New report assesses worrying impact of vacant properties in U.S. cities, and what local communities can do about it

2018-07-30T15:50:00-04:00

Neighborhoods with high vacancy rates rarely recover, according to the study. Vacancy is “first and foremost a symptom of other problems — concentrated poverty, economic decline, and market failure,” the study notes. That means the solutions must go beyond just tearing abandoned buildings down. The study urges local governments to use tools like “spot blight” eminent domain, vacant property receivership, and land-banking to speed up the transition from owner to owner.

CityLab editor-at-large Richard Florida summarizes a new report by Alan Mallach of the Center for Community Progress about the increase of vacant properties and hypervacancy in cities across the U.S. in recent decades — another worrying aspect of the American housing crisis. The report assesses how vacant properties are affecting certain cities, and it also outlines mitigation strategies for local governments and community groups.

Debating the Root Causes of Zombie Infrastructure

2012-06-14T17:59:00-04:00

For generations, government policies have been geared toward creating endless landscapes of strip malls... In the process we have gutted our traditional downtowns. We have eaten up farmland and forest. We have, as Nate Berg reported this week, endangered the lives of our senior citizens. We have engineered a world where children cannot walk or bike to school without risking their lives. We have created countless places devoid of any real social value.

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New report assesses worrying impact of vacant properties in U.S. cities, and what local communities can do about it

Debating the Root Causes of Zombie Infrastructure