Artists taking an artistic approach to Detroit's mortgage crisis

Most of the Model D readers know the "$100 house" story by now. So, there's no need to explain it. However, what Mitch Cope and Gina Reichert are doing in that community (and pushing to do city-wide) is a creative solution to all of the city's empty houses. They don't all have to be demo-ed. There are creative ways out of this mess and Cope and Reichert are exploring them.

Excerpt:

"One of the neighbors asked us if we could hold English lessons there," says Cope, "so the newer Bangladeshi immigrants would have a place to set up for an English class every Sunday. So it's definitely moving in a direction. We haven't held any of that there since it's still under construction. But that's our goal."

Since Cope, O'Geen and some of the other artists are home most of the day working on their houses, they're like an informal neighborhood patrol. It's a lot harder for thieves to steal trash cans and break in to houses when people are home watching.

Reichart says what artists are doing in their tiny neighborhood can easily be replicated in other parts of Detroit. She says the city could designate 10 houses in a neighborhood to be used for artists as live/work spaces.

Read the entire article here.