Morningside Blight Brigade Scores Its First Win
MCO board member Nic Hall had reported a pile of concrete on the E. Outer Dr. median through the city’s SeeClickFix website several times, with no results. Then Dorothy Johnson told him at the Blight Brigade’s first meeting last month that the median is Wayne County’s responsibility, not the city’s. She gave Nic the contact information, he reported it to the county, and two days later the concrete was gone. This kind of information sharing is just one of the benefits of the Morningside Blight Brigade. We’re more effective when we put our heads and hands together to tackle blight.
From left to right -- 1.) the original abandoned concrete pile 2.) following posting the issue on Wayne County Connect, the bulk of the blight was removed 3.) Nic Hall cleaned up the remnants that the county missed.
Our first meeting last month was a productive one, and since blight is everyone’s concern, we hope you’ll join us on the fourth Saturday of each month from 9:30 to 10:30 at the Morningside Café.
Although problems like noisy neighbors and barking dogs are certainly a nuisance, we’re going to focus our efforts for now on visible eyesores like illegal dumping, abandoned cars, and curbside solid waste issues.
The first step in eliminating blight, of course, is to report the problem through the city’s dedicated website, https://seeclickfix.com/detroit, or its companion phone app, Improve Detroit. We hope every Morningside resident will get comfortable using them. If you’re not familiar with the technology, someone from the Blight Brigade will guide you through it. If neither of those are an option for you, we’ll let you know what number(s) you can call to report various blight issues.
Sometimes SeeClickFix and Improve Detroit work well, but sometimes a single report doesn’t get a quick fix. This is where the Morningside Blight Brigade comes in. We’re developing a Fact Sheet to let you know how to elevate a report to the next level, with relevant contact information at your fingertips.
We’re also creating a spreadsheet to keep track of what problems have been reported and what the outcome has been.
Coordinating our efforts is essential to fighting blight, so we’ve set up WhatsApp, which is similar to text messaging but a little less intrusive. It can be used on a phone or computer. If you haven’t used WhatsApp, we’re happy to help you get comfortable with it. When we report a problem, we’ll let others in the Blight Brigade know so that they can add their own comments to the SeeClickFix report. The more comments the city gets, the higher priority the report gets.
If you’ve taken the steps our Fact Sheet outlines and the problem still exists, it’s time to come to the Morningside Blight Brigade for help resolving the issue.
If you want to be part of the solution but can’t attend our next meeting on the fourth Saturday of this month, April 27 at 9:30 a.m. at Morningside Café, please contact us at morningsidecommunity2@gmail.com. Be sure to let us know what area of Morningside you live in.
Blight Brigade meeting at Morningside Cafe. Image courtesy of Morningside Cafe guest
