At its peak, the city of Highland Park was described as a model city with more than 60,000 residents and the housing stock to hold it. Today, the population is less than 9,000 and neighborhoods are plagued with blighted and abandoned properties.

But city officials see an opportunity to rebuild the housing stock and population. Carlton Clyburn is the Director of Community and Economic Development in Highland Park. He spoke with WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley as part of our Crossing the Lines – Highland Park series.  Clyburn says the city’s rebirth will start with building what he calls “the missing middle.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Carlton Clyburn: So, the missing middle are your duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes. What that does… it brings more families in, right? But also, it helps with development costs. So, if you got a 2, 000 square foot home single family, it’s going to cost you the same as a 2,000 square foot duplex. The difference is you can get double rent or double the cost for your return on sale if it’s a duplex.  And it fits, it matches some of the people that’s living out of wanting to get out of like apartment living, or looking to start a family those kind of things. So we’re really looking to fill in that missing middle gap.

Bre’Anna Tinsley: Okay, and so you said you just updated the master plan—

CC:  No, we just created our economic development strategy. We’re in process. We were going to do some updates to our master plan, because we need to do some things with our zoning. And the new requirement from the state is to do a housing assessment.

I mean, you could kind of look and as we’re planning out the city, we got a couple areas where  we’re looking at all market, single family, right? But we have a lot of areas where we can build out, and that’s what we’ll be looking at that missing middle.

BT:  I want to talk about the water bill situation that has been like a big thing in Highland Park—and correct me if I’m wrong, if I get any of these numbers and figures wrong. But it started with a $54 million debt correct?

CC: Made up. Made up debt.

BT:  And then the state, and then the state came in and provided, I think, about $30 million to help rebuild the infrastructure, which brought some of that debt down. Is that correct?

CC:  So we have been overcharged by GLWA for years, since they started. They didn’t want to abide by us. So, they said, “no, we want to charge you more.” Part of that agreement was us putting meters in the ground. Okay? We have put meters in the ground, and we’ve already found a $1.5 million reduction. So, they’re still overcharging us.

The rate that Highland Park pays is comparable to what Wayne County pays, and that’s 43 communities, you see. So we’re being greatly overcharged, but by us putting these meters down, by us providing the data, somethings got to give now. I mean, we told y’all we was being overcharged. Y’all owe us some money. We need relief.

Because you’re right. That’s another thing that will keep the developers away. So you know, the timing is everything, because that gives you know, that gave us opportunity to start working on our plan, our economic development strategy, updates to the master plan, and while the water folks are battling that water deal, then we can put these plans into action.

BT:  What about what residents are doing to rehab their own homes? Are there any resources available to them? Is the city looking to provide any resources to them?

CC:  So right now we do have ongoing grants, like through the HOME program and some of the other programs, but… they’re more so for [ages] 60 and over. So, I’m looking for more monies for not 60 and over, right? Because we do have families in need for home repair.

And, you know, the developers I talked to about moving forward, or, “Hey, we built this block out, and it’s a few homes we got to find money for, you know, rehab for them as well.”  Maybe not so much interior, but at least exterior, because the last thing we want is somebody you know to come in and build this neighborhood up and leave three or four houses looking like they look when we could pull money like a community benefits. I mean, if you’re pulling money out, give them, give them four houses, $5,000 a piece. Or, send your contractors over there to see, you know, what could be done within a scope to bring them up as well. So, I’m conscious of it. 

BT: You might have mentioned it earlier, at the beginning of the conversation, but knocking down homes, there’s a lot of blighted properties. Where’s the city at with demoing more of the dilapidated buildings?

CC:  We have $5 million worth of demolition happening, right? And that’s pretty much going to take our inventory out the state. Most of their properties are demoed. The county, most of them are demoed. They’re finishing up some more demo. The issue are the privately owned blighted properties that we do have nuisance abatement orders on. We are looking to, you know, hold negligent property owners accountable. It’s just a little bit longer process.

