Investing in the Land of O.Z.: The Promise of Qualified Opportunity Zone Investing in Ameliorating Urban Blight

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lukas Foy
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8399
Author(s):  
Sally Adofowaa Mireku ◽  
Zaid Abubakari ◽  
Javier Martinez

Urban blight functions inversely to city development and often leads to cities’ deterioration in terms of physical beauty and functionality. While the underlying causes of urban blight in the context of the global north are mainly known in the literature to be population loss, economic decline, deindustrialisation and suburbanisation, there is a research gap regarding the root causes of urban blight in the global south, specifically in prime areas. Given the differences in the property rights regimes and economic growth trajectories between the global north and south, the underlying reasons for urban blight cannot be assumed to be the same. This study, thus, employed a qualitative method and case study approach to ascertain in-depth contextual reasons and effects for urban blight in a prime area, East Legon, Accra-Ghana. Beyond economic reasons, the study found that socio-cultural practices of landholding and land transfer in Ghana play an essential role in how blighted properties emerge. In the quest to preserve cultural heritage/identity, successors of old family houses (the ancestral roots) do their best to stay in them without selling or redeveloping them. The findings highlight the less obvious but relevant functions that blighted properties play in the city core at the micro level of individual families in fostering social cohesion and alleviating the need to pay higher rents. Thus, in the global south, we conclude that there is a need to pay attention to the less obvious roles that so-called blighted properties perform and to move beyond the default negative perception that blighted properties are entirely problematic.


Author(s):  
Fernando A.F. Ferreira ◽  
Ronald W. Spahr ◽  
Mark A. Sunderman ◽  
Kannan Govindan ◽  
Ieva Meidutė-Kavaliauskienė

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-121
Author(s):  
RICHARD LOWNDES
Keyword(s):  

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel De Tuya ◽  
Meghan Cook ◽  
Megan K. Sutherland ◽  
Luis Felipe Luna-Reyes

Purpose Blighted and vacant properties represent a persistent and costly problem for cities and local governments throughout the USA. The purpose of this paper is to identify data needs and requirements for value creation in the context of urban blight. The main assumption is that sharing and opening data through a robust and effective code enforcement program will facilitate more informed management, mitigation and remediation of blighted and vacant properties. Code enforcement programs must be grounded on organizational and technical infrastructures that enable data sharing and value creation for the city and the communities that share its space. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the information needs and realities of a city’s code enforcement environment are described, based on data gathered through a series of workshops and focus groups with a range of stakeholders, which included city government departments, police, fire, bank representatives, realtors and community groups. Findings The analysis reveals key data elements that could potentially help to build a code enforcement program to better manage the cycles and costs of urban blight. Although some of these data elements already exist, and are public, they are not easily accessible to key stakeholders. The paper ends with sets of short-term and long-term recommendations for establishing an information-sharing infrastructure, which would serve as the main conduit for exchanging code enforcement data among a number of city government departments and the public that may play a role in managing urban blight and its consequences. Originality/value In this paper, the authors are connecting extant literature on sharing and opening data with literature on the creation of public value. They argue that sharing and opening government data constitute effective ways of managing the costs and cycles of urban blight while creating value. As a result of an initial assessment of data and information requirements, the authors also point to specific data and its potential value from stakeholder perspective.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. e0235227
Author(s):  
Jessica Athens ◽  
Setu Mehta ◽  
Sophie Wheelock ◽  
Nupur Chaudhury ◽  
Mark Zezza

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Dimitri ◽  
Lydia Oberholtzer ◽  
Andy Pressman

As the finishing touches go on this themed issue, evidence of widespread enthusiasm for urban farming is apparent in many developed countries. Farming in the city, commonly referred to as urban agriculture, has been put forth as a solution to multiple social problems, including the provision of new green spaces, control of runoff and provision of shade that offsets the heat of the concrete city. In cities with abundant vacant land and abandoned plots, urban agriculture promises a reduction of urban blight.


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