By now, the costs of blight and vacancy are well-documented in terms of unpaid local and school taxes, drained municipal resources, further disinvestment, and/or declining adjacent property values. We have also seen in from our clients the key role that quality of place plays in retaining and attracting talent – a key driver for economic success. No matter the size, competitive communities create places where people want to live and work, and blight can be a major blow in that endeavor.
Of course, this is a complex problem without a clear solution, but the first step is to survey existing conditions. Blight is not just an urban problem, and many smaller municipalities lack either the resources or the time to undertake the kind of comprehensive data collection that would best inform a remediation strategy.
Inspired by the recent Blight Bootcamp here in Pittsburgh, I propose three key tools for smaller communities looking to take this invaluable first step.
Use technology and use volunteers.
Tools provided by companies like LocalData and Loveland Technologies can help manage the monumental task of a comprehensive survey by making it easy to both collect and use the data. Standardizing data collection makes it possible to map the problem, understand its scale, and develop strategic next steps like code enforcement sweeps.
Remember that a community issue is a regional issue.
Our work on Regional Cities has shown us the importance of a regional approach to quality of place. This also means that developing solutions to complex problems like blight and vacancy can and should be a regional undertaking. Locally, three Councils of Government have come together as a working group, leading to support for smaller municipalities in the form of piloting new technologies and sharing code enforcement resources.
Speaking of regional quality of place, all of that data won’t do much good in isolation.
Coordinating regionally to agree on measures of blight and vacancy can help ensure that new data-informed strategies can expand across municipal boundaries, maximizing the impact of each community’s respective efforts in the fight against blight.
