Group items tagged

Accordino, John and Johnson, Gary (2000). Addressing the Vacant and Abandoned Property Problem. Journal of Urban Affairs, 22(3), 301-315. Abstract: "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."

Keating, W. Dennis and Thomas Bier (2008). "Greater Cleveland's First Suburbs Consortium: Fighting Sprawl and Suburban Decline." Housing Policy Debate. 19(3), 457-477. Abstract: "This article addresses the problems of older suburbs bordering central cities; these suburbs are now experiencing many of the same symptoms of decline as the central cities themselves. We analyze this issue by recounting the experience of the inner (or first) suburbs of Cleveland and the First Suburbs Consortium (FSC), which was formed in 1997 to counteract sprawl in the metropolitan region. We analyze the impact of FSC both on its suburban members and also on state policies affecting older suburbs. FSC can point to several programs that it has developed to improve housing and commercial development among its 16 members. It also has joined with other similar Ohio suburbs to advocate and to lobby for changes in state policies (so far unsuccessfully) to provide more assistance to older suburbs. Nevertheless, FSC has been recognized as a national role model."