Chestnut
trees were in full blossom the day police cars blocked the entrance to
Heidelberg Street from Mt. Eliot Ave. while city workers dismantled part of
the Heidelberg project in May 1999.
Heidelberg
Project
Throughout the years
controversy grew between the artist and the city who held title to many of
the abandoned properties on Heidelberg. The decorated houses, which first become a tourist attraction and then won the artist international acclaim,
carried an implicit criticism of the City of Detroit's failure to seal,
demolish or maintain its properties.
Using the complaints of some
neighbors that the accumulation of found- objects had become a haven for
rats and posed a fire and safety hazard, the city has demolished parts of
the project on two occasions.
