Macon has done 700 demolitions in effort to remove rundown buildings. Here’s the latest.

Macon-Bibb County and its partners celebrated their 700th demolition in the city’s “Blight Fight” initiative Wednesday with the tearing down of an abandoned residential building near two schools.

Seth Clark, the mayor pro tem and District 5 commissioner said now children have a safer walk to school.

“Our children deserve to start and end their school days with a pleasant walk, one where they can get focused on their day or prepare for evening activities - not a walk where the houses are falling in, rodents live, and present other dangers,” he said.

Mayor Lester Miller said the abandoned structure demolished was a residence located at 1160 Holt Ave. The house was the 22nd blighted structure removed from an area located near Central High School and Miller Middle School.

“For three years, we have focused on removing blighted and dangerous structures from our neighborhoods because people said they were tired of it,” said Miller. “They were tired of how it looked, tired of the crime it can attract, tired of the creatures that live there, tired of thinking their neighborhoods had been forgotten.”

Miller addressed the importance of the “Blight Fight” initiative at the annual State of the Community luncheon on Tuesday.

Miller said the number of structures torn down since the initiative started on April 16, 2021, averages about one structure every 1.6 days.

“This work matters to us - it matters to our children, it matters to our schools, it matters to our neighbors,” he said. “If you recall back in 2021 when we started this process, our main focus was trying to eliminate the blighted structures first that were located near our schools and churches and places people worship.”

Miller said in addition to the Blight Fight initiative, the county has invested $7.5 million in the Macon-Bibb County Affordable Housing Fund that will be used at low interest rates to revitalize neighborhoods where blighted structures have been demolished.

Miller said the initiative was one of the top priorities from the beginning of his administration after hearing from thousands of people in Macon-Bibb County on what they wanted to see happen.

“In order to build we must remove what sickens these areas and that is what stands behind me today so that means tearing down this blighted structure,” he said, referring to the residential building that was removed.

A Macon-Bibb County “Blight Fight” web page offers an interactive map of structures demolished in the area to-date.