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COMMUNITY GARDENS The absence of graffiti and litter is a good start to transforming the physical environment of struggling neighborhoods, but there is more work to do. Other external factors can also have a profound impact on a neighborhood’s viability, for example vacant or abandoned properties, or lighting. This also gives further evidence to the broken windows theory described previously. One of the biggest problems facing the housing markets of depressed communities is vacant and abandoned properties. According to the Center for Community Progress, a study in Austin, Texas found that blocks with vacant buildings had 3.2 times as many drug calls to police, 1.8 times as many theft calls, and 2 times the violent calls as those without. Every year, more than $73 million in property damage results from the more than 12,000 fires that break out in vacant structures, more than 70% of which are due to arson or suspected arson. Over the past five years, the city of St. Louis has spent $15.5 million demolishing vacant properties, or nearly $100 per household. Detroit has spent $800,000 per year just to clean the lots and Philadelphia has spent $1,846,745. These projects took $49.6 million over twenty years just to maintain properties where no one can even live. These costs drag down a neighborhood over time, as all property values are affected. A 2001 study showed that houses within 150 feet of a vacant or abandoned property experienced a net loss of $7,627 in value. The longer a property remains abandoned, the more expensive the renovation will be. Most are abandoned and neglected because the cost of maintenance and operation exceeds the value of the property. They strain the resources of police, fire, building, and health departments locally; lower property value, reduce property tax revenue, attract crime, and degrade quality of life. Studies have shown that the crime rate doubles on blocks with vacant or abandoned buildings, and is twice and that vacant/abandoned properties were the most determining variable of crime. Abandoned or vacant homes dwindle the tax base, because homeowners have left and decrease the value of those properties that remain. Homeowners living close to abandoned property will find their insurance premiums raised or even policies cancelled. A study in St. Paul, Minnesota confirmed this “neighborhood effect,” which extends from a single house out into the whole neighborhood like a plague. Houses within 150 feet of the vacancy incurred a net loss of $7,627 in value. Houses within 150 to 300 feet, a net loss of $6,819. Houses within 300 to 450 feet, a net loss of $3,542. Demolishing the property led to a $26,397 loss in tax revenue over a twentyyear period. Vacant lots produce $1,148 in property taxes over 20 years, but the estimated maintenance costs are $7,141. On the other hand, rehabilitated properties generate $13,145. This is the financial motivation for rehabilitating these properties. The overall loss for a single demolished house is about $7,789. The loss in potential property tax revenue is equivalent to $3 - 6 million annually, that is no longer available to local government and school districts. The question is: What should we do with those spaces? Fortunately, there has been a recent movement in “greening.” The conversion of vacant or abandoned
One of the biggest problems facing the housing markets of depressed communities is vacant and abandoned properties
