Bill Schuette stands in front of the blighted home. on Saturday.
Behind in the polls and looking for a boost as the Nov. 6 election draws near, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette calls for the resignation of Democratic lieuetnenat governor candidate Garlin Gilchrist II over a blighted multi-family Detroit home he owns.
The North End blight site.
“He can’t manage this or Michigan,” Schuette tweets. “Gilchrist should resign from the ticket.”
The remarks follow a Friday column in Deadline Detroit by Charliie LeDuff, describing how Gilchrist purchased a dilapidated North End home at 253 Marston St. in 2016 from the Detroit Land Bank that has angered neighbors. It's half a block west of Brush Street between East Euclid and Chandler streets.
In response, the city threatens to take back the property if Gilchrist doesn't take action to fix it this coming week.
Schuette taped a video in front of the blight site:
@gretchenwhitmer's first big choice was picking @garlin, despite thousands in elections fines. Now he's ignored warnings for his rotting rental officials say is a threat to the kids we saw riding bikes. He can't manage this or Michigan. Gilchrist should resign from the ticket. pic.twitter.com/SBBEsQUXCw
— Bill Schuette (@SchuetteOnDuty) October 13, 2018
Whitmer’s campaign dismisses Schuette’s call for Gilchrist to resign.
“Every poll shows Bill Schuette losing badly to Gretchen Whitmer, so now he’s attacking her running mate to distract voters from the fact that Schuette filed nine lawsuits to rip healthcare away from Michigan families,” Whitmer campaign spokesman Zac Pohl said in a statement to Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker. "Schuette’s desperate attacks won’t work and Michigan voters aren’t buying it.”
Gilchrist's ownership raises questions about whether he got special treatment from the city after failing to fix up the structure.
LeDuff reports that one caveat of the purchase from the Detroit Land Bank is that the owner must hold the property for three years, or turn over a piece of the profit to the city. Another caveat is that buyers like Gilchrist II must rehabilitate the property within six months. If not, the city can take it back. Gilchrist, LeDuff noted, has never been issued a blight ticket.
Garlin Gilchrist II
On Friday, Gilchrist issued a statement to Deadline Detroit:
Two years after my family moved back to Detroit, I purchased the apartment building on Marston. I planned to rehabilitate the property from its significant fire damage and rent out its eight, one-bedroom apartments. I committed to this project because North End has personal significance to my childhood.
I have been working to secure financing for the project since purchasing it because I knew significant work needed to be done. Because I wanted to begin quickly, I began to deal with the building’s immediate problems and work to make it structurally sound before finalizing that financing.
I exhausted my personal resources to demolish the building interior, remove the collapsing rear balcony and staircase, repair the significant damage to the leaking roof, install main line plumbing, install new windows, and level the building by raising it eight inches. I also hired an architect to draw plans for the building and initiate the permitting process for construction.
