No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Research for Democracy: Linking Community Organizing and Research to Leverage Blight Policy
Abstract
Urban scholarship has focused on the role of power and politics in fostering uneven development, showing that urban patterns are not inevitable but controllable. Yet shifting power from one group to another is easier said than done. How may community organizations acquire leverage that permits them to alter political decision making around space and urban development? This article describes a collaboration in Philadelphia between a citywide faith-based coalition and a university policy research center. Called “Research for Democracy,” this collaboration combined research and organizing sophistication to successfully reshape citywide policy around neighborhood blight. Research for Democracy became a collaboration where community leaders' experiences were voiced in the collective research experience. This helped to reinforce alternative views on blight and break down the third dimension of power—the ability to shape the conceptions and ideas of the powerless. Armed with research ammunition that mirrored people's shared experiences, organizers strategically worked with other political actors to reshape the policy agenda around blight and break down the second dimension of power—policy agenda setting. As a consequence, Philadelphia's blight policy was broadened to include money for neighborhood stabilization, acquisition, and improvements, not solely demolition as was originally proposed.
... A growing literature addresses how universities and hospitals may function as anchor institutions, contributing to the revitalization of neighborhoods and the local economy (Adams 2003; Bartik and Erickcek 2007;Deitrick and Soska 2005;Ehlenz 2016;Franz et al. 2019;Harkavy and Zuckerman 1999;Nelson 2009;Nelson and Wolf-Powers 2010;Shlay and Whitman 2006;Sherman and Doussard 2019;Zeuli 2015;Zuckerman 2013). Hospitals and universities encroaching on neighborhoods have inspired resistance (Conner 2016;Hirsch 1998;Martin 2004;McKee 2016;Risse 2016;Silverman, Lewis, and Patterson 2014;Simpson 2016;Souther 2011), though communities that have debated hospital closings have not been unified in their response (Kirouac-Fram 2010). ...
... What most distinguishes Highland's neighborhood from our two other cases is the strong sense of place attachment and identity that translate into citizen participation within neighborhood associations, block clubs, and other organizations (Martin 2004;Shlay and Whitman 2006;Silverman et al. 2014). Highland Park, Swillburg, and South Wedge, three neighboring microenclaves, all have neighborhood associations with colorful, content-rich websites. ...
... The concept of medical gentrification brings attention to how the development activities of nonprofit hospitals and health systems are similar to those of corporations intent on remaking urban spaces for their desires and needs. While many scholars view the investment actions of universities and hospitals as positive forces for redevelopment and economic stabilization (Adams 2003;Bartik and George 2007;Ehlenz 2016;Franz et al. 2019;Harkavy and Zuckerman 1999;Nelson 2009;Nelson and Wolf-Powers 2010;Shlay and Whitman 2006;Sherman and Doussard 2019;Zeuli 2015;Zuckerman 2013), our cases demonstrate that the impact of restructuring health care delivery into systems with flagship hospitals and satellites is destructive for social justice goals. The segmentation of services across the geography of a health care system now functions as a socio-spatial stratification mechanism-this medical transposition is uneven development in the delivery of health services. ...
The redevelopment of urban spaces by hospitals and universities, often aided by the public sector, has been heralded by academic researchers and policy-makers as a public good, especially in deindustrializing cities. Expansion of such service institutions is claimed to boost the local economy and stabilize depopulating neighborhoods in the urban core. As hospitals affiliated with universities expand, they trigger broader consolidation across the entire health care sector, intensifying the acquisition of independent hospitals. Examining hospitals within their health care systems in Rochester, New York, we introduce two new concepts, “medical gentrification” and “medical transposition,” to capture the changes underway. As a mid-sized city, in Rochester it is possible to see how organizations intersect across the entire landscape. We argue that in some neighborhoods change is connected to the distinct characteristics of health care system restructuring. We explore differences in resident mobilization to confront health care-related redevelopment of the spaces they occupy and use, and analyze their meaning and significance.
... Studies have shown that abandoned properties harm cities by lowering nearby property values (Griswold & Norris, 2007;Han, 2013;Mikelbank, 2008;Shlay & Whitman, 2006). Housing abandonment, however, is often unevenly distributed. ...
... Studies have found that abandonment affects other properties within a neighborhood by lowering property values (Griswold & Norris, 2007;Han, 2013;Mikelbank, 2008;Shlay & Whitman, 2006). Shlay and Whitman (2006), for example, examined the impact of vacant housing units on nearby property values in Philadelphia and found that the presence of a vacant property on a block reduces the value of all the other properties by an average of $6,720. ...
... Studies have found that abandonment affects other properties within a neighborhood by lowering property values (Griswold & Norris, 2007;Han, 2013;Mikelbank, 2008;Shlay & Whitman, 2006). Shlay and Whitman (2006), for example, examined the impact of vacant housing units on nearby property values in Philadelphia and found that the presence of a vacant property on a block reduces the value of all the other properties by an average of $6,720. This study also estimated the net impact of distance from an abandoned house on nearby properties' sales prices and found that housing nearer to abandoned properties had lower prices compared to housing located farther away. ...
Housing abandonment is often disproportionally distributed across a city. Past research has determined that a number of neighborhood socioeconomic and spatial characteristics are associated with housing abandonment. However, past research has not examined the degree to which the impact of housing abandonment varies with specific neighborhood characteristics. Therefore, this research examines whether the impact of housing abandonment on nearby property values varies among different neighborhoods, whether the impact changes at unequal rates over time, and, if so, what accounts for such variability. Focusing on Baltimore neighborhoods between 2001 and 2010, this research found considerable variability in the magnitude of impact of housing abandonment among neighborhoods and that the magnitude of impact changed at unequal rates among neighborhoods over time. Neighborhood crime rate was the strongest predictor of the variability in the magnitude of impact of housing abandonment among neighborhoods. Neighborhood unemployment rate, housing unaffordability, proportion of properties with housing violations, and foreclosure rates also influenced the variability in the impact of housing abandonment.
... Furthermore, the empirical studies that estimated the spillover effects of distressed properties (foreclosed or abandoned properties) also found that the impact of distressed properties on nearby property values did not seem to increase proportionally to the number of distressed properties (Been 2008;Daneshvary, Clauretie, and Kader 2011;Rogers and Winter 2009;Schuetz, Been, and Ellen 2008;Shlay and Whitman 2006;Simons, Quercia, and Levin 1998). In other words, they found evidence indicating that the impact of distressed properties on nearby property values appeared to be not linear. ...
... Scholars argue that abandoned properties harm neighborhoods. Studies have shown that housing abandonment can contribute to neighborhood decline by lowering neighborhood property values and increasing crime rates (Cui 2010;Griswold and Norris 2007;Mikelbank 2008;Shlay and Whitman 2006;Skogan 1990;Spelman 1993). Moreover, lowered property values generate lower property taxes, which in turn generate fewer financial resources for local governments. ...
... Several studies, however, found that the magnitude of the impact of distressed properties on nearby property values did not seem to increase proportionally to the number of distressed properties. Overall, findings are consistent and show that the marginal impact of each additional distressed property on nearby property values seems to decline with an increase in the number of distressed properties (Been 2008;Daneshvary, Clauretie, and Kader 2011;Rogers and Winter 2009;Schuetz, Been, and Ellen 2008;Shlay and Whitman 2006). Furthermore, some studies suggest that the threshold value appears very low in cases where the impact of distressed properties increases significantly. ...
Most research examining the impact of distressed properties on nearby property values has assumed that each additional distressed property has the same marginal effect on nearby property values as the prior distressed property had. Scholars have suggested that there could be threshold effects in the impact of distressed properties, yet no research has explored this issue. Therefore, this research explores the presence of threshold effects in the impact of housing abandonment on nearby property values in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1991 to 2010. This research finds that the magnitude of the impact of housing abandonment does not increase proportionally to the number of nearby abandoned properties. Specifically, it finds that the marginal impact on nearby property values increases significantly when the number of abandoned properties within 250 ft. increases by more than two. The research also finds that the marginal impact drops significantly when the number of abandoned properties within 250 ft. increases by more than 14.
... As mentioned above, urban decline is largely seen as a multi-causal process, the source(s) of which can often go undetected (e.g., Wagenaar 2007). In other words, it has proven difficult to consistently explicate the cause(s) of decline or its various indicators, such as "urban blight" (Shlay, Whitman 2006;Weaver 2013). When viewed through the ultimate-proximate lens, though, one can begin to categorise the many possible causes of blight. ...
... Accordingly, while macro and structural reforms are important for addressing longterm economic inequality (e.g., Pacione 2003), immediate attention might be usefully directed to the environment in which blight and disorder evolves. For example, some U.S. and Western European cities have successfully implemented programs to shift urban power relations in ways that grant decision-making authority to citizen leaders in blighted communities (Shlay, Whitman 2006;Wagenaar 2007). Others have designed multi-pronged programs to provide households with options from which they can self-select into a cooperative strategy, and to leverage public and private resources to rehabilitate properties occupied by low-income and disadvantaged households (Weaver 2013). ...
... Others have designed multi-pronged programs to provide households with options from which they can self-select into a cooperative strategy, and to leverage public and private resources to rehabilitate properties occupied by low-income and disadvantaged households (Weaver 2013). Based on the initial successes of these approaches (e.g., Shlay, Whitman 2006;Wagenaar 2007;Weaver 2013), it is highly probable that jointly attending to structural (ulti-mate: e.g., power relations) and behavioural matters (proximate: e.g., self-selection into cooperative strategies) is the path to improving upon the evolutionary outcomes described in this section. Having said that, by reframing and synthesising existing causal explanations of blight and disorder, evolutionary urban geography offers valuable insights for becoming "wise(r) managers of evolutionary processes" (Wilson 2007: 11). ...
Despite growing interest in the application of evolutionary concepts to research questions in human geography, the literature is largely characterised by metaphors or analogies that are disconnected from a broader evolutionary theoretical framework. This paper takes initial steps toward developing such a framework for the subfield of urban geography by defining critical elements and relationships from Darwinian and multilevel selection theories. It then synthesises those components in an application to the issues of urban blight and disorder, to demonstrate how an evolutionary understanding of urban spatial phenomena - an "evolutionary urban geography" - can produce new insights for managing complex processes. © Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University 2014.
