Not a new issue of course, but an interesting article:
DAVID SINGLETON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
POSTED: Sunday, August 31, 2014, 9:35 AM
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - Scranton is a city of 76,000 people with a housing stock largely built before 1940 for a population almost twice that number.
It has the blight to prove it.
As the financially strapped city struggles to combat blight and the host of ills it fosters, Scranton finds itself in a position common among many Rust Belt communities: many old buildings, too few people willing or able to keep them up and limited resources to press aggressively for a comprehensive solution.
The region's other two major cities, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton, are dealing with similar issues, though their circumstances don't precisely mirror Scranton's.
When Patrick Hinton became the director of Scranton's Department of Licensing, Inspections and Permits in January, he made attacking blight and clamping down on the absentee property owners many see as the primary contributors a priority.
He believes his department is holding its own, though he acknowledges everyone always wants more progress.
"It's difficult," Mr. Hinton said. "The public sees it as we are not doing our job, and that's not really the case. The inspectors work hard, but we are limited. We can only get to so many places in a day."
It is the same story in Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton.
By its nature, blight can be stealthy, making it an almost impossible problem to stay ahead of, Hazleton Mayor Joseph Yannuzzi said.
"You just never want to get too far behind," he said.
Of the 34,103 housing units in Scranton, 20,083, or 59 percent, were built in 1939 or earlier, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The figure is 58 percent - 11,102 of 19,281 - in Wilkes-Barre and 44 percent - 5,088 of 11,505 - in Hazleton.
Margaret Dewar, Ph.D., a University of Michigan urban planning professor and a scholar with the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Urban Renewal, said aging housing is not necessarily a precursor of blight. With sufficient demand, old housing can be rehabilitated and repurposed, she said.
However, having too much housing for a city's population is an undisputed recipe for blight, and once it takes hold, it tends to become self-perpetuating, Dr. Dewar said.
Detroit is probably the most notorious example, she said, but it can be found on a lesser scale in cities large and small that have experienced population loss or significant middle-class flight.
"In neighborhoods, the big issue is it reduces the remaining residents' confidence in the future of the neighborhood, and they are more likely to leave because they think their property values will continue to fall," Dr. Dewar said. "Then, as they leave, there is more property with no demand or weak demand, so there is more property to deteriorate.
"It's a very ugly process."
Read more at
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20...dZpxoTRdRMy.99
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