They had the money and it still took 7 years to get the governmental approvals!!!-------Biz improvement zones: A concept that's picking up

This is supposed to be a "feel good" story.
Read it.
It ain't!
Biz improvement zones: A concept that's picking up | Crain's Detroit Business:
For seven years, the Southwest Detroit Business Association has been working to relight the 2.3-mile stretch of Vernor between Clark and Patton parks. It raised $6.4 million for the project and is awaiting the final signature on the contract so that construction can begin in April.

"This is our largest-ever infrastructure undertaking in the history of the organization," said Theresa Zajac, vice president of the SDBA. "It couldn't happen soon enough. Every year, every month, our small businesses are like, 'When is it going to start?'" 

DIY cleanup 
The seven-year saga to bring the lights back to Vernor started in 2007, when the 371 commercial property owners along West Vernor, between Woodmere and Clark streets, formed the state's first business improvement district. 
These property owners realized that by pooling their money they could clean up the entire street, removing graffiti, picking up trash and sweeping the sidewalks in the heavily immigrant enclave. So they voted to tax themselves $155,000 per year and hired the SDBA to administer the improvement district. 
That made them just one of thousands of such groups across the country, but the first in Michigan and still the only business improvement district in the city of Detroit.