Detroit mayor's new plan: sell city lots for $200

[Gina]

Detroit (Reuters) - Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, under pressure to stanch cash outflows, unveiled a new plan Wednesday night that would allow property owners in the city to buy vacant city-owned lots for $200.

The initiative, which Bing said is designed to "reduce blight in our neighborhoods," specifically targets 500 home owners who have vacant city land sitting adjacent to their own property.

http://news.yahoo.com/detroit-mayors-plan-sell-city-lots-200-024702540.html

Thoughts? 

[JohnnyReb]

Will said lot continue to be valued at $200 for property tax purposes?

I suspect not.

[Gina]

Will said lot continue to be valued at $200 for property tax purposes?

I suspect not.

no, I am sure not.  But it is a steal and if there are any smart people there they could start turning that area around with just maintenance and viligant monitoring for crime.

[DumbAss Tanker]

It's worth a try, the valuation that will be added to the exising landowner's property taxes is a big question mark as is the matter of whether they would be allowed to build across the line as if both plots were one, but it does possibly represent a net plus for both - the landowners get greater value and perhaps the chance to make significant improvements, while the city gets dead ground back in the revenue column even if by only a modest amount per plot.

[Gina]

It's worth a try, the valuation that will be added to the exising landowner's property taxes is a big question mark as is the matter of whether they would be allowed to build across the line as if both plots were one, but it does possibly represent a net plus for both - the landowners get greater value and perhaps the chance to make significant improvements, while the city gets dead ground back in the revenue column even if by only a modest amount per plot.

I am wondering if they can build.  It adds in the article that they get an incentive gift card to buy fencing for the lot in the amount of $200.  I am wondering if they are just wanting them to add the lot to their own without building on it.

[BlueStateSaint]

It adds in the article that they get an incentive gift card to buy fencing for the lot in the amount of $200. 

Add two zeros before the decimal point, and get back to me.  I'm thinking razor wire, electrified, guard towers, at a minimum.

[Eupher]

I agree with DAT.

At this stage of the desolation, degradation, and shithole that Detroit has become, just about any idea imaginable is worth exploring.

Even BSS' idea has merit, because in some areas of the city, you'd BETTER have razor wire, a couple of mini-guns, and even a 60mm mortar set up, otherwise you'd lose your ass to the drug-crazed zombie hordes.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Even BSS' idea has merit, because in some areas of the city, you'd BETTER have razor wire, a couple of mini-guns, and even a 60mm mortar set up, otherwise you'd lose your ass to the drug-crazed zombie hordes.

At the ranges involved, you don't need the mortar, just its projos - you can flick off the safety tab and throw them over the fence.

 

[BlueStateSaint]

At the ranges involved, you don't need the mortar, just its projos - you can flick off the safety tab and throw them over the fence.

 

That fence better have a reinforced concrete component to it, then!  Something on the order of two feet, eh?

[obumazombie]

Will said lot continue to be valued at $200 for property tax purposes?

I suspect not.

I would tend to agree. If you pro rate all the city's budget, to tax revenue per plot of land, the property tax on land valued at $200.00 wouldn't cover the marginal cost of services provided. Somewhere in there the seemingly good deal would become a not so good deal.

[DumbAss Tanker]

That fence better have a reinforced concrete component to it, then!  Something on the order of two feet, eh?

A 60mm round is a lot like a grenade, in weight, frag effect, size...just really a LOT like a grenade, except it has an impact fuze instead of a time fuze.

[Eupher]

Actually, I have to hand it to Bing.

Here he is, by all accounts a successful businessman, retired Detroit Piston (who kicked ass and I think was an All-Star player at least a few years), and otherwise well-to-do guy who certainly doesn't need the hassle and the bullshit associated with being a mayor of a dying or near-dead city, and he steps up to the plate and at least makes an attempt to clean the shithole up.

He's a gutsy guy and my hat's off to him.