... This relationship is supported by a number of recent empirical studies (Shlay & Whitman, 2006;Whitaker et al., 2011, July). Whitaker et al. (2011, July), in their study of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, found that each additional nearby vacant property reduces home prices by 1.4%. ...
... Whitaker et al. (2011, July), in their study of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, found that each additional nearby vacant property reduces home prices by 1.4%. Shlay and Whitman (2006) found similar results in Philadelphia, where abandoned properties pulled down nearby sale prices by thousands of dollars. ...
During the U.S. foreclosure crisis, millions of homes were foreclosed, with many repossessed by the banks and federal agencies owning or insuring the unpaid mortgages. Prior research has found strong associations between foreclosures and negative neighborhood outcomes, including increased crime and diminished home values. These outcomes are attributed to foreclosures being vacant and inadequately maintained, increasing neighborhood blight and leading nearby homeowners to disinvest. Each of these mechanisms is influenced by the practices of the banks and federal agencies that repossessed foreclosed homes, but these institutions and their practices have not yet been the subject of sustained research. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining how the institutions responsible for repossessed mortgage foreclosures, known as real estate owned properties (REOs), manage their inventories in Detroit, which possessed one of the largest concentrations of REOs in the nation for several years. Using real estate transaction records for the Detroit tri-county area from 2005 to 2013, along with policy analysis and interviews, I examine what happened to REOs in Detroit and its suburbs. In this study, I compare what happened with REOs owned by federal agencies with those owned by private entities, as federal agencies possess a dual mandate to both quickly reduce inventory and stabilize neighborhoods. I compare federal agencies and private entities in terms of the share of sales they make to homebuyers and investors of different sizes, the length of time properties remain in REO, and impact current and former REOs have on nearby home values. I found that federal and private entities alike sold large numbers of Detroit homes to investors, many of whom were linked to code violations and tax delinquency. I also found that properties remained in HUD's inventory for lengthy periods, increasing the likelihood of deterioration. Further, I found that REOs owned by both federal and private entities were likely to harm home values. My findings indicate potential conflicts between federal agencies' dual mandates, with pressures to sell properties coming at the expense of neighborhood stabilization objectives. My findings also suggest that HUD's rules for conveying properties after foreclosure are linked to extended REO periods.
... Urban blight, with its sprawl effects, is considered a public menace to physical and mental health, and life safety of every citizen. Although the social movement that started with urban renewal in the mid-20th century has continued to reduce city deterioration for decades, neither policy makers nor social scientists have a consistent and clear definition of urban blight [3][4][5][6]. The definition and cost and benefit of urban blight varies according to the interests of different public and private stakeholders, including landlords, local government officials, builders, and citizens [5,7]. ...
... Although the social movement that started with urban renewal in the mid-20th century has continued to reduce city deterioration for decades, neither policy makers nor social scientists have a consistent and clear definition of urban blight [3][4][5][6]. The definition and cost and benefit of urban blight varies according to the interests of different public and private stakeholders, including landlords, local government officials, builders, and citizens [5,7]. The anti-urban-blight policy in the U.S. is overseen by the Federal Economic Redevelopment Plan, and its implementation is regulated by local governments to delineate the scope of blighted areas in accordance with official needs to implement the redevelopment plan [6,8,9]. ...
Urban blight is not only an eyesore for city residents, but also a threat to health, psychological well-being, and safety. It not only represents substantial economic decline, but also spreads through urban space. As well as the loss of personal property value, urban blight also harms public interests in the public domain. This study finds that danger and age are the two main factors of urban blight. Ignoring these two factors causes housing prices to fall. The decline in population due to long-term economic stagnation and the exodus of residents and industries, coupled with the long-term decline in income and spending on maintenance of old houses, has led to major visual and physical economic blight. This investigation adopts the hedonic model to analyze the correspondence of house prices with urban blight, based on real estate prices and related township variables announced by the government in Taiwan in 2017, and applies the spatial regression model to investigate the direct and indirect effects of real estate prices. The following conclusions can be drawn from the analytical results. 1. The spatial lag model finds that urban blight has a spatial spillover effect. 2. The government must not disregard the blight, due to its detrimental effect on housing prices and spatial diffusion effect. 3. The factors that affect the blight are age of residents, age of buildings, poverty, and danger.
... The broad range of factors contributing to and symbolizing blight adds considerable flexibility to the concept. Blight is a social construction that reflects the values of community members (Breger, 1967;Shlay & Whitman, 2006). In effect, the presence of blight is in the eye of the beholder. ...
... While the literature provides clear examples of community blight (e.g., property abandonment, deterioration, and obsolete buildings), the subjective nature of the term allows some neighborhoods, including those with low levels of property value depreciation, to make claims on local governments for remedy despite nondeplorable conditions. For this reason, many refer to the term as vague, amorphous, and lacking "conceptual consistency and cohesion," which complicates policy making (Breger, 1967, p. 369;Pritchett, 2003;Shlay & Whitman, 2006). ...
Cities use tax increment financing (TIF) to trigger growth in blighted communities. Critics argue that Chicago’s broad conceptualization of “blight” facilitates the designation of TIF districts that do not resemble conventional notions of blight, bolstering their natural ability to generate capital, thereby exacerbating the gap between wealthy and poor minority spaces. This study examines Chicago’s TIF districts to determine whether blight levels and percentage of non-White residents interact to reduce the effectiveness of TIFs measured as the change in the equalized assessed valuation (EAV) of properties. Using composite indices to measure physical and economic blight, the results of a quantile regression analysis indicate that economically blighted TIFs with predominantly non-White populations outperform other districts. These findings run counter to expectations given that TIFs report high rates of growth in property values, yet they remain substantially blighted. This suggests a need to reconsider change in equalized assessed valuation as the measure of TIF effectiveness given that the “growth” in TIFs does not seem to reflect a higher quality of life for residents.
... In general, the spillover effect from distressed properties can negatively impact surrounding properties (Skogan, 1990). For example, Shlay and Whitman (2006) examined the impact of abandoned lots on neighboring property values in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA finding that residential properties closer to abandoned lots had lower property values than those of properties located farther away from abandoned spaces (Shlay and Whitman, 2006). Mikelbank (2008) examined the impact of vacant and abandoned lots in Columbus, Ohio, USA, finding that the spillover effect was highly concentrated around abandoned lots (up to 500 feet beside a vacant property and up to 1000 feet near an abandoned property). ...
... In general, the spillover effect from distressed properties can negatively impact surrounding properties (Skogan, 1990). For example, Shlay and Whitman (2006) examined the impact of abandoned lots on neighboring property values in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA finding that residential properties closer to abandoned lots had lower property values than those of properties located farther away from abandoned spaces (Shlay and Whitman, 2006). Mikelbank (2008) examined the impact of vacant and abandoned lots in Columbus, Ohio, USA, finding that the spillover effect was highly concentrated around abandoned lots (up to 500 feet beside a vacant property and up to 1000 feet near an abandoned property). ...
Neighborhood decline is a critical issue in shrinking cities. Components of sustainable urbanism such as mixed land uses have risen as possible urban planning-based approaches to help mitigate urban and neighborhood decline. This research identifies examines if mixed land uses can help mitigate urban decline by using the tax delinquent status of single family houses as a proxy for decline in Dayton, Ohio, USA. Logistic regression models are utilized to estimate the probability of tax delinquency. The results suggest that the proximity to mixed land uses is associated with increasing or decreasing the probability of tax delinquent for single family lots. The number of commercial and industrial lots in a neighborhood also has effects on the probability of a lot becoming tax delinquent, but the specific types of commercial and industrial lots dictate the direction of effects. The existence of commercial apartment lots, retail lots, and industrial food and drink plant lots were shown to help decrease the probability of tax delinquent lots. Also, decreasing the amount of property tax applied to parcels can help to limit distress in neighborhoods. This research contributes to the ongoing efforts to stymie the amount of residential abandonment in depopulating and declining cities.
... Though there is limited research on the relationship between housing abandonment and neighborhood decline, past studies have demonstrated that housing abandonment lowers nearby property values (Griswold & Norris, 2007;Mikelbank, 2008;Shlay & Whitman, 2006). However, most past research have some limitations. ...
... I used the repeat sales methodology to estimate the impact of abandoned residential properties on the sales prices of nearby properties using longitudinal data. Most prior studies (Immergluck & Smith, 2006a;Lin et al., 2009;Rogers, 2010;Schuetz et al., 2008;Shlay & Whitman, 2006) estimated the impact of foreclosures on the sales prices of nearby properties using cross-sectional hedonic price models. However, most recently, Harding et al. (2009) used the repeat sales approach using longitudinal data as an alternative estimation procedure because scholars argue that the repeat sales approach substantially reduces the general problem of hedonic price models. ...
Previous research has shown that housing abandonment contributes to neighborhood decline by depressing nearby property values. However, most past research estimated the impact of abandonment through cross-sectional analysis without controlling for nearby foreclosures or local housing market trends. Therefore, it remains unclear whether abandoned properties reduce nearby property values or whether abandonment is more common in areas with already lower-valued properties. Prior research also has not explored how the duration of abandonment influences nearby property values. Therefore, to extend the current level of understanding of the impact of abandonment, this research examines the impact of abandoned properties on nearby property values in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1991 to 2010 using longitudinal data sets while simultaneously controlling for both nearby foreclosures and local housing market trends. This research finds that as properties are abandoned for longer periods of time, the impact on nearby property values not only increases in magnitude but also is seen increasingly farther away.
... As an example, in 2009 the city of Pittsburgh spent over $5 million to demolish 547 abandoned homes; an average cost of over $9,140 per building (Lamb, 2010). In large postindustrial cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore with substantial numbers of vacant properties, the total costs have been estimated to range from $40 million to upwards of $160 million per year (Shlay & Whitman, 2006). 1 Despite widespread attention to the problem, the definition of vacancy remains elusive and is left primarily to local discretion (Shlay & Whitman, 2006). For example, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania defines a vacant building as, "a structure which is vacant and is either unsecured, secured by other than normal means, unsafe, non-compliant with housing or building codes, illegally occupied, or unoccupied for over a year with pending code enforcement citations" (Hirokawa & Gonzalez, 2010, p. 630). ...
