cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5226450
When Jaike SpottedWolf saw empty lots on Tillman Street she envisioned a sacred space for Detroit’s Indigenous community — a powwow ground, smokehouse, garden, church, and gathering place. The Thečhíȟila Collective, which she co-founded to support community needs, hoped to buy the land for its listed price of $7,000.
“Making sure there’s a space for native youth, native elders for them all to come together if they want, that isn’t gatekept. That doesn’t exist for us in the city,” she said of the approximately 30,000 Native people living in metro Detroit.
But months after the group expressed interest in 4751 Tillman, the Detroit Land Bank Authority raised the price of the parcel, which included seven lots, by nearly 2,000% to $136,500 — putting it far beyond the collective’s budget and raising questions about how land is valued and who gets access to it in a city with deep histories of displacement.
For anyone else with the same idea; it’s trivial to spin up a LLC with a white, christian sounding name. You’d probably have a much easier time.
Torment Nexus, LLC
You can have it for free!
This is an amazing idea. Always assume the worst in racist areas. They don’t have a good track record.
On a positive note, there’s this from a different tribe and location:
Long life of divisive Uncle Sam billboard off I-5 in Washington nears end with sale of land
Last Friday, the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation purchased the 3.5-acre property on which the billboard stands, paying $2.5 million in cash, according to the listing agent, Chehalis Re/Max’s Israel Jimenez.
The tribe sees the purchases as a strategic move for economic development, said Jeff Warnke, the tribes’s director of government and public relations.
The land, conveniently located right up against I-5, will offer various opportunities for tribal businesses and programs – and that’s what might be featured on the billboard in the future, Warnke said. If, that is, it isn’t dismantled.
Because of racism, greed, or both?
I mean, in general it’s almost a sure bet that the land bank is corrupt.
But the high price is low six figures, shit like this the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
It sounds like 7k was the price, and didn’t include demo costs because when developers buy they do it in house.
So that gets tacked on, and Detroit real estate actually has increased in price significantly.
This would have happened to any group of private citizens, which is the problem. Even working together you can’t compete with corporations, because they built the system.
