This week, Detroit is launching a new crackdown on one of the city's ugliest problems -- urban blight. A new city department will aggressively pursue building owners for code violations, in an attempt to clean up a pockmarked urban landscape unlike any other in America.
For decades, whites and middle-class blacks have left the Motor City for the suburbs. Left behind are thousands of crumbling homes and buildings, a sight that's become a symbol of Detroit's economic decline.
The city has demolished some of these buildings. In some cases, entire blocks have only one or two homes still standing. But some 15,000 more remain -- and not everyone agrees that bulldozing is the best solution. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.
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