The depths of decline: Demolishing buildings, excavating foundations, and producing land in Detroit, MI

Keywords: decline, detroit, demolition, urban political ecology
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 33

Abstract

From 2014 to 2020, the Detroit Demolition Program (DDP) demolished over 20,000 vacant and abandoned residential structures in Detroit, MI. Funded by US federal monies redirected from anti-foreclosure efforts, the DDP aspired to eliminate publicly-owned buildings in the aftermath of the subprime lending crisis and a wave of property tax foreclosures. The DDP partnered with demolition contractors from across southeast Michigan and the upper American Midwest to accelerate the blight removal and land clearance process. To reach its long-term goal of demolishing 40,000 structures, the DDP developed strategies for rapidly removing buildings, excavating basement foundations, and filling and grading these holes with new, clean material. All told, the DDP would need over 10 million cubic yards of dirt to convert Detroit’s derelict housing market into developable land.

In this paper, I build upon existing work on the production of urban decline to analyze the demolishing and backfilling of Detroit. Backfill material was not a geologic or topographic feature of the city’s region. Rather, I show how backfilling holes created through demolition and excavation permutated the predatory relationship between periphery and central city. Demolishing Detroit created a new market for the dirt removed to complete suburban construction projects. The supply chain for backfill material enabled contractors to turn Detroit’s demolition sites into the sinks of speculation. Instead of sealing off a past of neighborhood decline by creating empty space for investment, demolishing Detroit was a continuation of a process of decline that produced land but reinforced anti-Black and anti-poor regional geographies.