DETROIT — On Tuesday, the city tore down the 10,000th vacant building under Mayor Mike Duggan’s substantial plan to wipe out blight as Detroit continues to deal with empty properties after the population decline.

An excavator tore down a two-story house on Marlowe Street on the northwest side that had been vacant for 20 years. 

“It was an eyesore,” said Jimmy Jones, a retired Ford worker and neighbor. “To have guests or family come and visit you, and this is what they’ve got to look at? It’s a big embarrassment. We keep our homes up and have to look out at something like that.”

Duggan, who started the program two and a half years ago, called 10,000 “a remarkable accomplishment” at a news conference.

“But we still have 30,000 to go,” he told reporters at the site. “The magnitude of the blight problem in this city is enormous, but instead of whining about it we got to work at it.”

Detroit’s population is becoming constant after decreasing to around 680,000 since 2000. Many of the houses left behind became unoccupied after people moved away and others lost to foreclosure were targeted by arsonists and metal thieves. 

“Every time one of these houses goes down, we raise the quality of life for everybody else in the neighborhood,” Duggan said. “And you look here, the beautiful houses of the families across the street. These are folks who stayed in the city, paid their taxes, kept their houses up and had to watch the blight spread. We’re finally starting to fight effectively.”