[title_words_as_hashtags
A LONG-time resident has shared her disapproval of new plans for the neighborhood she’s lived in for nearly 50 years.
Edith Floyd has lived on the east side of Detroit for close to the last century.
2
2
“It was real nice out here,” she told BridgeDetroit at the end of August.
But now, the neighborhood has fallen by the wayside and many homeowners want to move, Floyd said.
That neighborhood falls in an area that is now slated for redevelopment.
The east side of Detroit is aiming to finish a project that involves the acquisition of property next to the Coleman A. Young International Airport.
The city plans to redevelop the land to include a federally required safety buffer to the west side of the airport.
Currently, the city of Detroit needs to acquire 17 remaining occupied homes plus 53 other vacant plots of land.
The plan is expected to bring in $100million in federal grants throughout the next decade.
Using these funds, the land will be overhauled and rebuilt in order to welcome corporate fliers back to the airport.
There is also a plan to bring the Benjamin O. Davis Aerospace Technical High School back by 2025.
Several residents, including Floyd, are concerned by the plan and the loss to the neighborhood.
Lyvonne Cargil holds an annual memorial for her son at the Arthur L. Fletcher Playfield.
But the park will no longer exist under the redevelopment of the land.
“That’s a hurting thing,” Cargil said of the removal of the park.
“That’s going to hurt all of us.”
Cargil confronted Mayor Mike Duggan over the loss of the park at a meeting last week.
Duggan promised Cargil that his administration “will work with you to find an appropriate place in the neighborhood” to build a new park.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the Coleman A. Young International Airport for comment.
