Author: VPR Network

Schilling and Tackling the Challenges of Vacant Properties

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Joseph Schilling, Terry Schwarz, along with Alan Mallach, FAICP, will be leading a workshop entitled “Tackling the Challenges of Vacant Properties” as part of the APA’s Planners Training Service Workshop Series,  November 8-9 in Chicago. Description of the training: Vacant properties are everybody’s problem. They blight neighborhoods, reduce property values, foster crime and disease, and
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Turning Blight into Beauty?

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According to the Salon.com article, “Abandoned homes are the future: Imaginative ideas turn blight into beauty,” vacant property renaissance is a technique that cities are using to fight back to establish a revitalized urban landscape. Land banks, at the center of this renaissance, are a “city authority that can take control over thousands of abandoned
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Metropolitan Institute Expands Network Capacity

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The Metropolitan Institute (MI) welcomes four new faces. As co-director of the VPRN, Virginia Tech Associate Planning Professor Maggie Cowell will assist MI Director Joe Schilling with the Network’s overall strategic direction and management. Congratulations to MI’s new post-doc Katie Wells who completed her PhD in Geography from Syracuse and Research Associate Lauren Bulka who
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Philadelphia Case Study, “Philadelphia’s Vacant Property Journey,” Released

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The just-released case study, “Philadelphia’s Vacant Property Journey“,  is one of three conducted by Virginia Tech’s Vacant Property Research Network (VPRN), with support from the Ford Foundation, to document resilient approaches to reclaim vacant properties in three cities: Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Baltimore. These studies identify policy reforms and program innovations to reclaim vacant properties, discuss each
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Shrinking Cities Research Café: Extracting comparative lessons from shrinking city case studies from North America and Europe

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Separate from the AESOP/ACSP Conference and events, the Metropolitan Institute co-hosted a Shrinking Cities Research Café.  This was an informal gathering of scholars with the goal of engaging in cross disciplinary discussions about how to improve and enhance the art of comparative case studies from Europe and the United States shrinking cities as a way
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