Rural blight definition2/17/2024 According to Data-Smart City Solutions, part of Harvard University, around 40,000 properties were found to be blighted and were subsequently given priority for either demolition or remediation.Īdditionally, a similar data-driven survey questionnaire approach identified around 38,000 properties that were deemed at risk of urban blight. In Detroit, 150 residents were tasked with surveying vacant land across the city that could be used. The answer, they suggest, lies in changing the tax system to dissuade entities hoarding land ‘so that it works to discourage the holding of land out of use and encourages regeneration’. Some, like activists Land Is Free, suggest the sort of economic change seen in blighted areas ‘does not explain why redundant buildings aren’t converted to other uses or pulled down for others to build something new in their place.Nor does it explain why empty sites are left to decay and become a magnet for vandalism and crime.’ They feature many things in common: districts where buildings stand empty, waiting for a change of fortune where housing is rundown and in a poor state of repair where poverty is rife and job prospects are thin on the ground where access to education and health services is limited, where local government, squeezed by budget cuts, is unable to make much headway. Parts of Glasgow, Liverpool and smaller cities like Hartlepool have suffered at various times over the years. A number of UK cities and towns, particularly those in less economically successful areas, have experienced urban blight. The consequences of this sort of decline are significant. There then follows a sort of domino effect, where the blight spreads. Vacant lots, untended and unkempt, eventually drag down property values, acting as a disincentive to people wanting to live in the area, upending potential investment and dissuading businesses from setting up shop.Īs the area drifts, then comes a lack of care, littering, crime and other anti-social behaviour. cities like Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia, urban blight becomes a contagion. Nearly 20 years on, the city is still recovering, and blight remains an issue.Īccording to some, in U.S. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded 80% of New Orleans, causing a million residents to lose their homes, many of which were uninhabitable after the disaster. Natural disasters can also play a part in setting a city on a downward path. It’s been 60-plus years of steady disinvestment, depopulation and an intensive hostility between the city, the suburbs and the rest of the state.’ As Thomas Sugrue, author of ‘The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit’, put it: ‘Detroit is an extreme case of problems that have afflicted every major old industrial city in the U.S. Fuelled further by a combination of poverty, social unrest and a lack of political leadership, several districts across Detroit foundered.Ĭhanges to its manufacturing soul may have contributed to Detroit’s troubles, but there were other factors. The car industry that helped cement the city’s fortunes in the 1930s and ‘40s ran into trouble in the second half of the 20 th century. Examples of urban blightĪ famous example of urban decay can be found in Detroit, which in 2013 became the largest U.S. A town whose prosperity revolved around an industry like mining, steelmaking or textiles may go into decline when such activities cease or move away to set up where operating is cheaper. While this is certainly true, it is only part of the story, and the reasons why cities arrive at this point are complex.Ī key factor is people leaving an area due to things like a depressed economy, leaving vacant homes to the mercy of the elements and resulting in a once-prosperous district or region becoming run down.Ī port that once bustled with ships may have become unprofitable and closed, hitting the local economy that depended on it. The root causes of urban blightĭictionary definitions suggest urban blight – the decay and deterioration of an urban area – is due to neglect or age. These are examples of urban blight, or as it’s also known, urban decay. Public spaces overgrown, unkempt and unloved. Vacant, crumbling factories, walls covered in graffiti. The scenes are often the same: rows of abandoned, run-down houses. Many of us are familiar with images of industrial and residential decay in cities across the world.
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