... As an example, in 2009 the city of Pittsburgh spent over $5 million to demolish 547 abandoned homes; an average cost of over $9,140 per building (Lamb, 2010). In large postindustrial cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore with substantial numbers of vacant properties, the total costs have been estimated to range from $40 million to upwards of $160 million per year (Shlay & Whitman, 2006). 1 Despite widespread attention to the problem, the definition of vacancy remains elusive and is left primarily to local discretion (Shlay & Whitman, 2006). For example, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania defines a vacant building as, "a structure which is vacant and is either unsecured, secured by other than normal means, unsafe, non-compliant with housing or building codes, illegally occupied, or unoccupied for over a year with pending code enforcement citations" (Hirokawa & Gonzalez, 2010, p. 630). ...
Vacant and abandoned properties adversely affect the physical, mental, social, and economic health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. This article describes a community–university partnership that combined a multimethod data collection strategy with a novel community-based participatory intervention research model (i.e., data-driven organizing) to address the vacancy problem. The project assessed the conditions of over 1,500 properties in an economically disadvantaged, predominantly African American neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and mobilized residents to use an existing policy mechanism to ameliorate the impact of property vacancy in the community.
... The present literature reviews studies on foreclosures mostly from metropolitan, urban areas and studies of foreclosures that compute actual costs of foreclosures to individuals, families, properties, or communities as opposed to perceived costs. Many studies provide information on actual financial and real depreciating values of surrounding properties (Christie, 2010;Frame, 2010;Immergluck & Smith, 2005Kingsley, Smith, & Price, 2009;Leonard & Murdoch, 2009;Lin, Rosenblatt, &Yao (2009) ;Rohe & Stewart, 1996;Shlay & Whitman, 2006;Starrin, Aslund, & Nilsson, 2009). Others profile the neighborhoods affected by a high number of foreclosures (Immergluck & Smith, 2006). ...
... On a similar note, Shlay and Whitman (2006) examined the externality of vacant and abandoned homes on surrounding home values. A frequent outcome of foreclosure is a home left vacant. ...
Many studies on foreclosures have collected information on individuals or
families who experience foreclosure. Other studies have computed actual costs
of foreclosure instead of the perception of foreclosure costs. Others have used
aggregate data on foreclosed homes, as their unit of analysis. But no single study
found has looked at the perceived financial cost and neighborhood effect of a
foreclosed home in rural areas, neither have they used the next-door neighbors as
the unit of analysis. This study fills this gap in knowledge by investigating how
the next-door homeowners perceive financial and neighborhood changes because
of their adjacent foreclosed home. The study used a financial and social scale as
well as perceptions of foreclosures in general and about their neighbors’ foreclosure
in particular to answer the research questions. An additional uniqueness of this
study is that it was conducted in USDA rural designated areas.
... Urban vacancies are known to be associated with neighborhood distress in marginalized areas [23]. Studies have indicated that there are different levels of land vacancies based on the neighborhood's socioeconomic characteristics [4,23,30,31]. To address this, we included household income, property values, poverty, and minority status to capture the socioeconomic status using the 2019 American Community Survey (2015-2019 5-year estimates) from the Census Bureau [32], which had small missing values compared with the 2021 census data. ...
Urban vacancies have been a concern for neighborhood distress and economic decline and have gained more recent attention as potential green infrastructure is known to benefit communities in diverse ways. To investigate this, this study looked into the relationship between land cover, natural environment, and urban vacancies in Austin, Texas. Additionally, we investigated the spatial patterns of green infrastructure and urban vacancies by different income groups to see if low income communities would potentially lack the benefits of green infrastructure. To measure green infrastructure, we used different land covers such as forests and shrublands, as well as natural environments such as tree canopies and vegetation richness, using remote sensing data. Urban vacancy information was retrieved from the USPS vacant addresses and parcel land uses. Through a series of multivariate analyses examining green infrastructure variables one by one, the study results indicate that green infrastructure interacts with residential and business vacancies differently. Additionally, low-income communities lack green infrastructure compared with the rest of the city and are exposed to more urban vacancies in their neighborhoods. Further study is required to understand the dynamics of vacancies in underserved communities and examine how existing vacant land can benefit the communities as ecological resources.
... Abandoned buildings are, of course, by no means limited to Windsor. Indeed, blight is a much-studied topic and its causes and appropriate solutions to its presence generate controversy (Carpenter and Ross 2009;Eisinger 2015;Shlay and Whitman 2006;Wolff and Intravia 2019). Despite these controversies, there is widespread agreement that abandoned buildings are a problem that requires a solution. ...
Neighbourhood groups are a feature of municipal politics across Canada yet are understudied in mid-sized cities. They are often portrayed as a mechanism for allowing residents to be more engaged in decisions affecting their neighbourhoods and to improve municipal decisions by incorporating the lived experience of municipal residents into that decision-making. It is therefore important to examine the formation of neighbourhood groups, whether they influence municipal decisions, and whether they are representative of their neighbourhoods. This article examines these issues through a case study of four neighbourhood groups in Windsor, Ontario. Using interview data as well as analysis of primary and secondary sources, it examines the top-down and grassroots forces that shaped these groups and their involvement in council decisions relating to vacant buildings in the city. The conclusions reached are that there were clear limits to the influence that they exerted on municipal decision-making. These groups did represent the interests of their communities and, when provided with external resources to develop their institutional capacity, they did help promote municipal policy change. This was, however, incremental change at the margins of the policy process. Résumé Les groupes communautaires de quartier, qui sont partout au Canada, sont une caractéristique de la politique muni-cipale Ils sont souvent décrits comme un mécanisme permettant aux résidents de s'impliquer davantage dans les dé-cisions affectant leurs quartiers et d'améliorer les décisions municipales en intégrant l' expérience vécue des résidents dans cette prise de décision. Il est donc important d' examiner la formation des groupes communautaires de quartier, leur capacité à façonner les politiques municipales et la mesure dans laquelle ils sont représentatifs de leur quartier. Cet article examine ces questions par le biais d'une étude de cas de quatre groupes communautaires de quartier à Windsor (Ontario). À l'aide des données d' entrevues ainsi que de l'analyse de sources primaires et secondaires, l'on examine les forces descendantes, les mouvements de base qui ont façonné ces groupes, et leur implication dans les décisions du conseil relatives aux bâtiments vacants dans la ville. Les conclusions tirées montrent qu'il y avait des li-mites claires à l'influence qu'ils exerçaient sur la prise de décision municipale. Néanmoins, ces groupes ont représenté 34 CJUR summer 2022 volume 31:1 Canadian Journal of Urban Research / Revue canadienne de recherche urbaine les intérêts de leurs communautés et lorsqu'ils ont reçu des ressources pour développer leur capacité institutionnelle, ils ont contribué à promouvoir un changement de politique municipale bénéfique pour les quatre quartiers. Mots-clés : groupes communautaires de quartier, implication des résidents et décisions municipale, Windsor (On-tario)
... Blight and its causes is a complex topic, inherently subjective and lacks a universally accepted definition (Jones-Farmer & Hoerl, 2019;Shlay & Whitman, 2006;Wagner, 2018;Weaver, 2013), making blight research and its mitigation extremely difficult to conduct. Picard (1939) and Darling (1943) were pioneers in addressing urban blight, yet it is thought of as a relatively recent issue affecting contemporary societies (Barão et al., 2021;Ferreira et al., 2018;Valasik et al., 2019). ...
Blight is a concept not commonly discussed. However, blight is a problem that exists in the lives of many people, especially if they reside in urban areas. Blight originates whenever properties are neglected, contributing to both a functional and social depreciation process and ultimately leading to uninhabitable dwellings. Despite being blighted, these properties and surrounding neighborhoods often are occupied by families who fail to have sufficient income to afford residences that meet minimum standards or to live in neighborhoods free from drug trafficking and prostitution or other forms of crime. Blight may spread rapidly, thus, experts must, in a timely manner, analyze its causes, which are essential to preventing and mitigating blight problems. The purpose of this study is to seek an understanding of blight and identify its causal factors. The generic methods commonly applied in previous blight research present limitations that this study aims to overcome by using cognitive mapping and the decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique. This dual methodology provides a more transparent and less restrictive approach for analyzing and complying with the dynamics of cause-and-effect relationships among variables. Group debate involving a panel of specialists in this field identified six causation clusters based on the experts’ experience and knowledge. The resulting framework and its application were validated both by these specialists and the head of the Territorial and Environmental Assessment and Monitoring Division of Cascais City Council Strategic Planning Department, Portugal.
... Several researchers have studied the impact of abandoned and empty properties on surrounding property values. This area was a topic of interest even before the mortgage crisis, with one of the first studies in Philadelphia in the early 2000s finding that within a 450-foot radius of a vacant house, property values decreased in the range $3,542-7,627, controlling for everything else possible (Shlay and Whitman, 2006). ...
As a result of the 2007-2011 mortgage crisis, cities across the US experienced an unprecedented increase in housing vacancy. Since 2012, the broad national housing market has generally experienced a recovery, but it has been a highly uneven recovery. This paper focuses on changes in neighborhood-level, long-term vacancy rates from 2012 to 2019 in two critical regions of the US, the Sunbelt and the Rustbelt. We examine medium-sized and large metro areas in both regions. We focus particularly on the extent to which very high rates of neighborhood-level housing vacancy persisted during the recovery.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, long-term, very high levels of neighborhood housing vacancy appear to have persisted more in Rustbelt than in Sunbelt metros from 2012 to 2019. Sunbelt metros tended to see more population and housing price growth and greater declines in vacancy, especially in the number of very high and extreme vacancy neighborhoods. However, neighborhoods with high vacancy rates are not solely a feature of the Rustbelt. There are a substantial number of weak-growth metros in the Sunbelt, especially outside of California and Florida, in which very high levels of vacancy have remained a problem even in the face of a broader national recovery. In the Sunbelt and, in particular, the Rustbelt, neighborhoods with very high and, especially, extreme vacancy rates tend to have large Black populations and high poverty rates. Thus, the problem of hypervacancy appears strongly associated with the problem of racial and economic segregation.
