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Lansing gets $6-million to fight blight

Kevin Lavery/WKAR

Now that we’re into the new year, you might be thinking ”I’m ready to give myself a makeover.” It’s not just people who have that impulse. Entire communities plan what they’ll look like in the future, and that often means getting rid of outdated eyesores. That’s a polite description of what cities large and small deal constantly deal with: urban blight. The city of Lansing has recently received a federal grant to eliminate blighted properties.Lansing is one of 12 cities in Michigan that’s sharing a $75-million federal grant. Detroit far and away got the biggest slice of the pie, $50-million dollars. Lansing's share is $6-million.

Current State’s Kevin Lavery talks with Jeff Burdick, executive director of the Ingham County Land Bank, at the site of one very blighted home off Kalamazoo Street on Lansing’s east side, which will have a date with a bulldozer sometime in the near future.

Kevin Lavery served as a general assignment reporter and occasional local host for Morning Edition and All Things Considered before retiring in 2023.
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