urban blight

6 Stories

Prisoners Who Tore Down Ark. Blight Fear Toxic Exposure

'They sold us on a dream'

(Newser) - It was supposed to be a win-win for everyone involved in Pine Bluff's Mulligan Road project: The Arkansas city would get rid of abandoned houses that were an eyesore, while the inmates and parolees who tore down those eyesores would receive valuable job training and other perks. But as...

Detroit: We Need $850M to Tear Down 40K Houses

Major report on city blight carries a big price tag

(Newser) - Just how bad is Detroit's blight? It took a major task force 331 pages to summarize the problem and recommend solutions, but that's hardly the most jaw-dropping number involved. The panel says the city needs $850 million to tear down 40,000 mostly residential properties over the next...

Decrepit Philadelphia Row Home to Get ... Funeral

As a symbol, before it gets demolished

(Newser) - A rundown row house in the impoverished Mantua section of Philadelphia had a colorful, centurylong record of occupancy before its last longtime residents died and it became a symbol of urban blight. Now, the boarded-up structure is getting quite the send-off. Hymns and eulogies will mark the last moments of...

Abandoned Detroit Draws Pranksters, Artists
 Abandoned Detroit Draws 
 Pranksters, Artists 

vandals' paradise
Nov 6, 2009 5:53 AM CST

Abandoned Detroit Draws Pranksters, Artists

80K empty buildings a mecca for 'urban explorers'

(Newser) - Detroit's 80,000 abandoned buildings, from housing projects to high-rises to industrial plants, have become a magnet for all kinds of vandals, pranksters, and urban explorers. "Mayhem. That's what they should call the place. If you decide you want to push a dump truck out of a window, this...

Dear Conan: Newark's Not Funny
 Dear Conan: 
 Newark's Not Funny 
OPINION
Oct 13, 2009 4:35 AM CDT

Dear Conan: Newark's Not Funny

O'Brien's quips make light of grim inner-city realities

(Newser) - There have been some hilarious moments in Conan O'Brien's mock feud with Newark mayor Cory Booker, but there's nothing funny about the plight of America's inner cities, writes Bob Herbert. O'Brien and his audience are mocking a place that, like too many others in America, is "poverty-stricken, run down,...

Downtrodden Detroit Can Rise Again, Green

Cheap labor, empty factories, can-do legacy scream green revolution

(Newser) - The Detroit of Daniel Okrent’s childhood is gone. The “elm-lined streets” of the “City of Homeowners”—“the place that America once knew as the Arsenal of Democracy”—have become “the urban equivalent of a boxer's mouth, more gaps than teeth.” A devastating...

6 Stories