.C., said population loss gives mayors a chance to accumulate open land to sell to developers. The biggest thing that stops any kind of economic development is that developers can't find the land.
Many inner cities have lots of land.
They need to work on assembling that land and packaging it. I think the city is now ready. Two community parks nearby had been garbage-strewn lots until last year. It used to be all trash and weeds and junk. I understand that, but we still do.