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Property abandonment presents pervasive problems for legacy cities, but land bank-oriented greening programmes that engage residents – including youth – in improving neighbourhood conditions provide the opportunity to mitigate the consequences of property abandonment. Diminishing the negative effects of vacant properties is essential for improving the health and well-being of residents in these cities. This research examines the impact of a vacant land greening programme in the Rust Belt city of Flint, MI, through interviews with thirty-three participating community groups. Participants believed that the programme was effective at mitigating blight and building community pride. These results are directly applicable to the development of future blight elimination programmes throughout the region.

Over the past year, as Detroit officials came under fire for fluctuating demolition costs and the Flint water contamination crisis was widely publicized, Flint has been making quiet progress on another front.

This initiative by the Genesee County Land Bank to reduce open space maintenance costs has planted Dutch White Clover on 1800 lots in Flint.

MT. MORRIS, MI (WNEM) - It's a hotel that looks almost as hospitable as a haunted house.

GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- Nearly 1,800 vacant and blighted houses have been demolished in recent years under the largest blight-elimination program in Flint history, officials announced Monday, June 8.

Flint is nearing the end of a major blight-elimination program and additional demolitions are planned this month as part of the effort.

The state is sending $2.6 million in federal funds here to demolish blighted homes in the historic Civic Park neighborhood in northwest Flint, an area where General Motors once used assembly-line techniques to quickly build nearly 1,000 homes for workers in a single construction season.

The Genesee County Land Bank announced Wednesday that it has been awarded $2.6 million to demolish vacant houses and eradicate blight in Flint's Civic Park neighborhood.

Most auto jobs in Flint are gone, but the city is still saddled with unhappy souvenirs of an industrial past. What comes next for the Vehicle City?

Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) has announced six recipients will receive Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) funding income. The $2.55 million awarded in the first funding round will help finance blight demolition and senior housing projects in Berrien, Calhoun, Genesee, Ingham and Kalamazoo counties.

The EPA has set up a decontamination operation at the site of a former Mid-Michigan dry cleaners. The agency says it could be a month before the property is cleaned up.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp., toured Flint's Civic Park neighborhood Monday, May 5, getting a first-hand look at a pilot program that aims to improve the appearance of vacant homes.

Planning continues for the site of a former General Motors manufacturing complex in Flint known as “Chevy in the Hole” to be transformed into parkland, officials said

Thursday, Flint and the Genesee County Land Bank will share a site  design plan for the old Chevy in the Hole site.

 The long list of properties sliding toward tax foreclosure on March 31 is littered with parcels valued at no more than a few hundred dollars, but with just weeks for owners to settle their tax debts, there are also nine prize parcels that assessors say are worth more than $1 million each.