Blight

The City of Chula Vista has a highly successful anti-blight ordinance- so successful that some critics say they may actually be delaying the recovery of the local real estate market.

July 8, 2009 - San Diego Union-Tribune

Congresswoman Laura Richardson has gotten on the nerves of her Sacramento neighbors, mainly because she's never around. As a result, her home has gone untended and turned into a blight on the neighborhood.

June 12, 2009 - Los Angeles Times

Officials in Fort Worth, Texas, are searching for ways to deal with buildings left vacant by businesses struggling during the recession. Other cities and the state of Texas are also addressing the issue.

April 7, 2009 - Fort Worth Star Telegram

Jacksonville, Florida officials are considering removing pay phones on sidewalks and in downtown parks, which are often viewed as nuisances that hinder efforts to make neighborhoods cleaner and safer.

March 13, 2009 - The Florida Times-Union

A new study in Britain makes the connection between blighted environments and poor school performance.

January 26, 2009 - The Guardian U.K.

New York City has announced plans to use $24 million in federal financing to repair and resell more than 100 foreclosed homes in the city.

January 16, 2009 - The New York Times

Amid the citywide blight of Detroit is the City Airport neighborhood -- rife with crime and virtually deserted by residents. But now former residents have begun to write and blog about the neighborhood, its better times and its possible futures.

December 22, 2008 - Utne Reader

Once New Orleans comes to terms with the fact that it is a shrinking city, the city's culture and geographic location can help bring it back.

November 25, 2008 - The Times-Picayune

Thirty-one years ago, Jimmy Carter called Crotona Park East the worst slum in America. Today, this Bronx neighborhood has overcome its past with new homes and a lively park.

October 28, 2008 - The New York Times

As foreclosures increase throughout the country, more cities are looking to solve the problem of abandoned and dilapidated houses with demolition.

July 16, 2008 - The Economist

Foreclosed homes are creating blight in urban and suburban areas all across the country, lowering property values by more than $200 billion.

July 2, 2008 - The Christian Science Monitor

Business and property owners in Willets Point, Queens have filed suit against New York City officials, claiming the city has deprived the area of basic services in order to declare the community blighted and begin redevelopment proceedings.

April 10, 2008 - The New York Times

This article from the Albany Times Union looks at the importance of using a regional approach to addressing poverty, crime and inner city blight.

March 15, 2008 - Albany Times Union

Historic homes in the Brooklyn Navy Yard have blighted the neighborhood for years. Many residents are backing a plan to replace the deteriorating homes with a market, but preservationists are hesitant.

February 29, 2008 - The New York Times

Every city has blight – the unsightly, derelict, abandoned, disheveled, and under-utilized spaces of our urban areas. It drains the life out of neighborhoods, drives down the values of surrounding properties, and just looks really bad. So what do cities do about it? Some seize it through eminent domain for redevelopment and others offer incentives to developers to replace it with something better. Many of them, though, don’t do anything at all. But removing blight from a city is not impossible, and it doesn’t have to be an elaborate multi-party scheme or a drawn-out political process. It can be as simple as a coat of paint.

February 27, 2008 - Nate Berg