bulldoze all of them then cover them with dirt and plant corn and hay and soybeans and such and put it back on the tax rolls as farmland...
Posted on 05/04/2009 7:31:39 PM PDT by Lorianne
While most attention has focused on the wave of foreclosures sweeping mostly middle-class, suburban Sunbelt neighborhoods from California to Florida, the nation's emptiest neighborhoods have remained concentrated in the same place for nearly a generation: the mostly minority, poor, urban neighborhoods of the American Rust Belt.
An analysis by AP, based on data collected by the U.S. Postal Service and the HUD, shows the emptiest neighborhoods are clustered in places hit hard during the recession of the 1980s — cities such as Flint, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Indianapolis.
Federal lawmakers have designated nearly $6 billion over the past year for local governments to ... buy and either rehabilitate or demolish foreclosed and abandoned homes.
The AP's analysis, however, shows the money will only make a modest dent in the problem. As of March 31, there were about 4 million homes that have been empty for 90 days — a slight increase over last year's figures and about 3 percent of all U.S. homes.
The federal money will be distributed based on a complicated formula that considers local rates for foreclosures, high-cost mortgages and vacancies. There won't be enough money to completely fix places such as the neighborhood in western Columbus that is the nation's emptiest. A mostly vacant apartment complex with chained-off parking areas shares a drab stretch of asphalt with a strip club, payday lender and abandoned retail stores. About 70 percent of the neighborhood's housing is empty.
The number of abandoned homes scattered throughout the nation's 65,000 neighborhoods concerns federal officials because of the potential to prevent the economy from recovering. Empty housing feeds upon itself. Experts say as more houses stand vacant, property values and tax revenues drop. The drop in property values lead to fewer buyers, which lead to more vacancies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
You could have written this article back in 1982. Its called the “rust belt” for a reason.
I actually lived in this complex in 1992 for one year (I moved to Columbus on a job transfer with two weeks notice.) It was a good, safe place that deteriorated after the illegals started coming to Columbus in the late '90s.
This time ‘round there doesn’t look to be anything to take up the slack on a hypothetical economic recovery. People aren’t buying many cars and especially not Detroit cars, and with globull warming madness not going anywhere soon, they will have no reason to.
Maybe the occupants of neighborhoods can be consolidated, contiguous blocks razed, and the area replanted with forest. Just too many houses where they won’t be needed for a long, long time if ever.
Here in CA we have lots of checkerboard empty housing tracts all while more are being built. Go figure.
HUD and every other Govt body has thrown $ Billions at Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, etc... inner-cities for 40 years. It never works.
These top-heavy, Gov’t dominated places chase jobs and people away. It’s that simple, yet places like MI and NY probably have to hit rock-bottom, like the Soviet Union, before they can change.
A couple of community organizers and a strong ACORN chapter would do the trick ....
bulldoze all of them then cover them with dirt and plant corn and hay and soybeans and such and put it back on the tax rolls as farmland...
“emptiest neighborhoods have remained concentrated in the same place for nearly a generation: the mostly minority, poor, urban neighborhoods of the American Rust Belt.”
The War on Poverty is just a bumper sticker
I've read that Youngstown, OH, has been bulldozing blocks and blocks of empty dwellings that have reverted to the city for unpaid taxes, and it is now possible to purchase on the cheap a livable house within the city limits with several acres of land surrounding it.
How much has the Soviet Union really changed? I think Russia’s hit rock bottom so many times, she can’t feel it.
In reading a local blog today, it was recommended to do a search on “Ruins of Detroit”
I did and it was one of the saddest things I have seen.
Buildings and churches with grandiose architecture. Back then, it must have been like Pharoh’s city in The 10 Commandments. Now these buildings look like carnage from a war zone.
The social commentary that goes along with the photos tells the classic story of liberalism and racism. Sad, sad, sad.
The fact that some neighborhoods haven't been reconverted into developable land simply attests to the fact that the three standards still apply ~ location, location and location!
If an area is abandoned, somewhat isolated from the main arteries and otherwise not hurting anyone there are city administrators who will just let it rot to the ground.
I was looking at the ruins of Gary, IN online last night and did a realtor.com search on property in that city. About 650 listings on the market. 500 or so are priced under $100,000, the remaining 150 are priced up to about 1.5 million. That tells me there is very little middle class in that town.
My @ss. Notice the AP subtly tries to blame this on the Reagan-Bush years. Of course, we all know these problems began occurring during the 1960s after the riots, white flight, and LBJ's poverty programs.
About the right time to have inherited it from Carter.
Exactly. Scale back these cities and create community gardens, small farms, parks and open space. I’m sick of hearing about the Rust Belt...
yup, why not, they've tried everything else...
What do "rust belt cities" have in common?
High taxes
Near-universal unionization of government employees
Incompetent public schools, run as a jobs program
Corrupt municipal government
Democrat politics
Gee, I wonder if there's a connection...
I read somewhere about a German manufacturing city that lost most of its manufacturing base. They have been creative about replacing the empty areas with parks, green spaces, art and new buildings. These Rust Belt cities will never be the same.
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