Not exactly OC news, but still interesting.
An agency started last year to manage abandoned houses in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, plans to acquire as many as 1,000 properties next year, and tear down as many as 900 of them. The city of Cleveland may raze double that amount, according to Gus Frangos, president of Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp.
“You really have to bury the dead right now,” Frangos said in a telephone interview. “You have to remove blight. It’s unfortunately on a grand scale.”
Cities and counties across the Rust Belt are ending up with abandoned properties under their control as owners stop paying taxes. In Cuyahoga County, a record 2,400 tax foreclosures may occur this year, said Chris Warren, Cleveland’s chief of regional development. The governments are choosing to tear down some buildings rather than sell them as residents move to the suburbs and steel, automotive and manufacturing jobs disappear.
And what is happening with the vacant lots.
Urban Agriculture
Cities also are encouraging urban agriculture through the planting of community gardens on vacant lots. In some cases, homes acquired by a municipality are rehabilitated and occupied again.
When buildings are demolished, the lots left behind may be cleaned for agriculture or the planting of gardens, or used for new construction. In the Cleveland area, multiple plots may be put together to allow for larger developments, which won’t go forward until demand for redevelopment emerges, according to Cuyahoga Land Bank
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