Morningside Blight Brigade Inducts Blake Mikus Into Hall of Shame

4890 Bedford is one of several properties owned by Blake Mikus. Image courtesy of Susan Newell

One of the things the newly-formed Blight Brigade can do to combat blight in our community is to shine a light on some of the worst actors causing blight. Blake Mikus, an investor from Grosse Pointe, certainly deserves the dishonor of being our first inductee into our Hall of Shame.

For years Blake, who owns BM Real Estate LLC, has been investing in and neglecting properties in Morningside. He now owns about 20 properties here, some occupied rentals, some vacant. So far he has been immune to requests from neighbors to take better care of his property. Let’s take a look at a couple of the worst examples of his disrespect for our neighborhood.

4890 Bedford is in the first block south of E. Warren. Morningside Community Organization organized a cleanup of the house a couple of years ago, but Blake didn’t take the hint. Now the house is starting to look like Sleeping Beauty’s castle, with tall weeds growing in front of the house and the porch obscured completely by vines.

4605 Bedford is in even worse shape. The garage tilted like a boxer on the ropes for years, but Blake said he wouldn’t tear it down because it was going to fall down on its own. Now it’s collapsed completely, but there’s no indication that he’s going to remove the debris. Since the house is at the corner of Bedford and Munich, anyone who walks or drives down Munich is going to have to look at this eyesore. The trash at the front berm has been there for weeks now, tarnishing an otherwise well-maintained block.

Blake has received dozens of blight tickets over the years, which he seems to be paying, but so far the financial burden hasn’t moved him to clean up. He complained to a neighbor on Bedford that if people didn’t report him to the city so much, he’d have the money to fix up his properties. Seriously, Blake?

We hope that residents will continue to report him through SeeClickFix.com or the Improve Detroit app. Hopefully sooner or later he’ll get tired of paying the tickets and either step up and do the right thing or get out.

If you have any ideas of legal ways to ratchet up the pressure on him, contact us at blightbrigadems@gmail.com. Better yet, come to a Blight Brigade meeting on the fourth Saturday of the month at 9:30am at Morningside Café. Our next meeting will be Saturday, June 22.

The fully collapsed garage at 4605 Bedford. Image courtesy of Susan Newell