BT:  Highland Towers is coming down soon. Is there any plans to put, like, more housing there? Or what do you know, what the city is looking at?

CC: I would look so that’s something I’m talking to the county about, because we did have to transfer ownership. Oh, and Highland Towers was a privately owned property that we took through our nuisance abatement ordinance, and the county has money, so we transferred it to the county to knock down. So they’ll be knocking it down, and we’ll work with them on [a request for proposal] ​or what kind of development we want to see. But we probably want to see, you know, residential, retail, mixed use, something similar, just something creative like this, going up and down Woodward, and what’s in Brush Park.

You know, Brush Park is what I’m really a fan of, because it has a lot of the old bones. But you got this new stuff, you got the old stuff. That’s a good mix. And, when I saw what was going on in Brush Park years ago, I’m like, this is, this is what we can do in Highland Park.

BT: You mentioned the housing shortage, homelessness, do you think is that enough to drive people to Highland Park when the homes are available?

CC: I believe so. Yes. Because, like I say, with the Greenway, us being on Woodward, Davidson, 75, the Lodge, logistically, it makes sense. You got everything, what, three, four miles. You got all the field, all the sports teams right up the street. It is, logistically speaking, good luck.

WDET is examining the highlights and history of Highland Park as part of our Crossing the Lines series.

The roughly three-square mile enclave, completely surrounded by Detroit, has many of the same issues as the Motor City. Some Highland Parkers say it’s often hard for visitors to know when they have left one city and traveled into the other.

Those residents include Pastor Leon Morehead, who leads the New Grace Missionary Baptist Church in Highland Park.

He’s a native of Detroit who has lived in Highland Park for about four years.

Morehead says the enclave is taking steps to reverse decades of decline.

The following interview was edited for length and clarity

Leon Morehead: It is becoming more of a walkable community. Many things are within walking distance right now. I love the tradition. I love the family atmosphere of Highland Park. I can talk to any of my local politicians and it’s just like we’re family. Even if I disagree with what they’re saying, they make themselves easily accessible.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Do you get the same sense from your parishioners? Does they seem pretty happy with the area?

LM: Yes, we love Highland Park. We even discussed one time about moving and everybody said, “Absolutely not, we will not move from Highland Park.” It’s centrally-located. And there’s so many things that Highland Park is on the brink of doing. There’s some great developments that are on the way. There’s some housing developments, there’s more jobs that are coming online and more community partnerships, which are helping us a lot.

QK: As a native Detroiter, when you come to Highland Park, did you notice much difference between the two?

LM: With Highland Park being inside of Detroit, it’s almost like you’re just riding through one city. Highland Park was built to be a suburb, I was told. I actually grew up in the north end area of Detroit. As a child, we would ride through and we would see the Chrysler plant and the Ford workers that were working in Highland Park. So it’s not really much of a difference for me because I’ve already experienced it.

My children grow up now in an area where everybody knows them. It’s like the old school days. They don’t want my children to get in trouble. They’ll say, “Hey, he came in at eight o’clock at night instead of six o’clock.” Things like that. I love that part of the Highland Park community. It is an enclave. But it’s an enclave of love.

QK: If you suddenly were granted the power to change things to whatever you would like, is there anything you see around Highland Park that you would like to address?

LM: Just like many other places, I wish we could have the roads together. Our roads are not bad. But there are some street roads that I just wish were a little bit better. Especially with the hot and cold temperatures, we all deal with the potholes. We have a good [Department of Public Works] that fixes them. But I just wish we had a way to have self-sustaining roads.

QK: For people who maybe have not been through Highland Park, what would you tell them? What would you like people to know about the area if they haven’t been here before?

LM: Stop at some of our local shops. One of the greatest things we have is our recreation department. We got a really nice park. They have concerts every Wednesday in the summertime. And when you go there, everything is safe. Everybody’s having a good time. Everybody’s just looking at each other enjoying the family atmosphere. So it’s a great thing.