New York Times covers the burden of abandoned homes
March 5, 2009 at 1:27 pm by Thomas Wheatley in News
The New York Times Magazine offers a full preview online of its profile about Tony Brancatelli, a Cleveland City Councilmember who’s battling a problem currently plaguing Atlanta — what to do with the rows and rows of abandoned and foreclosed homes.
From the magazine:
Foreclosures are a problem all over the country now, but Cleveland got to this place a while ago. Cities, old and new, are looking at what’s occurring in Cleveland with some trepidation — and also looking for guidance. Already places as diverse as Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas and Minneapolis have neighborhoods where at least one of every five homes stands vacant. In states like California, Florida and Nevada, where many of the foreclosures have been newer housing, there is fear that with mounting unemployment and more people walking away from their property, houses will remain empty longer, with a greater likelihood that they will deteriorate or be vandalized. “There are neighborhoods around the country as bad as anything in Cleveland,” says Dan Immergluck, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and an associate professor in the city and regional planning program at Georgia Tech. Local officials from other industrial cities have visited Cleveland to learn how it’s dealing with the devastation. “Cleveland is a bellwether,” Immergluck says. “It’s where other cities are heading because of the economic downturn.”
Immergluck, if you recall, wrote the eye-opening 2007 report (PDF) that concluded property values were rising faster along the southern half of the Beltline — Atlanta’s 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit — than the project’s other areas. Both that report and the Times article are great and deserve a read.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
April 15th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
This letter is in response to the article “All Boarded Up” written by ALEX KOTLOWITZ.
During my time (1993 to 1999) as President of {the now defunct} South East Clevelanders Together I worked to promote community organizing in Ward 12 {Slavic Village} to address quality of life issues {such as crime watch} in an aggressive and systematic manner. During that time, Ward 12 was represented by current City of Cleveland Director of Building and Housing Edward W. Rybka and the former Broadway Area Housing Coalition nka Slavic Village Development headed then by current Ward 12 Councilman Anthony Brancatelli. Needless to say, it did not take long for our organization to clash with the former Councilman’s housing group. Their primary objective was to build and rehabilitate housing without any real regard for the other issues affecting the residents and business owners. They too took the worst houses and put people in them who had no ability {or desire} to pay. In fact, once they completed their first rehabilitation on any given street that house soon became a haven for various social malcontents. Once the “single apple spoiled the barrel” the remaining law-abiding residents moved thus adding further to the catastrophe. Now the Cleveland City Council wants to extend the boundaries of Ward 12 beyond the current boundaries of Ward 15 which {as luck would have it} would include my residence. Councilman Brian Cummins has been a fine representative for Ward 15 but as for Ward 12 Councilman Anthony Brancatelli; he will do for Ward 15 {Old Brooklyn} was he has and will continue to do for Ward 12 {Slavic Village}.