The
PUBLISHER’S
Pen
I wanted to wait for an announcement out
of Detroit on the 30-acre sale of what
was once the Brewster projects. The
winning redevelopment bid for that prime
real estate, just on the northeastern edge
of Downtown Detroit, was to be made
public by mid-April. Local politics being
what they are these days, that didn’t
happen.
Not while the Detroit Public Schools is
garnering all of the headlines and as the
mayoral power structure plots avenues to
get a newly-minted billion dollars in
educational funding under the city’s
control.
Then, I saw an article in the Chicago
Tribune on the Chicago Housing
Authority (CHA). In the piece, I didn’t
know that blight is just as big a “political
football” there as it is in Detroit. And, I
damn sure didn’t know the State of
Illinois was set to receive another
$150MM for demolition through the
United States Treasury Department’s
Hardest Hit Funds program.
So, I put on my wading boots and
borrowed an old shovel from my
neighbor. Then, went to work.
On my bookshelf is a book entitled
“Here’s The Deal: The Making and
Breaking of a Great American City”. It’s
written by Ross Miller and last published
by Northwestern University Press in ‘96.
If we’re looking at the City of Chicago,
there ain’t many better sources than that.
Unless you call the Chicago Housing
Authority.
And, you know I got on the horn. When I
discovered that there is a “Choose-toOwn Homeownership” program through
the CHA, that was the spark I needed to
delve more deeply.