"We're largely dealing with the same problems we were dealing with before NTI," said Mark Alan Hughes, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who previously served as Mayor Nutter's sustainability director.
Under Street, the city threw $296 million in bond money at the problem, with plans to tear down crumbling buildings, package cleared lots together and get them to developers. Street's administration reduced the number of blighted buildings and encouraged development, but critics noted that it fell far short of his goal to demolish 14,000 buildings.
"I think it was the right issue," Hughes said. "It was a really bold attempt. They raised a lot of money." But ultimately, he said, the program was less effective than expected.
Even when the city knows of a problem, it isn't easy to fix.
The house on Rocky's block is a good example. The Department of Licenses and Inspections has received three complaints in the past year about the house on East Tusculum Street. But L&I did not find the house to be structurally dangerous.
Because the house is privately owned, all L&I can do is cite the owner for maintenance violations. The city could demolish the property only if it was in danger of collapsing, said L&I Deputy Commissioner Bridget Collins-Greenwood. Still, Collins-Greenwood said they would check the building again to ensure it is structurally sound.
And so the issue remains. Compounding the problem is that only about 30 percent of the abandoned properties across the city are publicly owned, and those are owned by one agency or another. The rest are privately held and frequently owe back taxes. Sometimes they go to sheriff's sale, but often they just decay.
Finding a solution
