The Detroit News. The Tappan Intermediate School was stripped within weeks of its closure in 1990 and now is a haven to drug dealers and a danger to the community, neighbors say. Parents are afraid to let their children go outside.
Vandalized cars dot the streets near the empty structure.
And the building, open to trespass, is suspected to contain asbestos and other harmful materials. Middle-class homes line Tuxedo Street at American Avenue, where the abandoned Tappan School sits. Since April 1998, efforts to demolish abandoned buildings near Detroit schools have failed to combat the deterioration of many neighborhoods. It's been sitting like that forever. In September, a Detroit News investigation found that 1,181 vacant buildings stood within a block of a city school.