Sidewalks to nowhere: Feds forced Detroit to waste $50 million in a decade

Sidewalks to nowhere: Feds forced Detroit to waste $50 million in a decade
"In a city where poverty is high, schools are broken and crime is rampant, the federal government has forced Detroit to spend more than $50 million in the past decade for sidewalk ramps that often lead to nowhere.
Many of the nearly 35,000 ramps, which are for people with disabilities, are on inaccessible sidewalks or streets with no homes.
City officials have fought the absurdities of the 2006 federal consent order, but to no avail.
The federal government said the ramps were required under the Americans with Disabilities Act, even if the sidewalks were useless.
“Our efforts to legally fight this requirement were not successful,” said Ron Brundidge, director of the Detroit Department of Public Works.
Over the past two months, Motor City Muckraker examined more than 3,000 sidewalk ramps and found:

• About 12% of the ramps were installed on sidewalks that are impassable because of overgrowth, collapsed homes or illegal dumping.
• Dozens of curb cuts were found on blocks with no occupied houses or buildings.
• Sidewalk ramps surround vacant schools and factories, including the long-abandoned Packard Plant.
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