Take it to the land bank: how cities can help to salvage all that abandoned property May 18, 2011 1:04 PM
This Op-Ed, written by Peter B. Fleischer and Jordan Talbot of ESF, was published in the Albany Times Union, May 15 2011. The artwork is republished courtesy Jeff Boyer/Times Union
Abandoned houses and vacant properties blight New York's urban landscape from Brookhaven to Newburgh to Troy, from Schenectady to Syracuse to Niagara Falls. Poorly thought out land use decisions have helped perpetuate an exodus from our historic urban and suburban centers. History has been unkind to these places.
Vacant and abandoned properties present myriad problems for New York. They signal disinvestment and disrepair to neighbors and passers-by alike -- telling people that it's OK to litter in front of them, scrawl graffiti on their walls or use them as drug havens -- leading to a spiral of decay that gradually claims whole neighborhoods.
The problems they pose are not only aesthetic. Research in Philadelphia has demonstrated that the presence of a single vacant or abandoned property on a block decreases surrounding home values by an average of $6,720. More abandonment means even greater home value loss.
When properties become a threat to public health and safety, municipalities must step up and bear the costs. As reported by the Times Union on Oct. 10, when a pair of duplexes on Third Street in Albany began to crumble after decades of neglect, the city cleared the rubble and bore the costs.
Cost estimates from around the state for demolitions of residential single-family and small multifamily structures range from $15,000 to $25,000 per structure. Short of demolition as a last resort, the cost of boarding up broken windows, clearing sidewalks and removing trash also add up for municipalities. These properties are a further drain on already weak urban finances.
In cities across New York, these properties pose a threat to the future. According to the 2010 census, Buffalo has held on to its title as the most vacant city in the state, with 15.7 percent of the city's habitable housing units vacant. That's despite a push from the mayor's office that has led to the demolition of more than 4,000 structures since 2006.
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