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February 7, 2010
Oops! Where Did That Blight Go? Sidewalk Cracks Are Just Too Damn Easy To Fix!
Noticing New York
This blog post, a sequel to an earlier entry, points out the absurdly low standard used by the Empire State Development Corporation, the tool of developer Bruce Ratner, to allow a declaration of blight. The earlier post contained photographs of sidewalk cracks that could have been sufficient to call a neighborhood blighted.
It turns out that one of the cracks on Montague Street has now actually been repaired, but that wouldn't necessarily keep the ESDC from proclaiming blight, especially if there was a politically-connected developer who had his eye on the property:
The point is that, according to the ESDC, this quick and ready fix isn’t supposed to be the way that city residents deal with the “blight” of sidewalks cracks in their neighborhood. What ESDC believes should happen instead is that all the property on the entire block should be seized from the owners, all the buildings torn down and replaced by a politically-connected developer who will be assisted with extravagant public subsidies for which the developer will not have to bid. No matter, ESDC is still ahead in its determined race to find "blight" where and whenever it wants: Although this property owner on Montague Street quickly effected this repair the owner did not coordinate with the neighbors up and down the street (and on rest of block) to fix some of the other cracks we documented. . . .
. . . So according to ESDC, their property can still be wrested from them and torn down despite their vigilant efforts at maintenance.
Posted by steve at February 7, 2010 8:14 AM