Recent Release: “The City After Abandonment”

  The City After Abandonment (Margaret Dewar and June Manning Thomas, Editors, University of Pennsylvania Press) is a collection of essays from top urban planning experts that address three questions essential to understanding cities plagued with abandonment: What have such cities become?  What makes a difference in what cities become after abandonment–what policies, politics, social
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Tensions of Abandonment and “Letting it be”

The Artisphere (Arlington, VA) hosted an event in early October showcasing the highly publicized exhibit, “Beyond the Parking Lot: The Change and Re-assessment of our Modern Landscape.” Attendees of the special event, “Placemaking and Revitalizing Neighborhoods: Going ‘Beyond the Parking Lot,” enjoyed an exhibit tour lead by curator Cynthia Connolly, followed by a presentation from
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NPR Reports on Baltimore’s Vacants to Value

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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Zombie Neigborhoods: Searching for a Cure

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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Legacy Cities as Resilient Cities

A new report by the National League of Cities suggests that Michigan’s Legacy’s cities, impacted by economic decline, physical deterioration, population and job loss, may be rising to the challenge and showing resilience based on the responses of local actors. Building on two previous foreclosure resiliency studies (from 2010 and 2011), the current study sought to identify foundational
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