The city of Detroit received $1 million from a federal spending program called the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in 2014 for two projects.
The city would turn 40 publicly owned vacant lots into green space consisting of meadows, trees and other vegetation. And it would also install drainage ditches and porous pavement on roadways and developed sites near the Recovery Park area, about 3 miles north of downtown. Both federally-funded projects were intended to deal with rainwater runoff.
President Donald Trump's budget proposes cutting most Great Lakes Restoration Initiative spending, which has prompted critics to say the funding is critical to protecting the Great Lakes.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.