Shivihah Smith’s East Baltimore neighborhood, where he lives with his mother and grandmother, is disappearing. The block one over is gone. A dozen rowhouses on an adjacent block were removed one afternoon last year. [...]
For the Smiths, the bulldozing of city blocks is a source of anguish. But for Baltimore, as for a number of American cities in the Northeast and Midwest that have lost big chunks of their population, it is increasingly regarded as a path to salvation.
— nytimes.com
In light of yesterday's decision to allocate a chunk of the $13 billion JPMorgan Chase mortgage settlement to anti-blight measures across the country, I also recommend this NPR interview with Jim Rokakis, director of the Thriving Communities Institute in Cleveland, Ohio.
NPR host Melissa Block: "How much do you figure it cost to tear down a house?"
Jim Rokakis: "It's an average of about $10,000 a home. So in a state like Ohio where there's still around 85 to 90,000 vacant, abandoned, never-to-be-reoccupied houses, it's an 815, $900 million problem."
3 Comments
"never -to-be-reoccupied" seems a bit harsh.
Rome's population dropped from a million in ancient times to less than 100,000 before eventually recover in the late 19th century (i hthink, probably should 2x check) and now well exceeding the million threshold.
Then agin the acients built the roads & water fountains of Rome solidly enough to remain in use to day while modern man is now demolishing 20 year old stadiums (amongst our most cherished modern buildings). Crazy that nobody seem to have perspective much beyond 5 years (or 5 minutes?) anymore.
I expected this to be another assault on Detroit or Cleveland. I'm surprised to see it's Baltimore.
While Baltimore may not be the most inspiring U.S. city, it's a major port, is located at the crossroads of the Mid-Atlantic region, is Social Security's HQ, is the home of Johns Hopkins, is commutable to/from DC, has nice suburbs, has a touristy and historic Inner Harbor, and cool Georgetown-y townhouses and lofts are being built in the center. Sure, there are blighted areas that will be knocked down. Perhaps the issue is that people are being displaced by gentrification, since Baltimore is not exactly bargain basement in terms of real estate prices.
Heck, the same could be said of Jacksonville FL, which is a newish Sunbelt city. There are newer buildings downtown on the north bank of the St. John's River and, a few blocks away, empty blocks that people seem to avoid.
I'm all for rehabbing, but loads of Detroit will dissappear to dust before its economically viable to rehab. Demo may allow areas to one day be rebuilt or at least not a drag on the cities resources
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