Given the new uncertainties in the housing market created by COVID-19, it is important to recognize that economic shock and the challenges families are facing in paying rent and mortgages, may spur a new round of vacancy challenges. It is also critical to recognize that very high levels of vacancy tend to be concentrated in higher-poverty communities of color, especially in Black neighborhoods, and thus those seeking to address housing justice, community development, and the racial wealth gap need to pay attention to the problem of hypervacancy.
... Many empirical studies indicate degraded property values for lots adjacent to vacant properties. Shlay and Whitman (2006) examined the impact of abandoned lots on neighbouring property values in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A, finding that residential properties closer to abandoned lots had lower property values than those of properties located farther away from abandoned spaces. Mikelbank (2008) examined the impact of vacant and abandoned lots in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A, finding that a negative spillover effect was highly concentrated around abandoned lots. ...
Populating and depopulating cities have some degree of under-utilised land. The duration of vacancy, or length of time a property remains unused, more strongly influences urban decline than the amount of vacant land. Assessment of the duration of vacancy is seldom conducted, due to a lack of linking longitudinal data. This research creates and applies a Python script to track the duration of vacancy in Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A, to create a tool that can be utilised by cities with vacant land inventories. The tool can be used globally to prioritise treatment areas for urban regeneration plans.
... Moreover, recent literature has addressed the impact of deteriorated or vacant residential buildings on property values or, conversely, the impact of rehabilitation on values of property. Shlay and Whitman (2004) analysed the impact of vacant housing units on nearby home values in Philadelphia and revealed that properties located within 150 feet of an abandoned unit sold for over $7,000 less than other properties. Ding, Simons and Baku (2000) found that housing rehabilitation and, in particular, new constructions have a positive effect on values of nearby property and that this effect is high in low-income neighbourhoods and predominantly white neighbourhoods. ...
... By classifying an area as blighted, municipalities received federal funds that covered the majority of the costs to redevelop rundown or partially deteriorated neighborhoods (Von Hoffman 2000). The term urban blight became a lucrative policy tool that allowed for land clearance and new development where land use was limiting downtown expansion (Shlay and Whitman 2006). ...
Though the concept of blight clarifies housing and neighborhood changes in rural and small towns experiencing disinvestment and decline, the term is rarely examined outside of urban discourse. This study explores the extent of rural blight and its relationship to community characteristics using survey results from elected officials and staff members of small towns in one southeastern state. We examine the historical background of blight, including its connections to urban renewal, racial bias and stereotyping, and the broken windows theory. Among the small towns in the study, economic blight, particularly dilapidated housing, was prevalent. Social blight, which includes behaviors that are thought to be threatening or criminal in nature, was less common but correlated moderately with economic forms of blight. While social disorganization and collective efficacy theories link a range of demographic characteristics to physical and social disorder, our findings pointed only to a significant relationship between communities with a higher portion of the population who are black and multiple forms of extensive blight. More research is needed to understand the relationship, both observed and perceived, between economic and social blight in rural small towns and how these issues may be remediated through local collective action.
... Για όλους τους παραπάνω λόγουςοι οποίοι καθιστούν τα συγκεκριμένα τμήματα των πόλεων από τα πιο πολυσύχναστα τόσο από τους ίδιους τους κατοίκους της πόλης όσο και από τους επισκέπτες σε αυτή [4,5] είναι σημαντικό τα Ιστορικά Κέντρα να βρίσκονται πάντοτε στην κορυφή της ατζέντας των τοπικών αυτοδιοικήσεων, προκειμένου η ίδια η πόλη να παραμένει ανταγωνιστική και θελκτική (σε κατοίκους, επισκέπτες, αλλά και επενδυτές) [6,7], επ' ωφελεία της τοπικής οικονομικής ανάπτυξης αλλά και της κοινωνικής ευημερίας. Με δεδομένο το παραπάνω πλαίσιο, η παρούσα εργασία εξετάζει το Ιστορικό Κέντρο της πόλης του Βόλου, η οποία αποτελεί ένα μεσαίοπρος μεγάλοαστικό κέντρο της Ελλάδας, με ό,τι αυτό συνεπάγεται σε προβλήματα αστικής και οικονομικής ανάπτυξης αλλά και ανάδειξης και [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]: η ύπαρξη εγκαταλελειμμένων κτιρίων (και εν γένει ιδιοκτησιών) σε μια πόλη αλλά και ειδικά στο Ιστορικό της Κέντρο, επιδρά αρνητικά: στην προσφερόμενη ποιότητα ζωής, στην ελκυστικότητα του αστικού περιβάλλοντος, στην αξία των ακινήτων, στη φορολόγηση ευρύτερων κοινωνικών ομάδων, αλλά ακόμη και στην υγεία και ασφάλεια των κατοίκων και των επισκεπτών. Ειδικά για το Ιστορικό Κέντρο του Βόλου, η εργασία επιχειρεί την πρωτογενή έρευνα και απογραφή των εγκαταλελειμμένων κτιρίων και ιδιοκτησιών, υιοθετώντας μια απλή μεθοδολογία, η οποία περιγράφεται στην Ενότητα 2. Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας απογραφής παρουσιάζονται στην Ενότητα 3. Απώτερος σκοπός της εργασίας είναι να αξιολογήσει το βαθμό και το είδος της εγκατάλειψης ιδιοκτησιών στο Ιστορικό Κέντρο του Βόλου, ώστε να καταλήξει σε κατευθύνσεις αποκατάστασης αλλά και διαχείρισης, επ'ωφελεία της αστικής ανάπτυξης της πόλης και της αναβάθμισης της ποιότητας ζωής των κατοίκων. ...
Η εγκατάλειψη κτιρίων και ιδιοκτησιών αποτελεί σημαντικό στοιχείο υποβάθμισης ενός Ιστορικού Κέντρου, το οποίο αποτελεί το πιο πολυσύχναστο τμήμα μιας πόλης, τόσο από τους ίδιους τους κατοίκους όσο και από τους επισκέπτες σε αυτή. Η έρευνα πεδίου που πραγματοποιήθηκε στο Ιστορικό Κέντρο του Βόλου (μια τυπική ελληνική πόλη μεσαίου μεγέθους), έδειξε ότι ο αριθμός των εγκαταλελειμμένων ιδιοκτησιών ανέρχεται στις 175 εκ τον οποίων οι 13 είναι οικόπεδα. Από αυτά, τα 6 ήταν κηρυγμένα «διατηρητέα», το 10% κοινώς ετοιμόρροπα, το 51% εμφάνιζαν σημαντικές φθορές, ενώ το 83% ήταν ημιτελή (γιαπιά). Επίσης παρατηρήθηκε ότι το μεγαλύτερο ποσοστό των εγκαταλελειμμένων ιδιοκτησιών, όπως αυτά καταγράφηκαν, αποτελούν εστίες μόλυνσης, επικίνδυνες για τη δημόσια υγεία. Τέλος, κατά την διαδικασία της καταγραφής, αξιολογήθηκαν ως κτίρια με αισθητική αξία τα 11 από το σύνολο των 162 εγκαταλελειμμένων κτιρίων.
... Community organizing aims to build collective power by identifying shared issues and interests, mobilizing resources, and implementing collectively set solutions in order to create social change. 7 It has demonstrated success in influencing social policies, including education 8 , housing 9 , and poverty 10 , and a recent initiative pointed to its impact on health. 11 This approach was central to the original community health centers, leading to the development of cooperative farms, the creation of water sanitation systems, and the hiring of local residents to provide health professions pathways. ...
The second Starfield Summit was held in Portland, Oregon, in April 2017. The Summit addressed the role of primary care in advancing health equity by focusing on 4 key domains: social determinants of health in primary care, vulnerable populations, economics and policy, and social accountability. Invited participants represented an interdisciplinary group of primary care clinicians, researchers, educators, policymakers, community leaders, and trainees. The Pisacano Leadership Foundation was one of the Summit sponsors and held its annual leadership symposium in conjunction with the Summit, enabling several Pisacano Scholars to attend the Summit. After the Summit, a small group of current and former Pisacano Scholars formed a writing group to highlight key themes and implications for action discussed at the Summit. The Summit resonated as a call to action for primary care to move beyond identifying existing health inequities and toward the development of interventions that advance health equity, through education, research, and enhanced community partnerships. In doing so, the Summit aimed to build on the foundational work of Dr. Starfield, challenging us to explore the significant role of primary care in truly achieving health equity.
... If property values drop and structures begin to deteriorate, businesses often relocate or shut down, with concomitant job loss (Park & Ciorici, 2013;Sternlieb, Burchell, Hughes, & James, 1974). Remaining populations living among a surplus of VUA with low property values reside in neighborhoods that are likely to decline (Griswold & Norris, 2007;Mikelbank, 2008;Shlay & Whitman, 2006;Skogan, 1992). ...
Vacant urban areas (VUAs) can consist of both vacant land and abandoned structures. In this article, the authors summarize a recent survey on VUA, examine current conditions and causes of VUA, and explore the possible interconnections among these conditions and causes. The research examines employment, fiscal position, elasticity, population alteration, and regional location as primary variables. We find that VUAs are not interchangeable indicators of urban decay. Vacant land is most often associated with cities that have expanded their political boundaries while structural abandonment is more related to a city's population loss. Improvement of the local economy may not necessarily help reduce vacant land while structural abandonment is more sensitive to a city's economic status. Regional planning for VUAs, the strategic location of new industries and jobs, and new population/density regulatory approaches could be the next phase in addressing VUA changes.
... Proximity to non-productive parcels can significantly impact residential lots. For example, Shlay and Whitman (2006) examined the impact of NPS on proximate property values in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and found that housing closer to NPS had lower prices than comparable property located farther away. Similarly, Mikelbank (2008) examined this impact in Columbus, Ohio, finding that low property values were highly concentrated around non-productive parcels. ...
