Urban Renewal in Cleveland
Most of us probably have a soft spot for the city of Cleveland, but none of us can deny that Cleveland, like any large city, has some major issues that need to be addressed. One of these issues is dealing with the dilapidated houses that dot the city. A story released by WCPN today especially focuses on this topic and includes the thoughts of one of Cleveland-Marshall’s faculty, Professor Keating. Efforts have focused on demolishing these homes because it is approximately ten times more cost effective than trying to rebuild these structures, but it seems doubtful that funds will be sufficient to deal with simply removing the thousands of homes that remain. Since 2006, the City of Cleveland has torn down 6,000 homes and spent nearly $40 million accomplishing this task. Statewide there are approximately 100,000 buildings that still need to be dealt with. Currently the state has $75 million in funds for demolition and many hope that local governments will match this amount for a grand total of $150 million. Even if this large figure is amassed, much more work needs to be done to properly address the problem.
On a more positive note, some of the sites that have already been cleared of these abandoned structures have been repurposed as gardens and farming plots. A photo gallery of these blooming spaces in Cleveland can be found here.
