Bing Updates City On Youth Violence Initiatives

DETROIT (WWJ) - The City of Detroit is offering an update on programs geared toward preventing youth violence.

Programs are now in effect that work to provide children safe routes to and from school, as well as keeping students in the educational system instead of expelling them.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says his administration has already exceeded its first-year goal of raising 3,000 empty and potentially dangerous buildings.

"We're well on our way to about 4,000 as we speak," said Bing. "There's enough money that's been provided by the administration to take us through the second year," he said.

Admitting that Detroit is not going to find its way back by tearing down abandoned structures, Bing said there are now funds available to start rebuilding some communities.

The U.S. Attorney for Southeast Michigan has said issues with bus service in the city adds to unsafe travel for the kids. But can that be remedied?

"We don't have the funding at this point in time to keep as many busses on the road as we'd like," said Mayor Bing. "Our fleet is very, very old. There's an extraordinary amount of maintenance that's necessary."

"I'm not here to blame anybody. We've got to try to fix the problem, but I don't want people to think that we don't care. We do care," Bing said. (Catch up on the Detroit bus service issue, here).

Detroit is one of six cities selected by the White House to take part in the youth violence prevention initiative.