Urbanisation is characterised by cycles of activation and obsolescence leaving in their wake an abundance of non-productive space (NPS). Expanding cities report more vacant land than do fixed cities, which report higher structural abandonment. If left untreated, existing NPS can spread to surrounding properties. Using Fort Worth, TX, USA as a case site, this research explores the spatial distribution of NPS using Geographical Information Systems spatial analyses. Directional distributions, time series analyses, spatial assessments using 5-mile buffer increments and weighted suitability models were combined to determine if urban core fragmentation is occurring, despite population and economic growth. Findings indicate that peripheral NPS area decreased but these spaces were redistributed into the urban core. Parcel size and regeneration potential in the city centre also decreased. This has resulted in a fragmented urban core characterised by disconnected and small/irregularly shaped parcels of NPS which are difficult to regenerate—an urban shrapnel.
... The impact of nearby industrial sites is dependent upon the size of the installation and its proximity (de Vor and de Groot 2010; Ready 2010). Poor housing stock: blight caused by neighbouring abandoned properties is also observed to decrease with distance, (Shlay and Whitman 2006) to a maximum of 100m, though the magnitude of impact was greater if the building remained abandoned for more than three years (Han, 2014). This analysis suggests a further category of blight -environmental blight as illustrated by the perception of the risk of urban landslides. ...
We examine how landslides impact urban house prices in three areas of England and Wales. 12,663 house transaction values were analysed covering all house sales 1995-2012 in Lyme Regis, Dorset; Ventnor, Isle of Wight and Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan. Values were analysed with respect to local landslide events and visible landslide damage. In all three study areas, individual landslide events caused little or no negative impacts on nearby property prices, though remediation is likely to have short-term positive impacts on local house prices. Localised blight and suppressed house prices to a distance of 75 m was found in areas affected by ongoing incipient movement. By comparison with other sources of property blight, the radius of influence is 25% of that expected from an abandoned property or electricity pylon and less than 5% that of a windfarm. The socioeconomic environment was important in determining the degree of house price impact of landslide events and for most locations, landslides form only a minor impact compared to other factors.
... But, based on sudden changes associated to rapid urbanism, their central role has been lost and there is no capability of adaption with change in land use and supporting their daily life (Ahmed and Bramley, 2015;Shatu et al., 2014;Weaver, 2013). Shlay and Whitman (2006) note that blight is a subjective idea in the thoughts of local stakeholders, and it is just a reflection of larger, more complex structural societal problems. Lack of responsive management to harmonize the neighborhoods with fast structural and functional changes of modernism has degraded compatibility of such districts to support new demands (Brueckner and Helsley, 2011;Salvati and Carlucci, 2014). ...
Urban blight had its own rational and hierarchical function in the past. Nowadays it is featured with structural and functional shortage. Therefore, it has lost the capacity to meet the residents’ needs. Along with intensification of urban blight problems in cities, and downtowns in particular, which affects different aspects of urban life, many urban planners have shown special attention to such districts. Laleh-Zar neighborhood is an example of these neighborhoods, which on the one hand due to lack of urban equipment and infrastructures gives rise to urban blight and penetration of commercial and trans-regional land use in residential area. On the other hand, much of its residential units are transformed into business units, warehouses, workhouse particularly on the edge of the neighborhood. Given the expansion and intensity of problems, apparently, the most effective strategy to deal with the shortcomings and the problems is participation strategy. Besides, this study has used a strategic approach, which is one of the public plannings for both internal and external analyses. Therefore, it is a systematic approach, which can be helpful in decision making. The results showed that the capacity for participation of the study population was below proper level concerning the four aspects of financial, intellectual, instrumental, and physical aspects, although their tendency to participate was high. Moreover, correlation between participation capacity and intention for participation in renewing the structures had a significant relation with cultural and historical values at a confidence level of 99%.
... As Brown's research (2004) shows, there is no such "thing" as blight. The one constant in the history of blight is its highly contested and malleable nature (Weaver, 2013;Shlay and Whitman, 2006). ...
Commissioned by Keep America Beautiful, the report provides a contemporary snapshot of how researchers, experts and practitioners describe and understand the complex conditions that create blight and the many policy responses that communities are taking. Prepared by researchers through the Vacant Properties Research Network (VPRN), in collaboration with Econsult Solutions Inc., a Philadelphia-based consulting firm, the national report examines more than 300 academic articles as well as special policy and practitioner reports devoted to the concept of blight. The primary authors outlined: 1) what recent articles and reports say about blight; 2) how policymakers and community-based organizations can leverage the report’s findings; and 3) how Keep America Beautiful and its network of community-based affiliates can build on this report to develop a blight cost calculator for community groups and local governments. The report concludes with 10 overarching recommendations for policymakers, future research, and potential actions by Keep America Beautiful and its affiliates
... Vacant properties have negative impacts on neighborhoods and cities. A variety of studies have found negative spillover impacts of vacant and/or abandoned homes on neighboring property values (Goetz, Cooper, Thiele, & Lam, 1998;Griswold & Norris, 2007;Han, 2014;Malloy, 2014;Mikelbank, 2008;Shlay & Whitman, 2006;Whitaker & Fitzpatrick, 2013). In a study of Columbus, Ohio, Mikelbank (2008) found that vacant properties reduced the price of nearby homes by more than $4,000. ...
High levels of neighborhood housing vacancy—especially periods exceeding more than several months—have long been a concern to community developers and policymakers in the United States. During the foreclosure crisis, such concerns became more pronounced, exemplified by the adoption of three legislated rounds of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program from 2008 to 2011. Despite such concern, what we know about longer term neighborhood housing vacancy has been limited, in part by a lack of good data. This article utilizes data from the U.S. Postal Service to explore changes in vacancy over a critical period of broader housing market recovery. It identifies the extent to which neighborhood characteristics predict changes in long-term vacancy from 2011 to 2014 for the 50 largest metropolitan areas. High neighborhood vacancy rates persisted in some neighborhoods during this period, and these tended to be high-poverty neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with more Hispanic and Asian residents experienced larger declines in long-term vacancy. However, poorer neighborhoods lagged significantly. If a neighborhood had a poverty rate that was one standard deviation above—and a median income that was one standard deviation below—an otherwise comparable neighborhood, it was expected to see 13% more vacancies at the end of the period.
... The use of faith-based organizations has been instrumental in unifying community members from different neighborhoods to fight against crime and disorder. In Philadelphia, for instance, a partnership between a faith-based organization and research organization was critical in facilitating community-wide efforts to address neighborhood blight (Shlay & Whitman, 2006). Conversely, for violent crime it appears that it is the clustering of disadvantaged neighborhoods in close proximity that is particularly problematic. ...
... Other studies find the external costs of foreclosure to be much higher. Shlay and Whitman (2006) The different results in the literature may reflect the fact that some of the studies use data from pre-crisis years and set larger treatment areas (for example, treated area is within 600 feet from foreclosure instead of no more than 300 feet from foreclosure). Also, the magnitude of While the existing studies estimate the impact of foreclosure on prices for surrounding houses that sell, they do not consider potential changes in quantities of sold houses caused by both supply and demand shifts. ...
Spatial disamenities can affect neighborhood quality in many ways, and carefully quantifying such effects is essential for policy making. The first chapter of my dissertation focuses on the impact of foreclosures and vacancies on crime. To overcome confounding factors, a difference-in-difference research design is applied to a unique data set containing geocoded foreclosure and crime data from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Results indicate that while foreclosure alone has no effect on crime, violent crime increases by more than 15% once the foreclosed home becomes vacant. The second chapter examines the spillover effects of foreclosures and vacancies on the quantities and prices of properties sold in neighboring areas using the same foreclosure data and similar econometric design. Estimation results show that both foreclosure and vacancy reduce the neighboring houses' probabilities of sale. Also, there is little impact on houses with lower quantity index, and the effects disappear when foreclosed house is reoccupied. This paper is the first study to document the quantity shifts of homes sold at the time of nearby foreclosure in different sections of the housing market as a result of changes in both the demand side and the supply side. The last chapter examines the impact of new shale gas drilling technologies in the Marcellus region on rural residential property values using data from three counties with most drilling activities in Pennsylvania. The results suggest that property values are negatively correlated with the presence of nearby gas wells, though the effects are not statistically significant. Due to mineral right transfer issues, the estimates in this study are the result of two competing effects. The estimated coefficients may be lower-bounds of the actual impact.
... It may cause physical damages as, for example, trees can fall onto neighboring land, fires can spread more easily, and dangerous entrants are attracted to the area. 357 It also causes financial effects as the value of surrounding properties is depressed, 358 local revenue from property tax decreases, 359 and extended public services, such as policing and fire prevention, become required. 360 The owner of the property does not experience these costs herself, and hence, will often not take them into account in her decision to neglect. ...
Property is closely associated with freedom. Following the demise of the feudal property system, property ownership in Anglo-American law came to imply an individual's freedom to act as she pleases on her land. For their part, modern property theories-whether right-based, utilitarian, or relational-employ the normative value of freedom to justify ownership. Courts and scholars have always acknowledged the fact that this freedom of the owner cannot be absolute: an owner's freedom to do as she pleases on her land is often limited to protect other owners. However, the consensual assumption remains that an owner is not subject to affirmative duties. She is free, according to conventional wisdom, to choose to do nothing with her property. This Article argues that this assumption is simply wrong. Owners are not free to ignore their land. Property law has always subjected them to an obligation to maintain their land up to a specific standard. This obligation, dubbed here "the duty to maintain," is enforced through an array of legal rules and practices. This Article chronicles these rules and practices for the first time, classifying them in accordance with the enforcement mechanism they employ. It then justifies these diverse rules and practices-and the general duty to maintain-in light of the different theories of property. In this fashion, this Article illustrates that ownership, both as a legal institution and as a normative concept, inherently and inevitably incorporates a duty to maintain.
... Yet, there have been commonalities in these transitions across the field. These include expanding constituency groups, including congregational (Swarts, 2008), regional (Pastor, Benner, & Matsuoka, 2009), and intergenerational organizing (Christens & Kirshner, 2011); an expanding range of strategies (e.g., community development approaches and multisector coalitions; Green & Goetting, 2010); increasing connections and partnerships (e.g., with researchers, foundations, and public health practitioners; Shlay & Whitman, 2006); and, particularly among organizations affiliated with networks, moving beyond local work to focus on national policy advocacy and movements (Orr, 2007), and supporting international organizing work (Warren, 2009). ...
