Monday, April 25, 2011

Abandoned buildings pose health, safety risks

Here are some problems caused due to housing abandonment. It's an example of how a community was affected due to abandoned buildings. However it does not give a detail explanation about the problems associated with abandonment.

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/content/abandoned-buildings-pose-health-safety-risks

6 comments:

  1. Abandoning a building seems like about the worst thing you can do to it. Tearing it down alleviates the area of a dangerous structure and allows for something new and constructive to the community to be built in its place.

    That said, obviously I observe the fact that keeping the business (or family, etc) in the building would be the ultimate solution, too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keeping businesses/homeowners alive and reducing abandonment would have a profound impact on not only the economy, but also public safety. Abandoned housing really opens the door for crime and does not contribute to society. It should be a main focus while working on the housing crisis.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think this is the only article that has given an example of an organization following the law and ethical procedures (police). It is also the first time I find myself wishing they would just do what they want and stop the problem. Weird turn of events.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unfortunately tearing down buildings is crazy expensive, and unless you're about to re-use the property, you don't really get anything for your money. Especially if the reason you're leaving is that you ran out of money.

    I've been reading a lot about how to shrink Detroit lately, and it's becoming very clear that our economic system just doesn't really have a way to drive downsizing, the only way to incentivize shrinking is public subsidies, which you hope pay themselves off by the increased efficiency of the newer, smaller unit.

    Alot of this follows from the fact that debt and costs attach to the property, not the owner. It's what's taking down inner-ring suburbs, when looked at on a larger scale (see http://www.urbanophile.com/2011/04/15/replay-the-power-of-greenfield-economics/ for a really good discussion of the problem)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Also, this reminds me of when Snoop was dropping bodies in the abandoned row houses on the Wire.

    ReplyDelete
  6. An excellent season and an excellent article; thanks.

    ReplyDelete