Blight
Expecting Investment, Reno Targets Blighted Properties
As a nascent tech economy tests the waters, Reno's Vice Mayor spearheads an effort to equitably clear out blight and revisit the purpose of the city's downtown.
Evansville, Indiana Looking to Land Bank to Solve Blight Problem
The city of Evansville will consider in the coming weeks a proposal to empower its land bank to take title and demolish roughly 200 properties. A recent report paid for by the city only bolsters the argument in favor of the action.
Treasury Department Announces $1 Billion for 'Hardest Hit Fund'
A $1 billion funding allocation from the Treasury Department to the Hardest Hit Fund is the fifth since 2010.
Managing Abandoned Homes in North Braddock
The usual litany of Rust Belt woes hit North Braddock, Pennsylvania particularly hard. The Pittsburgh suburb has shed two-thirds of its population and is burdened with 350 abandoned properties.
Downtown Reno: A Place Where Nobody Dared to Go
Residents of Reno, Nevada participating in a rewrite of the city’s master plan have spoken out about the myriad of problems afflicting their downtown—it's dirty, dangerous, and deserted.
Shut It and Gut It: Anchorage Takes Hard Look at Transit Center
After 500 hours of analyzing its downtown transit center, Anchorage officials have come to one conclusion: The only way to fix this building is to shut it and gut it. The transit center, over three decades, has become a blight on Downtown.
Cleveland Counts Its Vacant Homes, Finds Hope in Shrinking Numbers
Surveyors hitting the streets in Cleveland have found that the problem of vacant homes in the city isn't as bad as first feared.
Using Instagram to Create a Blight Inventory
The Innovation Team in Mobile shows that sometimes innovation can be delivered through commonplace technology.
Advice for Newly Elected Officials About Vacant and Abandoned Properties
A few words to live by for elected officials in communities working to transform vacant and abandoned properties into valued, productive uses.
Innovation in Detroit Turns to the Worm
Faced with an estimated 24 square miles of vacant land, Detroit is turning its empty lots into test beds of urban innovation.
Op-Ed: Maryland Should Support Baltimore with Money, Not Bulldozers
A response to the conventional thinking about demolitions as the antidote to blighted, vacant properties and the negative effects that follow.
Using Vacant Property Registration Fee Ordinances to Fix Blight
Planners get involved with foreclosure by assisting residents threatened with foreclosure or addressing community impacts such as blight, vacancy, and property disinvestment. A look at vacant property fees as a tool for dealing with foreclosure.
Map Depicts Nationwide Geography of Inequality
An analysis and accompanying interactive map from the Urban Institute show where the nation's richest and poorest tend to live. The map tells a tale of deeply ingrained wealth segregation.
How Risky Lending Hollowed Out Detroit
Over one half of Detroit's foreclosed homes are blighted or abandoned. Buyers who purchased the homes for as little as $1 have little incentive to keep them in good shape—or pay taxes.
Using Neuroscience to Build Neighborhoods
The brain has a complex, ancient relationship with place. Mental maps are the manifestation of our brains' perception of place and wayfinding. These maps can have profound impacts on how residents appreciate, and improve, their neighborhoods.
Land Bank Achieves Initial Success in Erie County, New York
The former steel town of Lackawanna, in Erie County, New York, is the latest beneficiary of the growing reach of land banks.
How Cities Are Stopping the Blight Contagion
Every city with neighborhoods in decline and a lack of demand for new investment is faced with the challenge of how to address blight. Each city's challenges are unique, but many are finding new and effective strategies to end the spread of blight.
'High-Rent Blight' on the Rise in Manhattan Retail Districts
Why are so many shops closing in New York's richest and best-known neighborhoods?
Farmland 'Blight' to Make Way for Industrial Uses Near Portland
Looking to add some industrial heft to the Portland, Oregon region's economy, a recent study makes the case for the North Hillsboro Industrial Area to be built on what is currently farmland.
American Dream for Sale: $1,000 for an Empty Lot in Newark
In a bid for revenue and rejuvenation, Newark is selling vacant lots for $1,000. Buyers promise to build a home and stay for at least five years.
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
