Drugs Too Much For Urban Pioneers

Owners Bryan Taylor and Vaughn Vigil "are marking the end of a five-year experiment in urban pioneering. During their time in the huge, dilapidated rowhouse, the pair bought and cleaned up the vacant lot between their place and 1704 and opened a police substation in the back room of their own home...They've also endured bricks thrown at their windows, garbage piled in their alley, and drug dealers brandishing guns to try to scare them off."

Their blog, www.rebuildingmadison.info, "has served as an electronic diary and a record of the men's experience fighting drug dealers, city administration, and people they regard as vulture investors. At turns euphoric, exasperated, and frightened, Taylor and Vigil’s blog tells a story that is unusual if only for their depth of engagement."

"But Taylor and Vigil contend that one of the city's flagship redevelopment projects -- Selling City-Owned Property Efficiently, or SCOPE -- has let them down by refusing to sell 1704 Madison to a live-in, do-it-yourself rehabber like themselves.

City housing officials and real-estate agents say that SCOPE, like Project 5000—Mayor Martin O'Malley's program for the city to take 5,000 of the city's 30,000 or so derelict properties by January 2004—is a successful program that has stemmed blight and turned around formerly struggling neighborhoods..."