Bailey Park Grounds Crew

Sandra, BP Grounds Crew Manager, shopping for new equipment.

Howard, BP Grounds Crew team member, posing for portraits at the Hub.

Tim, BP Grounds Crew team member, at 2021 MDH Family Fest.

The Story of the Bailey Park Grounds Crew

The Bailey Park Grounds Crew (BPGC) is transforming the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood one lot at a time. Like many Detroit neighborhoods, McDougall-Hunt saw declines in  population, increases in abandoned property, and blight.

​As an organization BPNDC began as a crusade against deterioration of a community. In past years, BPNDC successfully revitalized Calcara Park, and conducted major blight removal on vacant lots through the FREE Project. We know that blight/overgrowth removal has been and continues to be a major concern throughout the city, with a number of organizations working to address it. Over the years, we’ve worked with individual residents who are motivated to use their own time and equipment to maintain the vacant lots near their homes, as well as larger organizations like the Motor City Grounds Crew. 

Through this series of volunteer driven blight removal projects, we have been able to accomplish a lot however, these one-off projects are difficult to sustain, and they don’t provide a long-term solution to a problem that keeps on growing, literally! When it came to planning the largest and ongoing transformation of  24 vacant lots that is being transformed into a community park called Bailey Park we  took what we’ve learned about blight removal and started a community landscaping business that is led and operated by residents who earn an income to provide landscaping and blight removal services.  The Grounds Crew is our first employment and community development initiative. In the 2021 season the GC is made up of 4 adults and 4 youth  and they currently service 83 lots which are a mix of private and Detroit Land Bank owned.  

Beyond mowing and maintenance, the BP Grounds Crew provides for resident relationship building, economic skill development, and youth mentorship which is invaluable to McDougall-Hunt residents. This story of the Bailey Park Grounds Crew is one of residents of a beleaguered community coming together to create a positive loop of reclaiming land from blight and disuse, creating economic opportunity for each other, and restoring their neighborhood without major outside developers and it needs to be shared.  

If you are interested in joining the Bailey Park Grounds Crew, click here. 

​Project Clean and Safe

​The Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Corporation is dedicated to being a leader in Detroit for creating a clean and safe neighborhood. Each year Bailey Park Neighborhood Development Corporation leads several neighborhood clean-up efforts as well as participating in the Motor City Makeover, Detroit’s annual citywide volunteer clean-up and beautification initiative. A clean neighborhood is a neighborhood with pride, less crime, and a healthier environmental footprint. All of which leads to increase property values, a much safer community and an increase in civic pride.

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