[Gunpowder green]

What I don't get is why the city doesn't at least auction these lots off instead of awarding them directly to individuals? True, they wouldn't get more than a few hundred bucks at best, but to confiscate someone's land and award it to someone else for a dollar is Communism.

I also don't understand why, if these lots were overgrown and harboring danger, the neighbors haven't taken it upon themselves to clear them and report crime? Self-reliance seems strangely absent from those communities.

[Dallas59]

Set up this puppy on a corner lot...

[PATRIOT1876]

Get rid of Leftist policies in Chicago and you’ll see those lots worth a whole lot more than a dollar

[kevkrom]

The city is getting no tax revenue and they’re on the hook for maintaining the lot, which is beyond their capabilities. Why not allow an established home-owner (and responsible taxpayer) to take that liability off their hands and turn it back into some kind of productive (and eventually taxable) use?

[Blood of Tyrants]

How much taxes is the city going to charge you for those $1 lots?

[Paine in the Neck]

Location, location, location.

See, the problem is these lots are located in Chicago, in a blighted area of Chicago. Where the means to keep the blight off your newly acquired property is against the law.

[MeshugeMikey]

Comminism In The Hood!

The man has ALWAYS taken the lead/

[Einherjar]

Do they have city water ?

[cripplecreek]

I also don't understand why, if these lots were overgrown and harboring danger, the neighbors haven't taken it upon themselves to clear them and report crime? Self-reliance seems strangely absent from those communities.

In the case of Detroit it was the city government that has created and intensified the problem and I'm assuming its the same in Chicago. Touch a property and you become responsible for it including all the accumulated back taxes, fees and fines going back years.

[ScottinVA]

Yeah.. buy it for $1, then find yourself enmeshed in that rancid hellhole’s politics for a lifetime.

A quagmire is the easiest thing to enter. Exiting is the problem. No thanks.

[Piranha]

Probably there are some well-connected people who recently bought houses next to city-owned lots. This policy makes it possible for them to do what Obama did in Hyde Park when he bought the lot next to his home for a below-market price from Tony Rezko.

[Stosh]

More empty lots = lower property tax revenues.

Lower property tax revenues = higher property tax rates.

Higher tax rates = more abandoned buildings.

More abandoned buildings ———> cleared structures (= more empty lots).

More empty lots = etc. ———> “death spiral”

Death spiral = Detroit.

in the end, Chicago = Detroit.

Thank you Democrats.

[ScottinVA]

Chicago's an amazingly friendly place. Once you buy your stake in urban pioneering, your "neighbors" will be stopping by to say "howdy."

[Don Corleone]

Detroit 2.0

[Boogieman]

“to confiscate someone’s land and award it to someone else for a dollar is Communism”

They didn’t confiscate anything. The lands were forfeited when nobody paid the property taxes.

[Married with Children]

There is no way I would buy an empty lot on any block if I was just going to leave it an empty lot. Wouldn’t take long for it to become a trash dump that I had to keep clean and mowed.

[usconservative]

The City of Chicago owns close to 5,000 vacant lots in the greater Englewood area alone, and is supposed to clean up, mow and maintain them.

My commuter train goes through Englewood into and out of Chicago daily. Trust me on this: NO ONE wants to buy a lot in Englewood. It's one of the top two or three high crime/gang-land shooting neighborhoods in Chicago. Even the people that live there don't want to live there.

[usconservative]

Self-reliance seems strangely absent from those communities.

Two words: Multi-Generational Welfare.

Need I say more?

[RetSignman]

For Sale: Vacant Lots On Chicago Blocks, Just $1 Each...BUT WAIT, if you buy now, we’ll include an EXTRA lot for a total of just $1.50.*

*Property taxes and other fee’s may apply.

[VanShuyten]

Is this an attempt to make Obama’s “purchase” of part of the Rezko property more legal?

[Hardastarboard]

Vacant lots, being overgrown by weeds. I would think the Greens would be ecstatic over this. Let’s return all city land to nature. Isn’t that what they want?