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Old Posted Aug 23, 2019, 4:56 PM
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Steely Dan Steely Dan is online now
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Why tearing down Englewood to save it hasn’t worked

here's an interesting article from the Chicago Sun-Times on the catch-22 of demolitions in declining urban neighborhoods.

- leave the vacant homes standing and they invite all kids of trouble.

- tear 'em down and the scars of scores of vacant lots damage the neighborhood in other ways.


the fundamental problem is that there simply aren't enough people willing to live in neighborhoods like englewood anymore.

how do you flip the script on the downward spiral of population loss and abandonment?

no easy answers.




Quote:
Why tearing down Englewood to save it hasn’t worked
Englewood and West Englewood have experienced the second- and third-most demolitions among Chicago neighborhoods since 2008. Still, development lags, and huge stretches of vacant land remain.

By Manny Ramos Aug 23, 2019, 5:45am CDT



For most of his life, Karl Mables has lived in the 6400 block of South Honore Street.

But he struggles now to recognize the neighborhood he’s called home for decades.

“When I was growing up, there were houses on each of these lots, and now that I am older, there seem to be two vacant lots in between every home,” says Mables, 30. “It hurts.”

Since 2008, 10 single- or multi-family homes on Mables’ block have been demolished, according to city data. A block west, on Wolcott Avenue, 11 homes have been torn down. Ten more came on Wood Street, a block to the east.

The city owned 27 of the 31 demolished homes.

What’s happened on Honore Street isn’t unusual for Englewood.

From 2008 through 2018, 861 buildings were razed in Englewood. In West Englewood — Racine Avenue is the dividing line for the two neighborhoods that together make up what’s known in the area as Greater Englewood — the number was 829.

Those are the second- and third-most demolitions of any community area in Chicago. About 74% of the structures that came down were owned by the city.

The only area with more demolitions in that period was West Town, with 933.

But West Town also saw 1,400 new-construction permits issued over the past decade — far more than in Englewood and West Englewood, which together had just 140. The number of permits in greater Englewood accounted for less than 1% of all that were issued citywide.

Drive through Englewood, and you see the result. There are craters where homes previously stood. Vacant lots become vacant blocks.

Vacant buildings usually are torn down only as a last resort, says Gregg Cunningham, spokesman for the city buildings department. But demolition remains “an important part of the city’s overall work to eliminate neighborhood blight,” Cunningham says.

Mables argues that large stretches of vacant land just drive people away — and put those who remain in danger.
FULL ARTICLE: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/20...uction-permits
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Last edited by Steely Dan; Aug 23, 2019 at 5:36 PM.
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