If Detroit’s vacant land was gathered together, it would span an area that’s larger than the entire city of Paris. Every year, the Wayne County Foreclosed Property Auction offers up thousands of properties up to the highest bidder. That is, if there’s even a buyer. In the 2012 auction, which just ended, 8,000 of those foreclosed properties ended back up on the property rolls.
When prices of $500 for a plot of land can’t tempt a buyer, what will? That’s the kind of mind game that keeps digital wizards like Jerry Paffendorf busy. He’s the founder of Loveland Technologies and Why Don’t We Own This?, which has been working to digitize land maps, streamline the land auction process and think up new ways to make Detroit’s neighborhoods vibrant again.
Paffendorf will host a presentation and discussion with UIX and HuffPost Detroit called “No Property Left Behind,” kicking off Nov. 28 at the Cafe Con Leche De Este pop-up coffeeshop in Lafayette Park.
We asked Jerry Paffendorf and Loveland Technologies’ Alex Alsup to help decode Detroit’s blighted land use puzzle for us — Click here to read on!
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