The city of Detroit is in the process of trying to rejuvenate its image. Under the leadership of Mayor Mike Duggan, some progress is being made. Now, however, the cleanup effort has set its sights on broken and abandoned vehicles across the city.
As covered by the Detroit Free Press, the crackdown kicked off in earnest earlier this year. In April, Mayor Duggan used the State of the City address to announce a new initiative targeting the blight of unsightly damaged vehicles cluttering up city neighborhoods.
When the city moves in to clear burnt-out husks and trashed vehicles, it’s usually a good thing. But the city’s crack teams are going further than you might think. The wide-open policy is snaring plenty of vehicles under a broad definition of “abandoned,” and that’s catching many residents off guard at the expense of their vehicles.
The Crackdown
This year, officers of Detroit’s Municipal Parking Department have been tasked with hunting abandoned vehicles, working in concert with Detroit Police. Vehicles can be considered “abandoned” if they have been on a city street without moving for more than 48 hours.
If you think you’re car is safe because it’s parked at home, think again. “Inoperable” vehicles on private property are liable to enforcement, too. Much of Duggan’s State of the City address called out commercial vehicles being improperly stored or dumped in residential areas, but merely broken cars are also targets, even when they’re on the owner’s property. The city simply doesn’t want to see residential yards with vehicles up on bricks in varying states of disrepair.
[Mercedes’ Note: It’s worth noting that “commercial vehicles” here doesn’t just mean tractor-trailers and box trucks. The city seems to consider any sort of business vehicle a “commercial vehicle.” So if you’re a plumber or a contractor with your business emblazoned on your vehicle, you can’t park it at home. Has Detroit become America’s largest HOA? -MS]
City officers will tag vehicles with a sticker indicating they’ve been deemed abandoned. Owners are then expected to move the vehicle to essentially prove that’s not the case. Nominally, the time frame is 24 to 48 hours, but extensions can be granted by calling a city number listed on the ticket. Tagged cars are entered into the city’s tracking system and then given a hearing date within a few weeks. If the vehicle is found in violation, a Certificate of Compliance is posted on the vehicle requiring the owner to move it within 24 hours. After that, the vehicle can be towed.
Once towed, the car can sit for up to seven days before the matter is handed to the state of Michigan. The state will then contact the most recent registered owner. If no response is forthcoming, the vehicle can be auctioned by the city or sent to scrap. Beyond the loss of the vehicle, failing to remove an inoperable vehicle can lead to fines which start at $100.
It can seem altogether too easy to fall victim to the measures. After all, a great many people will park on the street for a few days at a time without using their vehicle, particularly when out of town. And what car enthusiast hasn’t had a beleaguered project sitting on their lawn for a week or more as a result of a wrenching adventure gone wrong? Johnny Thomas, Detroit’s director of code enforcement, assured wrenchers that most vehicle owners wouldn’t have to worry, as the city typically only receives complaints about obviously abandoned vehicles that have sat for weeks or more.
Reality On The Ground
The Detroit Free Press went on a ride-along with city enforcers, with eye-opening results. City code enforcement specialist Benta Dixon was on patrol, ticketing vehicles on jackstands or with expired license plates. Expired registration was enough to deem a vehicle “inoperable” in the city’s eyes. Dixon spotted two vehicles without tires on the property of one Debbie Collins, a 69-year-old local of some ten years. The vehicles were ticketed, with Dixon explaining several options to Collins. “I’ll try to get a scrap person to come and get the cars before the city has to come and get it,” Collins told the outlet. “She was like, if you can get somebody to come in and get them, you can try to earn something from it as well.”
Some residents were surprised to hear they weren’t allowed to park inoperable vehicles on their own property without getting in trouble with the city. As per the report:
“You’re only allowed one inoperable vehicle at your property, all the tires have to be inflated and it has to be under some type of shed or tarp,” Dixon told Tyler, who asked Dixon, “So we can’t park in our own backyard?”
Dixon gently responded, “as long as it’s on pavement, yes. On grass, no.” Tyler, who has lived in her home as a renter for 21 years, said she parks in the back to avoid vehicle damage from speeding drivers, who have previously hit her daughter’s car.
Tyler noted that parking the vehicles in her backyard was intentional and an effort to avoid theft. “I mean, it’s not like we are rich people. You know what I’m saying? We are in a poor neighborhood and we are doing the best we can to survive,” she told the Detroit Free Press. Fellow resident Nakeisha Thompson similarly complained that residents should be able to park on their property as they see fit. “Where are all the cars gonna go? They’re gonna have to come on the street?” Thompson told the outlet.
A policy to remove “abandoned vehicles” is typically welcomed by residents. If vehicles are being illegally dumped on private or state property, that’s a problem. Those vehicles should be removed. But lumping in residdent’s own cars on the lawns of their own houses? That’s going a long way to interfere with people’s personal property.
