Bureaucracy: Why Detroit Can't Have Nice Things

Rebecca found this on our door today. 

Instead of "welcome to the neighborhood, could you use any help?" the land bank is threatening to seize our house because it looks vacant/unkempt.

It looks less unkempt than it did. Whoever posted this sign didn't see that all of the invasive trees have been removed from the backyard, along with a pile of refuse the previous owner had left piled up. 

Nor did they look inside to see that we have pulled up the carpeting, opened some of the walls, and disconnected the outdated/unsafe plumbing from the kitchen and upstairs bathroom.  

Never mind that our house just sold a month ago, or that we took out a mortgage with renovation funds, or that they received all back taxes on the house within the last month, or that we had a water meter installed so that we can pay our fair share, unlike the previous owner. Checking any one of those records would show that we aren't derelict owners.

I was just starting to feel better about this process, to think that many we're set up to get through this without more drama caused by the seller's ineptitude and moral bankruptcy. We attempted to call the number on this poster - twice - with no success.

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. This is the level of failed bureaucracy Detroit is working with. This is the real reason people are afraid to move to the city, or that people move out if they can - it's not that all of the housing stock is in terrible shape. Some of it is great. It's not that the neighbors aren't nice - they are. 

It's that people are concerned, rightfully so, about city services. They're concerned that different agencies within the city don't coordinate with each other. They're concerned that the city doesn't have its priorities straight. 

I hope they get this sorted soon, because there are so many wonderful things about the city. I don't want to miss them because my house was seized.

(Side note: we're going to file a bunch of paperwork with the city and call an attorney tomorrow, and we will call the land bank repeatedly until someone picks up. I also faxed them a copy of our deed and renovation plan. None of that tedium makes for a good blog post, though.)