Blight
Baltimore Program Could Repurpose Thousands of Vacant Housing Units
The city and state are investing $3 billion in rescuing vacant residential properties to promote homeownership and reduce blight.
Opinion: Cities Must Take Action on Blighted Downtown Parking Lots
Surface parking lots take up as much as a third of downtown land in some cities, dragging down tax revenue and redevelopment prospects.
Newark Kicks Off $1 Home Sale Program
The city sold seven properties as part of an effort to revive blighted sites and encourage housing production.
Pre-Permitted Housing Plans Can Combat Blight, Revive Neighborhoods
Faced with blighted neighborhoods where the cost of building a house would exceed its eventual market value, the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, streamlined the permitting process to help lower development costs.
How Effective are Philadelphia’s Keystone Opportunity Zones?
The impacts of a tax break designed to create jobs, stimulate development, and reduce blight are proving hard to track.
Map Identifies DeKalb County Brownfield Sites
The GIS tool is designed to help developers find vacant and blighted lots that could be restored for new housing or other uses.
Detroit Mayor Proposes Vacant Lot Tax
A new tax plan would reform the city’s famously low vacancy tax rates in an effort to stimulate more housing development and limit speculation.
Ohio to Demolish Thousands of Vacant Buildings
The state is funding a $150 million effort to raze blighted buildings to accelerate revitalization.
What Is Urban Renewal?
Ostensibly intended to improve "blighted" neighborhoods and provide better housing conditions, urban renewal often involved displacement and the wholesale destruction of urban communities.
$160 Million in Bond Funding for Demolitions on the Ballot in Detroit
Proposal N, on the ballot for Detroit voters next week, will provide $160 million in bond funding for demolitions and $90 million to mothball homes for future rehab, but, according to this opinion, it won't solve the city's blight challenges.
Detroit Continues Demolition Program After Lead Risks Revealed
The city of Detroit said it would halt a demolition program after a report revealed the amount of lead released by demolitions into the environment, risking the health of children and other local residents.
Neighborhood Homes Investment Act Picks Up Momentum
A proposed tax credit designed to stabilize single-family neighborhoods facing growing numbers of vacancies is making its way through Congress.
Neighborhood Homes Investment Act Offers Tax Incentives for Single-Family Rehabs
In struggling communities full of single-family homes, the cost is too high for developers to acquire and renovate blighted properties. The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act would offer an incentive for investment in existing building stock.
'Extremely Blighted' Designation Spurs Investment in Nebraska Cities
Neighborhoods in Nebraska, located in areas already deemed blighted, will receive priority funding and homebuyer tax credits from the state.
Can Reparations Right the Wrongs Caused by a Highway?
An elevated highway destroyed an African American community in Syracuse, New York. Is just removing it enough?
Demolitions Can't Keep Pace With Vacancies in Baltimore
As the city of Baltimore grapples with a declining population, it faces obstinate challenges in controlling the problems associated with vacant buildings, including the "vicious cycle" of vacancies causing more vacancies.
Watch: The Dark Side of Eminent Domain
In cities like Boston, the government’s right to take private property displaced residents and destroyed vulnerable neighborhoods and communities.
The Dark Side of the Rust Belt Revival
Cities in flyover country are facing new redevelopment challenges as companies relocate from costly coastal cities. In St. Louis, downtown revitalization has also brought plans to tackle blight, and the consequences for residents could be immense.
Why Are These Prime Boston Properties Sitting Vacant?
Even though they often occupy valuable real estate, some Boston properties have sat vacant in various states of limbo for years.
In Mobile, an Institutional Revamp to Tackle Blight
Mobile, Alabama, has changed the way it deals with blight, and the results have been substantial.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