Our own David Tracy famously owned quite the fleet back in his Detroit days. Many of those vehicles lived on the lawn in varying states of repair. They too came to grief with city authorities in much the same way, and from what we heard, dealing with the fallout wasn’t easy.
Ultimately, it puts owners of “inoperable” vehicles in a tough spot. If you get a flat tire in Detroit, you better swap it fast or get your car on a driveway. Leave it street-parked in that state, and you could quickly get into trouble. Similarly, if your car won’t start, you might not want to attempt a fix at home on the front lawn, lest a city inspector pass by while the car’s in pieces. If you don’t have a garage or off-street parking, it makes everything harder.
The city claims it isn’t trying to be outright adversarial. Much of the effort is going towards dealing with long-term abandoned vehicles. Trucks, trailers, and dead cars dumped on verges and on the back lots of abandoned homes? All of those need to be dealt with.
The problem is that it’s all too easy for the humble car enthusiast to get caught up in the crossfire. If you’re in Detroit with a few broken project cars in your backyard, the party’s over. Start figuring out what you’re going to do before the city comes knocking on your door.
All images credit: City of Detroit State of the City Address
It’s easy to pick this new law apart if you haven’t spent any real time in Detroit. Abandoned cars are a real problem and so are hoarders that just won’t get vehicles towed from their property that they know will never be on the road again. These aren’t enthusiasts by any sense of the word.
The suburbs also have these same laws. I live in the county just north of town. I had my running, driving, insured, and plated vintage Ramcharger parked in the street for over a week only because I didn’t feel like playing the car shuffle every morning and evening since having to go to an office every day again. I came home to an abandoned vehicle sticker on the car one day. I’ve since sold the truck, but I still have four cars in a small subdivision with two in the garage and two in the driveway. If I have more cars than that, then I chose the wrong place to live and that’s on me.
“Tyler noted that parking the vehicles in her backyard was intentional and an effort to avoid theft. “I mean, it’s not like we are rich people. You know what I’m saying?”
Counterpoint: If a vehicle is inoperable and you’re too poor to get it running, then you’ll be better off financially selling it for parts or scrap rather than letting it rot in your back yard.
Lewin truncated the full statement. She apparently has at least one operable car to go with her non-working cars. She parks the working car in the back, too:
Reason 450 I’m never living in a street-parking only place.
I’ve lived near Detroit nearly my whole life. Detroit does have a massive blight problem that needs to continuously be addressed. Detroit also has a massive problem with runaway power crushing it’s citizens. The police and the FBI and the contract towing companies are just two high profile examples. This towing of people’s cars will be a good thing until it isn’t. A team of Detroters looking to keep their jobs when things get cleaned up are going to go overboard. Cars will get towed that shouldn’t. They will violate the property rights of the citizens. I hope I’m not right, but sadly my 50+ years of experience tells me this will go wrong soon than anyone thinks. I figure either a project car gets towed from a garage, or they start hauling away cars for having one tire on the lawn and then it will start.
David Tracy moved West just in the nick of time.
Abandoned cars can certainly be an eyesore or even a menace, but this law seems to go a bit too far. I question if this actually has anything to do with cars or if it is more legally-sanctioned harassment of people the city wants to leave to “improve its image.”
If you lived here, then you would agree with the law. Drive around Detroit for an hour and see for yourself.
Per usual a good idea that is likely to be taken too far if the people administering it don’t use appropriate discretion.
48 hour limit on street parking is a bit low. Most cities are in the 72 hour range so you don’t get towed for having two days off of work and not going anywhere.
Most cities have some sort of parking on paved surfaces only rule, so that’s reasonable.
As DT discovered, inflated tires and current registration is enough to make cars look not abandoned.
Fine, then the timeframe to address the complaint should be weeks or more as well. Don’t rely on the goodwill of the people reporting things to moderate your laws. If it hasn’t become clear by now, there are plenty of people who will take advantage of assumptions of good faith in our legal system. Let’s not add more.
Having worked in Detroit, many people who lived in neighborhood parked in the fenced back yard to prevent theft of their vehicles. Alot of the stripped vehicles were usually stolen. I don’t get the rule about putting tarp on a vehicle that is being worked on, those blue tarps look worse plus they trap moisture and are terrible for the vehicle.
I assume that rule is likely a concession to people who are storing cars under car covers. Without reading the actual language of the statute, it sounds like it’s at least being interpreted broadly enough that it’s not restricted explicitly to purpose made covers and also so that enforcement in the field doesn’t have to make determinations between what car is “abandoned” and what car is someone’s future Woodward Cruise vehicle that they’re restoring. As long as it’s under some sort of cover, it’s good.
Early Autopian Slack call:
DT: The city wants me to clean up the crap cars in my yard.
Jason: Have you tried a chainsaw?
Beau: Maybe you should buy a new car.
DT: Hey Beau, is that a huge parking lot in the background?
Immediately after I posted this, the story was removed from the promotion cycle.
Was it something I said?