Community organizing—a field of practice in which residents collaboratively investigate and undertake sustained collective action regarding social issues of mutual concern—has often proven an effective method for achieving changes in policies and systems at local, regional, and even national scales. The field is dynamic. It has expanded and has undergone numerous changes over recent decades. Research from a variety of disciplines has documented, evaluated, and informed many of these changes. This article scrutinizes the evolving field of community organizing, with a particular focus on the current state of social and psychological research on broad-based community organizing processes and outcomes. These findings include not only the effects of community organizing efforts on policies and systems, but also the influences of community organizing on psychological changes among the people and groups who participate. These findings are incorporated into recommendations for policies, practices, and future research.
... Apgar and Duda (2005) even show that city fire resources are utilized in foreclosure situations, as foreclosed structures become magnets for vagrants and squatters. An indirect cost is the depressing effect that foreclosed properties have on surrounding property values (Immergluck & Smith, 2005a;Shlay & Whitman, 2006;Moreno, 1995), including the eventual sale price of the foreclosed house in particular (Forgey, Rutherford, & VanBuskirk, 1994). These negative effects are problematic not only for the amount of property tax revenues that a municipality can expect to forego, but also on the collective loss in wealth within neighborhoods (Immergluck & Smith, 2005a). ...
Mortgage fraud, a white-collar crime committed against lending institutions, has grown tremendously over the past few years across the United States. Mortgage fraud has community implications, and does not follow traditional categories of white-collar crimes, which usually are limited in the types of victims affected. Because of the negative externalities that emanate from neighborhoods hit by cases of mortgage fraud, the ramifications of this crime have long-lasting and harmful effects for multiple parties, in terms of quality of life and financial hardship. This paper explains the implications that mortgage fraud can have on both affected neighborhoods and public administrators. Future research opportunities are also addressed regarding this complex phenomenon. Finally, a brief list of recommendations addresses the challenges brought on by mortgage fraud.
... The role of community participation is a central focus in urban scholarship (Martin, 2003;Shlay and Whitman, 2006;Ron and Cohen-Blankshtain, 2011). Concerned with the all-encompassing nature of neoliberal politics, many are now asking how popular participation and more vocal community activities can be used to mitigate some of the negative effects of austerity policies and government cutbacks (Brenner and Theodore, 2002;Harvey 2003;Kohl, 2003;Fernandes, 2007). ...
Jerusalem is a city mired in spatial conflict. Its contested spaces represent deep conflicts among groups that vary by national identity, religion, religiosity and gender. The omnipresent nature of these conflicts provides an opportunity to look at Henri Lefebvre's concept of the right to the city (RTC). The RTC has been adopted and celebrated as a political tool for positive change, enabling communities to take control of space. Based on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews, this article explores the complexity of the RTC principles and examines three urban battlefields in Jerusalem — Bar-Ilan Street, the Kotel and the Orient House. The RTC is a powerful idea, providing the opportunity to examine people's everyday activities within the context of how space can be used to support their lives. Yet Jerusalem's myriad divisions produce claims by different groups to different parts of the city. In Jerusalem, the RTC is not a clear vision but a kaleidoscope of rights that produces a fragmented landscape within a religious and ethno-national context governed by the nation state — Israel. The growth of cultural and ethnic diversity in urban areas may limit the possibility for a unified RTC to emerge in an urban sea of demands framed by difference. Space-based cultural conflict exemplifies urban divisions and exacerbates claims to ‘my Jerusalem’, not ‘our Jerusalem’. Identity-based claims to the RTC appear to work against, not for, a universalistic RTC.
Vacant and abandoned land can be public eyesores that can potentially result in neighborhood distress in the long term. In some cases, the contextual conditions of a neighborhood have been shown to have more of a negative effect on communities than the vacant property itself. Maximum opportunities to actually reuse vacant and abandoned land is known to primarily exist in cases where the surrounding area has locational benefits or when local economic conditions are hopeful. This study examines and compares neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics around vacant lots in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, to identify spatial heterogeneity within vacancy types and neighborhood characteristics. Specifically, we examine 1) if the socioeconomic characteristics of a neighborhood can predict existing vacant lots and 2) what neighborhood characteristics are associated with certain vacant lot types. Three logistic regressions were tested with different buffers around each vacant lot, and a total of eighteen regressions were performed to capture the effects on six vacancy types. Results suggest that there are various types of vacancies interacting differently at the neighborhood scale, and that a large-scale neighborhood context matters when predicting vacancy types. The results also indicate three salient points. First, minority populations are a strong predictor of residential and commercial vacancies. Second, high-income areas tend to predict vacancies with potential investment opportunities or vacancies as a part of an existing park or recreational system. Third, vacant properties designated for institutional land uses tend to be found in lower-income areas, yet, not necessarily in areas with high minority populations. Managing and repurposing vacant and abandoned land should be handled more progressively with a better understanding of the socioeconomic characteristics of neighborhoods. Further, examining vacancy types by community can be a way to diagnose potential neighborhood risks associated with vacant and abandoned land.
In 2017, Baltimore City was awarded $75 million earmarked for the targeted demolition of a portion of its 16,000 vacant and abandoned buildings. Selecting an optimal set of demolition targets is difficult given that the cost per demolition is not independent of the overall demolition pattern; like many older cities, Baltimore’s abandoned housing includes a large number of attached row houses, which require the construction of retaining walls when a demolished home abuts a non-demolished home. In this paper, we present a method by which planners can use integer linear programming to identify optimal demolition targets for a number of potential objectives. The simplest objective, demolishing the maximum number of houses for a specific budget, is compared with more complex functions that attempt to proxy improved quality of life resulting from the demolitions. The results of different objective functions are then assessed in terms of equity and efficiency using the spatial distribution of proposed targets as a point of comparison.
When a city loses people and jobs, downtowns tend to face high vacancy rates and diminished tax collections due to property abandonment. With fewer resources and structures in poorer condition, these shrinking downtowns become less and less attractive for investors. This paper tackles this paradox by examining overall patterns of decline and downtown change in three New England (USA) cities. Specifically we ask, how does the process of urban decline impact occupancy, building conditions and property values in downtown districts? We found that statistically significant relationships emerge between property valuations and occupancy patterns, though these relationships vary among the three cities.
In the presented paper, we estimate the impacts of three distinct housing policy interventions to deal with distressed and abandoned residential properties: leaving vacant buildings in their current state, remodeling/rebuilding residential structures, and razing vacant structures. We show that vacant structures negatively impact nearby housing up to 4.1%, but when demolition is followed by complete reconstruction, neighboring housing can be appreciated by as much as 14.1%. In addition, negative spillover effects from foreclosures and vacant buildings are primarily observed in low‐income and middle‐income Census tracts, whereas positive spillover effects generated by remodeling are seen in high‐income Census tracts.
Η εγκατάλειψη κτιρίων και ιδιοκτησιών αποτελεί σημαντικό στοιχείο υποβάθμισης ενός Ιστορικού Κέντρου, το οποίο αποτελεί το πιο πολυσύχναστο τμήμα μιας πόλης, τόσο από τους κατοίκους όσο και από τους επισκέπτες. Η έρευνα πεδίου που πραγματοποιήθηκε στο Ι.Κ. Λάρισας (μια δυναμική ελληνική πόλη μεσαίου μεγέθους), έδειξε ότι ο αριθμός των εγκαταλελειμμένων κτιρίων ανέρχεται στα 106. Από αυτά, μόλις 3(2%) ήταν κηρυγμένα «διατηρητέα». Από τα 97 κτίρια που εμφάνιζαν φυσική εγκατάλειψη, 69% είχαν σημαντικές φθορές, 26% εμφάνιζαν εκτεταμένες φθορές, ενώ 7% ήταν επικινδύνως ετοιμόρροπα. Από τα 20 κτίρια που εμφάνιζαν λειτουργική εγκατάλειψη 70% ήταν ημιτελή (γιαπιά) και 30% ως τα επιχρίσματα. Από τα συνολικά 106 κτίρια το 55% ήταν μονώροφα, 27% διώροφα, 5% τριώροφα, 5% τετραώροφα, 6% πενταώροφα και 2% εξαώροφα. Από αυτά, το 91% ήταν κενά, 8% εν χρήσει και 1% υπό κατάληψη. Τα κενά οικόπεδα ανέρχονταν σε 54, εκ των οποίων το 15% χρησιμοποιούνταν ως χώρος στάθμευσης.
Urban decline is a wicked problem that conventional tools of local government planning are not scoped to solve once and for all. Accordingly, local public policy and community development programs are increasingly aimed at mitigating symptoms rather than cause(s) of decline. These “palliative” efforts attempt to improve quality of life for existing residents in order to lower the probability of further decline. This research note describes a palliative policy from Buffalo, NY, and proposes a methodological strategy that uses Geographic Information Systems and difference-in-differences analysis to study its effects. Preliminary analysis suggests that the policy might be contributing to blight reduction in a targeted neighborhood. These pilot findings open the door for future empirical researchers to replicate the proposed methodology for longer time horizons in the study neighborhood, as well as to analyze palliative interventions in most any neighborhood where they are being deployed to treat symptoms of urban decline.
While much has been written about the importance of “knowing the community” in implementing prevention and health prevention programs, what is often missing from these discussions is a clear theoretical statement about how communities should be conceptualized and how community change occurs. The designers of community-based health programs usually assume that citizens can become active in modifying and overcoming unhealthy conditions on their own. But encouraging citizen action is more complicated, requiring an understanding of communities and community factors that encourage behavior change. The barriers to continued improvements in community health are in not only the individual citizen’s knowledge of proper health practices but also community level factors that maintain risk-producing conditions. For example, there is now a substantial body of research indicating that rates of morbidity and mortality are linked to social conditions such as poverty, community disintegration, poor edu ...
