Author: VPR Network

NPR Reports on Baltimore’s Vacants to Value

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Joe Schilling was recently interviewed by the Baltimore NPR-affiliate on the City’s Vacants to Value program. The program, established November 2010 by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is focused on selling vacant properties within specific transitioning neighborhoods. Currently, Baltimore has an estimated 16,000 vacant properties, 10,000 of which are in need of demolition. For the remainder of these properties
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Mounting Costs of Demolition

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Demolition of vacant and abandoned housing is a topic of growing importance, especially for legacy cities in the industrial heartland.  In some cities the controversy is over whether to mount a major demolition program, while in others the question is how to get more resources to accelerate demolition efforts. In Alan Mallach’s new report published
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Zombie Neigborhoods: Searching for a Cure

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Many of America’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt communities have experienced rising vacancy and abandoned homes or properties beyond just one or two, sprinkled throughout the urban landscape, but recently in terms of entire neighborhoods. The effects of urban decline on these cities has brought new urgency to practitioners and researchers alike. Although anthropomorphism and dramatic terminology has the
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Preventing Vacancy & Deterioration

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A new report from the National League of Cities (NLC) scans the latest solutions and practices of local cities and leaders in dealing with helping communities deal with effects of the foreclosure crisis, including preventing vacancies and further deteriatoration, encouraging rehabilitation and reuse and demolition where appropriate. The report includes a review of national initiatives and
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The Successful Use of Vanguard Developers & Placemaking in CiTs

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        Roanoke, once the thriving rail hub, would now be considered a medium sized legacy in terms of the Cities in Transition (CiT) typology (Cities in Transition: Guide for Practicing Planners, 2012). Experiencing both a decline in jobs and population from its peaks in the 1980’s it has seen challenges to it’s social
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