Blight
This university-owned city block in Chicago has languished for over a decade. Neighbors say it's time to let go
The university never built its planned student housing, letting a row of storefronts sit vacant for years.
Philadelphia sees 29% drop in gun violence near new green spaces
A city-backed program that cleans up blighted and vacant lots is creating new public spaces and reducing crime in surrounding communities.
Spokane Could Tax Parking Lots 12% to Increase Development
A proposal before the city council would tax surface parking lots in an effort to boost infill development.
Baltimore Program Could Repurpose Thousands of Vacant Housing Units
The city and state are investing $3 billion in rescuing vacant residential properties to promote homeownership and reduce blight.
Opinion: Cities Must Take Action on Blighted Downtown Parking Lots
Surface parking lots take up as much as a third of downtown land in some cities, dragging down tax revenue and redevelopment prospects.
Newark Kicks Off $1 Home Sale Program
The city sold seven properties as part of an effort to revive blighted sites and encourage housing production.
Pre-Permitted Housing Plans Can Combat Blight, Revive Neighborhoods
Faced with blighted neighborhoods where the cost of building a house would exceed its eventual market value, the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, streamlined the permitting process to help lower development costs.
How Effective are Philadelphia’s Keystone Opportunity Zones?
The impacts of a tax break designed to create jobs, stimulate development, and reduce blight are proving hard to track.
Map Identifies DeKalb County Brownfield Sites
The GIS tool is designed to help developers find vacant and blighted lots that could be restored for new housing or other uses.
Detroit Mayor Proposes Vacant Lot Tax
A new tax plan would reform the city’s famously low vacancy tax rates in an effort to stimulate more housing development and limit speculation.
Ohio to Demolish Thousands of Vacant Buildings
The state is funding a $150 million effort to raze blighted buildings to accelerate revitalization.
What Is Urban Renewal?
Ostensibly intended to improve "blighted" neighborhoods and provide better housing conditions, urban renewal often involved displacement and the wholesale destruction of urban communities.
$160 Million in Bond Funding for Demolitions on the Ballot in Detroit
Proposal N, on the ballot for Detroit voters next week, will provide $160 million in bond funding for demolitions and $90 million to mothball homes for future rehab, but, according to this opinion, it won't solve the city's blight challenges.
Detroit Continues Demolition Program After Lead Risks Revealed
The city of Detroit said it would halt a demolition program after a report revealed the amount of lead released by demolitions into the environment, risking the health of children and other local residents.
Neighborhood Homes Investment Act Picks Up Momentum
A proposed tax credit designed to stabilize single-family neighborhoods facing growing numbers of vacancies is making its way through Congress.
Neighborhood Homes Investment Act Offers Tax Incentives for Single-Family Rehabs
In struggling communities full of single-family homes, the cost is too high for developers to acquire and renovate blighted properties. The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act would offer an incentive for investment in existing building stock.
'Extremely Blighted' Designation Spurs Investment in Nebraska Cities
Neighborhoods in Nebraska, located in areas already deemed blighted, will receive priority funding and homebuyer tax credits from the state.
Can Reparations Right the Wrongs Caused by a Highway?
An elevated highway destroyed an African American community in Syracuse, New York. Is just removing it enough?
Demolitions Can't Keep Pace With Vacancies in Baltimore
As the city of Baltimore grapples with a declining population, it faces obstinate challenges in controlling the problems associated with vacant buildings, including the "vicious cycle" of vacancies causing more vacancies.
Watch: The Dark Side of Eminent Domain
In cities like Boston, the government’s right to take private property displaced residents and destroyed vulnerable neighborhoods and communities.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