Research has linked concentrated foreclosures with negative neighborhood outcomes; for instance, increased crime and decreased property values. These outcomes drain community asset holdings and impact the longer term trajectory of the neighborhood. However, data reported in this article from a Boston study challenge the assumption that negative neighborhood outcomes are a foregone conclusion in the face of foreclosures. Analysis of interviews with real estate agents and other foreclosure professionals, neighborhood ethnographic observation, and citywide sales and foreclosure sales documents demonstrate that the distinct nature of the foreclosure sales process creates market disruptions heightening the risk for documented negative neighborhood outcomes. Attempts by the seller to reduce financial risks in the sale increase the likelihood of vacancy and create a market oriented toward investor–buyers. Understanding the risk preferences of key decision makers in the foreclosure sale process reveals new intervention points—such as intervening at the short sale, or expanding and updating foreclosure laws to reflect current foreclosure sales markets—to reduce market disruptions and preserve community assets in the face of foreclosures.
This study examines whether and how mortgage default risk and the resolution process of defaults interact with neighborhoods where homeowners reside. It uses a unique data that matches household information from the Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN) with a variety of census tract data. Findings suggest that loan-related triggers of mortgage distress (e.g., payment adjustment) are more significant in neighborhoods with higher price depreciation and higher vacancy rates. With respect to post-delinquency behavior, distressed homeowners residing in neighborhoods with higher house prices tend to underutilize CNYCN services, controlling for their distance to service providers. Along with strong housing market performance, the concentration of Black/African-Americans in a neighborhood is likely to contribute to less successful client outcomes.
Actions that increase individual quality of life (QoL) can often undermine QoL at some higher level of aggregation. In cities, this “fundamental problem of social life” is regularly played out in the form of physical disorder. When an urban actor allows his or her property to fall into disrepair, perhaps to allocate resources to more essential uses, this decision reduces the relative quality of that actor’s neighborhood by contributing to local disorder. Researchers and policymakers therefore devote significant attention to understanding and controlling patterns of such behaviors. The central thesis of this paper is that evolutionary theory has much to offer this discourse. First, through synthesizing existing arguments from the urban disorder/decline literature, I develop a framework for studying intra-city disorder that is inspired by evolutionary multilevel selection (MLS) theory. Next, to empirically demonstrate the utility of this framework, I draw on longitudinal data and space-time analysis to find that population-level patterns of substandard property conditions in a given study area—i.e., measurable manifestations of physical disorder—are generated by a combination of individual and group “selective” pressures on property maintenance behavior. The results suggest that adopting an MLS perspective might aid policymakers in managing the processes that produce patterns of urban disorder, which can ultimately help to improve urban QoL.
Social science literature suggests that neighborhood-based visual cues have substantive effects on individuals' littering behaviors. Experimental research on this topic typically alters the appearance of a selected public location, and then monitors changes in littering due to these tightly controlled esthetic changes. The general finding is that littering occurs more frequently in relatively disorderly settings. The current paper extends this work by testing whether or not the same finding holds in more “real life” situations, wherein the operative visual cues come directly from the environment rather than through experimental manipulation. Specifically, the paper empirically identifies two study sites that serve similar functions in their urban system, but that differ markedly in contextual features. At the first site (#1), visual cues include liquor stores, vacant structures, and a noisy interstate highway. Notable visual cues at site #2 are scenic vistas, well-maintained housing, and greenspaces. When the same quasi-natural littering experiment was conducted at both locations, the littering rate was significantly higher at site #1 compared to site #2 (after controlling for individual-level demographic attributes). This result adds value to the applied geography community, as it confirms that spatially-based attributes do influence individual behaviors in a manner consistent with controlled, comparatively acontextual experimental findings. Additionally, the results implicate policy strategies that might be useful for counteracting antisocial urban behavior.
Concept mapping (Trochim, ) was used to visually articulate the full range of organizing outcomes from a grassroots community organization (GCO) in a western United States city. Outcomes belong to five general categories: (a) victories, (b) personal development, (c) public leadership skills, (d) organizational relationships with power people, and (e) building an organizational culture of civic engagement. Results from the concept map have been triangulated with other GCO data sources to determine whether the concept map presents a credible representation of the range of outcomes which can be expected from community organizing. Advantages of concept mapping as a method for community-based research are discussed. Names of places and organizations have been changed to protect the privacy of participants.
BLDSC reference no.: D16590/76. Thesis (D. Phil.)--University of Oxford, 1975. Includes bibliographical references (leaves i-xxiii).
Chapter 1 The New Urban Paradigm: Urban Social Science for the Twenty-First Century Part 2 I. Cities in Global Perspective Chapter 3 Cities and the New International Division of Labor: An Overview Chapter 4 The Global Context of Metropolitan Growth: Houston and the Oil Industry Chapter 5 Extractive Regions in Developed Countries: A Comparative Analysis of the Oil Capitals/ Houston and Aberdeen Part 6 II. Powerful Economic Actors in City Development Chapter 7 Cities in Conflict Chapter 8 Urban Real Estate Speculation: Implications for Social Science and Urban Planning Chapter 9 Irrationality in Real Estate Investment: The Case of Houston Part 10 III. The Political Dimension of City Development Chapter 11 The Corporate Center Strategy: The State in Central Cities Chapter 12 Arenas of Conflict: Zoning and Land-Use Reform in Critical Political-Economic Perspective Chapter 13 Are Planners Collective Capitalists? The Cases of Aberdeen and Houston Part 14 IV. Race, Racism, and City Development Chapter 15 Slavery Unwilling to Die: The Background of Black Oppression in the 1980s Chapter 16 The Continuing Significance of Race: Antiblack Discrimination in Public Places Chapter 17 The Continuing Significance of Racism: Discrimination Against Black Students in White Colleges Chapter 18 Changing Black Americans to Fit a Racist System? Part 19 V. Review and Reprise Chapter 20 Urban Sociology: Feagin Style Chapter 21 The New Urban Paradigm: Feagin's Contributions
Steven Lukes' Power: A Radical View is a seminal work still widely used some 30 years after publication. The second edition includes the complete original text alongside two major new essays. One assesses the main debates about how to conceptualize and study power, including the influential contributions of Michel Foucault. The other reconsiders Steven Lukes' own views in light of these debates and of criticisms of his original argument. With a new introduction and bibliographical essay, this book will consolidate its reputation as a classic work and a major reference point within social and political theory.
U.S. cities have become increasingly bound into a global system in the decades since World War II. Of primary importance for urban housing are the implications of this system for the flow of residential capital, and the effects of a global labor market on U.S. wages and incomes. Globalization has overlaid issues of liquidity and new forms of financial investment on an already difficult housing situation for older manufacturing cities. Using Philadelphia as an example, issues of abandonment, affordability, and homelessness are discussed as they reflect the effects of a global urban system. The conclusion seeks to reorient discussions of local housing policy in this global context.
This paper traces federal housing policies related to single-family home ownership from their creation in the 1930s to the present. In particular, the article focuses on policies of the Federal Housing Administration and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and other federal regulators of financial institutions. The theme of the article is that the original policies of FHA and the financial institution regulators either directly prohibited (FHA) lending to minorities or other residents in minority or racially mixed neighbor hoods or discouraged lending in such neighborhoods. This helped lead to a situation where these neighborhoods were starved for credit. In response to civil rights and neigh borhood movements, FHA radically reversed its policies, underwriting almost any loan in older, minority, and integrated neighborhoods, while the regulatory agencies generally made no effort to reverse existing lending practices. The result was that these neighbor hoods became inundated with FHA lending, which was often subject to fraud and abuses leading to high concentrations of foreclosures and abandonments. Thus, the federal attempts to cure the problems of inner-city housing finance actually made the situation much worse.
Population loss and economic decline have resulted in thousands of abandoned homes in major U.S. cities. Although abandoned homes are symptomatic of other problems, they also contribute to neighborhood decline and frustrate revitalization. This article provides an overview of the national scope of abandoned housing and profiles Baltimore's strategy for addressing this problem.Challenges in Baltimore's revitalization planning include the necessity of and financial requirements for a comprehensive approach and the difficulty of reaching consensus. Widespread property “flipping” hampers prevention. Efforts to acquire and demolish units are constrained by difficulties in tracking ownership, felons’ ownership of derelict units, and a shortage of staffing to process takings. Challenges in rehabilitating and marketing row houses include the need for subsidies to make units affordable to the most likely buyers, the omnipresence of lead paint, and the lack of foreign immigration. The article proposes a more strategic approach to the city's revitalization planning.
This article examines the way municipalities have used increasingly broad interpretations of "blight" to compete for state tax increment financing (TIFs) for economic development purposes. It traces the definition of blight in the context of state and federal urban redevelopment programs from the nineteenth century through the Progressive Era to the advent of TIF laws in the 1980s and 90s. It goes on to discuss the how the concept of "blight" has shifted from a condition of substandard housing to a condition of "sub-optimal" local economic development, in part due to intense competition among municipalities for TIFs. The article concludes that excessively broad state definitions of "blight" and concepts like "future blight" have fueled a "tax grab" and converted TIF laws from tools for eradicating substandard housing conditions to a way for municipalities to "pad the tax base." To combat this effect, the article proposes various TIF law reforms, most significantly the addition of "but for" tests that would prevent municipalities from defining an area as "blighted" unless it is unlikely to receive private investment.
A sample of 306 residents of New Jersey stratified by type of neighborhood was gathered in order to measure the association of residents’ ratings of neighborhood quality with neighborhood attributes and residents’ characteristics. Poor neighborhood quality was strongly associated with crime/vandalism and physical decay, as well as with mistrust of authority, negative emotions, pessimism, and a lack of sense of mastery of the environment.The policy implications of these findings are important. First, improving schools, controlling locally unwanted land uses, and improving other neighborhood conditions will help improve neighborhood quality only if crime and blight are controlled. Second, many residents of poor and fair quality neighborhoods mistrust authority, including the local officials and potential investors who will spearhead neighborhood redevelopment. This destructive form of mistrust must be addressed.
This article discusses the history and political economy of the neighborhood life‐cycle or “stage” theory, an evolving real estate appraisal concept used as a basis for urban planning decisions in the United States. The life‐cycle theory was revived by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after the urban riots of the 1960s and used by local planners to encourage the “deliberate dispersal” of low‐income and African‐American urban neighborhoods, followed by the eventual reuse of abandoned areas.Postriot urban policy can be understood as a dialectical process of social change. “Triage” planning was used to depopulate areas of social unrest. Conflict over the neighborhood life‐cycle theory changed the politics of urban renewal, leading to a greater focus on redlining. Community‐based development became an alternative to planned abandonment, directing public and private resources into redlined areas.
