By Joseph Divack
Obvious and astonishing changes are washing over our city, remaking it into something more complex, more successful, and more sustainable. But the bringing of good news ought not reduce our capacity to see tough problems, and address them with thoughtful vigor and an effective plan.
Parts of our region suffer from a large and intractable problem common to old rust belt cities, as well as areas having experienced severe economic decline. Unfortunately Pittsburgh fits both criteria. The problem we are highlighting this month is the frustrating one of abandoned dwellings. Current Allegheny County statistics list at least 55,000 homes as abandoned. Abandonment is one of those unintended consequences of our property system. With all of its attractions and great strengths for society, the ownership of property becomes problematic for the community when the owner walks away from property, no longer pays taxes, and provides no further care for the house and yard. This scenario also happens when an owner dies without workable arrangements for heirs to take up responsibility for property.
The consequences for the neighborhood can range from mild nuisance to full-fledged disaster. As ACW goes about its daily work, we are in the sometimes unenviable position of having the fruits of abandonment in our faces, meant literally. We often clean up dump sites around abandoned houses - single family, duplexes, apartment houses, and ancient row houses. Frequently these sites require major efforts to remove years of accumulated trash, dumped material of all kinds, and vegetative overgrowth. Fallen trees and large fallen limbs are often in the mix. The fact of private property and the current cumbersome laws that deal with abandonment, unpaid taxes, health and safety violations, public nuisances, condemnation, trespass and so forth combine to produce a tangled legal mess that one can barely navigate. As a consequence, the story for most abandoned dwellings is one of stasis - little is attempted, less is accomplished, and the fact of abandonment simply endures year after year.
Is this problem worth solving? At ACW, we are sure that it is, and beyond that, that it is solvable. The abandonment problem should be seen as central (not peripheral) to the very large problem of blighted areas. Abandonment in a neighborhood radically reduces property values, radically degrades quality of living experience, and rapidly leads to neighborhood discouragement. Neighborhoods fairly quickly adopt the general view that nothing can be done. Abandonment leads to more abandonment and increasing blight, and the neighborhood spirals down seemingly uncontrollably.
What can be done?
• Examine all legal structures that are relevant to abandonment, and begin to change laws and regulations in a direction leading to reduced abandonment, and greater government ability to intervene effectively after the fact of abandonment. The new Land Bank in Pittsburgh is a good step, but not yet enough.
• Move abandonment higher in the pecking order of large municipal problems. View abandonment as one of the worst dilemmas about our region, and one which will yield only to very long-term hard work at many levels.
• Create a smart and hard-hitting plan, be willing to spend some money, and carry out the plan.
• Enable non-profits to work more easily and legally on exterior cleanup.
• View each new abandonment as a very negative sign, and move promptly toward remediation. Work to reduce the spread effect as part of a strategy to reduce blight.
• Bring some focus to exterior cleanup of dumping around abandoned dwellings. This isn't as hard as most people think. One day of serious work will usually produce a major aesthetic gain for one dwelling, and a big win for a street or neighborhood.
ACW will continue to work hard to remediate the dump sites at abandoned dwellings, as we continue to seek resources and support for this critically-important work. Volunteers are always appreciated. Just contact us in the usual ways.
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