Vacants are getting demolished
by Lori Barrett | May 26, 2008 at 10:40 am
Posted in Baltimore, real estate
Baltimore has launched a plan for demolition throughout the city.
Last week, 13 vacant houses around the 2800 block of Lanvale Street were razed. Six more will soon be demolished. The total cost for getting rid of these 19 houses: $300,000. Another project began in January for the 2700 block of Tivoly Avenue, where at least 40 houses will be demolished by completion.
In all, the city will spend $60 million over the next few years to demolish thousands of vacant properties. The money is coming from the city’s Affordable Housing Fund.
Most residents of the targeted areas are happy to see the vacants disappear, hoping the demolition will lead to new opportunities for their neighborhood. One nine-year-old girl said: “They should build this community so it can be a safe community for children to play. And it won’t be dangerous.”
I’ve heard many people who aren’t residents of these blighted neighborhoods call for similar action by the city (although I imagine because they find the vacants to be an eyesore rather than a direct danger). What are your thoughts on the demolition plan?
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May 26th, 2008 at 7:00 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
I disagree with demolishing the houses. Most of the neighborhoods where the demolition is occuring are black and the city really sees no need in sustaining these neighborhoods. Just as easily as they demolish the houses, the city could renovate them, or at least bring them to code and create affordabale housing for the large homeless community or others. I would not be surprised to see investors come in and purchase these properties and build hundred-thousand dollar pre-fab houses and slowly move those living in the area now, OUT!
May 27th, 2008 at 2:35 am | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Yeah, because most of the homeless are on the street simply because they can't afford a house. What planet do you live on? And the people in those neighborhood are probably thrilled to get rid of the vacants - they turn into whorehouses and shooting galleries...not a place you'd want next to your family.
Good Riddance.
And sorry to break it to you...but even pre-fab houses cost more than 100k.
!
May 27th, 2008 at 3:05 am | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
"Those people" as you call them would probaly love to see their neighborhoods revitalized, not demolished! As I stated before, which you must have missed in your infinite wisdom, the same money that the city is spending to demolish the homes could be used to remodel them and offer them to those that really need a home, not investors whose only interest is moving blacks out of the city. You don't see this happening in white area do you? I doubt it seriously. And finally, regardless of the actual price of a pre-fab home, it is still out of the price range of most of those living in these communities, so the effect is still the same.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:42 am | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
So you want to spend $100k remodeling these homes to give to homeless people for free? And what do you think these homes would like after a year and you have to spend another $100k remodeling from all the damage and crack pipes.
Some liberals just live in a fantasy world full of tulips and butter cups i suppose.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:18 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Knowledge. Unfortunately, these homes are pretty much past their life span. Most of them have no roofs so they are weathered beyond repair. They simply have to come down. The problem I have with this is the city is spending $300,000 of taxpayer money to take care of this instead of making the absentee owners foot the bill. It was their lack of repairs that lead to this situation. Then the City will give the land to some racist POS like Bill Struever.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:24 pm | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Knowledge - and I use that word VERY loosely - it happens in white and black neighborhoods alike. Take a trip to Hampden if you don't believe me. People like you are always so quick to turn it into a race issue. I bet you think that makes you seem edgy and informed, right? It doesn't. At all. It makes you look like an idiot.
Gentrification is a class issue, not a race issue.
And for once I agree with woodchuck - bleeding heart libs obviously live a different world than the one I step out into every morning. Sounds like a great place though - everything is fair, the human condition is never a factor. Sounds like a dream. Probably because it is.
!
September 7th, 2008 at 1:52 am | Please log in to reply. | Log in to rate this comment | report this comment
Knowledge, I agree with you it makes no sense to demolish a house if the building is still intact and it only needs repairs. You can gut a house and rebuild it for $100K. And for the non believers check out 84 Lumber. You can purchase a whole house as a kit from 84 Lumber for less than $140K. More than likely you can replace a whole roof on a row house in Baltimore for less than $10K leaving $90K for the interior. The reality is that most of the house that are being looked at demolishing are in black neighborhoods and if they can come in and demolish those houses and make it attractive for their people to move into and make it safe by their standards. They will accomplish their goal. Knowledge, keep you head up because it is all a set up.