You may have seen the infomercials on late night television. You know, the ones that claim you can get rich by buying up property that is in tax foreclosure. Well, there is another side to that story. It's a tale of communities devastated by the abandoned properties left behind by speculators and absentee landlords. Flint Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors, was once a vibrant community. But then the jobs went away and thousands of people fled the City. Homes were abandoned, property taxes went unpaid, and speculators stepped in and acquired the property through the tax foreclosure process. The result is a phenomenon called contagious blight. This happens when one or two abandoned properties on a block diminish the value of the remaining homes, setting off a cycle of decline and abandonment that turns a once beautiful neighborhood into a wasteland. But the folks in Flint wondered what would happen if they took the money that would otherwise go to speculators and used it to rebuild the city in a way that reflected the new economic reality. Could a once proud city reclaim its soul and build a future even brighter than the past?