Many urban analysts believe suburban sprawl has become an important issue because it helps generate two types of problems: growth‐related difficulties like rising traffic congestion, and high concentrations of poor minority households in core‐area neighborhoods. However, a careful regression analysis of measures of both sprawl and urban decline shows no statistically significant relation between these two conditions.The basic nature of the American urban development process would cause core‐area poverty concentrations even if sprawl were replaced by more compact growth forms. But sprawl does aggravate growth‐related problems. Those problems could be attacked through either alternative overall growth strategies—such as high‐density, tightly bounded growth—or specific anti‐sprawl tactics, such as regional tax‐base sharing and regional coordination of land uses. But no feasible policies are likely either to alleviate traffic congestion much or cause most American regions to abandon sprawl.
THIS STUDY IS AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF SLUM OWNERSHIP AND THE IMPACT OF THE MARKET ON THE MAINTENANCE AND REHABILITATION OF SLUM TENEMENTS. DATA ARE DRAWN FROM LAND PARCEL STATISTICS AND LANDLORD INTERVIEWS IN NEWARK, N.J. THE STUDY DESCRIBES THE MEASURES NEEDED TO INITIATE SLUM REHABILITATION. PARTICULAR ATTENTION IS GIVEN TO OWNERSHIP PATTERNS, THE RELATION OF THE ACQUISITION PROCESS TO SLUM MAINTENANCE, THE WEAKENED MARKET STRUCTURE, TENANTS AND REHABILITATION, FINANCING, TAXES, CODE ENFORCEMENT, URBAN RENEWAL AND REHABILITATION, AND NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS. IT IS FELT THAT THERE IS CONSISTENT EVIDENCE THAT THE WEAKENING OF THE SLUM REALTY MARKET IS CAUSING PRESENT MAINTENANCE PROCEDURES TO DEGENERATE. DATA ARE PRESENTED IN EXTENSIVE CHARTS AND TABLES. THIS DOCUMENT IS PUBLISHED BY THE URBAN STUDIES CENTER AT RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY, NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY. (NC)
Many urban areas in the 1980s have witnessed the revitalization of a community reinvestment movement, one directed at encouraging private financial institutions to make loans in low and moderate income communities and particularly in minority communities. Research has played a strong role in promoting reinvestment efforts by documenting metropolitan housing finance patterns. Accompanying the growth of community reinvestment activity will be expanded research opportunities to investigate how credit patterns underlie metropolitan development trends and to help promote more responsibile community reinvestment activity. To aid the continuation of research efforts, this paper addresses a series of methods used to assess housing credit disparities and market barriers to finance. It discusses data availability and the strengths and limitations of these data, methods for measuring credit disparities, techniques for assessing racial bias and market barriers in lending patterns, and methods for assessing the community reinvestment performance of individual financial institutions. The final part addresses a more comprehensive research agenda that focuses on investigating the housing market institutional sources of residential investment disparities, particularly by race. Knowledge of metropolitan credit patterns and market barriers to credit can be enriched by studies of the housing market processes that lead to uneven credit flows and, thus, to metropolitan-wide inequality.
Vacant and abandoned property is increasingly recognized as a significant barrier to the revitalization of central cities. This study sheds some light on the nature of the property abandonment problem and on current city efforts to address it. It is based upon the findings of a survey of the 200 most populous central cities in the United States, conducted during the summer and fall of 1997, and on follow-up interviews with a portion of the survey population, conducted during the summer of 1998. The findings of the survey and interviews indicate that vacant and abandoned property is perceived as a significant problem by elected and appointed officials in the nation's largest central cities. This type of property affects many aspects of community life, including housing and neighborhood vitality, crime prevention efforts, and commercial district vitality. Single- and multi-family housing, retail properties and vacant land are the most problematic types of vacant and abandoned property for most cities. Cities use a variety of techniques to address this problem, including aggressive code enforcement, tax foreclosure, eminent domain, and cosmetic improvements. One-third of the cities surveyed use a variety of other innovative tools to combat the vacant and abandoned property problem. Nevertheless, current efforts to combat the problem suffer from a number of shortcomings that are described in the article.
Several large US cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, have developed information systems to distribute property-level housing data to community organizations and municipal agencies. These early warning systems are also intended to predict which properties are at greatest risk of abandonment, but they have rarely used statistical modeling to support such forecasts. This study used logistic regression to analyze data from the Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System in order to determine which properties were most likely to become imminently dangerous. Several different characteristics of the property, including whether it was vacant, had outstanding housing code violations, and tax arrearages as well as characteristics of nearby properties were identified as significant predictors. Challenges common to the development of early warning systems - including integrating administrative data, defining abandonment, and modeling temporal and spatial data - are discussed along with policy implications for cities like Philadelphia that have thousands of vacant and abandoned properties.
Community activists were delighted with the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act, but they came to realize that it would take more than the word of law to bring about real change. This book gives voice to the activists who took it upon themselves to agitate for increased investment by financial institutions in their local communities. They tell of their struggles to get banks, mortgage companies and others to rethink their lending policies. Their stories, drawn from experiences in Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Boston, Pittsburgh, and other cities around the country, offer insight into the way our political/economic system really works.
Over the past fifteen years, associations throughout the U.S. have organized citizens around issues of equality and social justice, often through local churches. But in contrast to President Bush's vision of faith-based activism, in which groups deliver social services to the needy, these associations do something greater. Drawing on institutions of faith, they reshape public policies that neglect the disadvantaged. To find out how this faith-based form of community organizing succeeds, Richard L. Wood spent several years working with two local groups in Oakland, Californiaâthe faith-based Pacific Institute for Community Organization and the race-based Center for Third World Organizing. Comparing their activist techniques and achievements, Wood argues that the alternative cultures and strategies of these two groups give them radically different access to community ties and social capital. Creative and insightful, Faith in Action shows how community activism and religious organizations can help build a more just and democratic future for all Americans.
The topic of neighborhood redevelopment is central to residential appraisal and the lending process. We examine both the effect of neighborhood upgrading and decline, captured by subsidized new residential construction and sustained property tax delinquency respectively, on the sales price of one-to-two family homes. The research uses a two stage hedonic price model of 12,100 individual residential sales in Cleveland, Ohio during 1992-94. Results show a significant positive effect of $670 on the sales price of existing housing for each new unit built in a one-to-two block area. A decrease in sales price of $778 is associated with a 1% increase in the tax delinquency rate. The spatial variability of these effects is also explored.
This article argues that racial segregation is crucial to explaining the emergence of the urban underclass during the 1970s. A strong interaction between rising rates of poverty and high levels of residential segregation explains where, why, and in which groups the underclass arose. This argument is developed with simulations that replicate the economic conditions observed among blacks and whites in metropolitan areas during the 1970s but assume different conditions of racial and class segregation. These data show how a simple increase in the rate of minority poverty leads to a dramatic rise in the concentration of poverty when it occurs within a racially segregated city. Increases in poverty concentration are, in turn, associated with other changes in the socioeconomic character of neighborhoods, transforming them into physically deteriorated areas of high crime, poor schools, and excessive mortality where welfare-dependent, female-headed families are the norm. Thus, policies to solve the socioeconomic problems of minorities will fail unless they are accompanied by measures for overcoming the disadvantages caused by racial discrimination and prejudice in the housing market. -Author
Blight Package Flies with New Aims
- L N Fleming
- A S Twyman
Fleming, L. N., and Twyman, A. S. 2003. "Blight Package Flies with New Aims," The Philadelphia Inquirer June 6.
Abandoned Housing in Urban Policymaking and Metropolitan Dynamics: A Comparative Geographical Analysis
- M J Dear
Dear, M. J. 1975. Abandoned Housing in Urban Policymaking and Metropolitan Dynamics: A Comparative Geographical
Analysis. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Property Abandonment in the United States
- R W Burchell
- D Listokin
Burchell, R. W., and Listokin, D. 1981. "Property Abandonment in the United States," The Adaptive Reuse Handbook, Pp. 386-410. Rutgers, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research.
City Politics: Private Power and Public Policy
- D R Judd
- T Swanstrom
Judd, D. R., and Swanstrom, T. 1998. City Politics: Private Power and Public Policy. New York: Longman.
Building Community: Social Science in Action
- P Nyden
- A Figert
- M Shibley
- D Burrows
Nyden, P., Figert, A., Shibley, M., and Burrows, D. 1997. Building Community: Social Science in Action. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Shaping Place: Institutions and Metropolitan Development Patterns
- A B Shlay
Shlay, A. B. 1993. "Shaping Place: Institutions and Metropolitan Development Patterns," Journal of Urban Affairs
15(5), 387-404.
Building the Engaged University in the American City: The Case of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Its 'Great Cities Commitment
- D C Perry
Perry, D. C. 2003. "Building the Engaged University in the American City: The Case of the University of Illinois
at Chicago and Its 'Great Cities Commitment'," paper presented at the European Urban Research Association
Conference on University and Community Relationships. Enschede, Netherlands.
Mantua Residents Protest for Share in Demolition Jobs The Philadelphia Daily News
- E Young
Young, E. 2003b. " Mantua Residents Protest for Share in Demolition Jobs, " The Philadelphia Daily News March 22.
Power and Poverty; Theory and Practice Urban Housing in an Era of Global Capital Abandonment
- P Bachrach
- M S Baratz
- D W Bartelt
Bachrach, P., and Baratz, M. S. 1970. Power and Poverty; Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. Bartelt, D. W. 1977. " Urban Housing in an Era of Global Capital, " Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 555, May. Bartelt, D. 1998. " Abandonment, " in W. vanVliet (ed.), Encyclopedia of Housing. Pp. 21–22.
Faith Based Community Organizing: The State of the Field
- M R Warren
- R L Wood
Warren, M. R., and Wood, R. L. 2001. Faith Based Community Organizing: The State of the Field. Jericho, NY: Interfaith
Funders.