Number of abandoned homes in Canada and the US

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by uicgrad

"However, urban blight is absent from the city's downtown core and northside neighborhoods—the areas that most Chicagoans and tourists interact with. "

I think there is still some urban blight in uptown (especially Kenmore/Winthrop corridor) as well as along Howard east of Clark and west on North Ave in Austin, and Jarvis near Ashland. Do they still have the homeless tent camps near the overpasses on Lake Shore Drive on the north side or have those been cleaned out? Uptown was the poster child for urban blight in the early 70s. I remember my Dad giving my driving tours on Sunday mornings of the skid row on W. Madison St.

http://wendycitychicago.com/chicagos-skid-row/

http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune...otos-20140611/

Uptown is probably the northside's most problematic neighborhood. However, gentrification is starting to nip at its heels. It's becoming a nightlife destination. I find myself at the Aragon and the Riviera on a regular basis. Argyle has long been a stalwart of Asian restaurants. It's pretty active throughout the day. Buena Park on the south end of Uptown has always been upscale.

Uptown doesn't have any 'urban blight,' nor do any other northside neighborhoods. It simply has historically had more low-income residents and crime than most of the other northside neighborhoods. 'Urban blight' refers to areas where there are many abandoned properties, infrastructure decay, and falling/low property values. There is nowhere on the northside of Chicago that fits that description.

Austin isn't the northside, so I don't know why that community was mentioned. Howard east of Clark has improved quite a bit. There is development, including luxury apartments on the Evanston side (there is a sliver of Evanston east of Clark on Howard) and a stable shopping center on the Chicago side. The City has invested quite a bit in beautification projects improving the streetscape. Willye B. White Park and community house are very well put together. Virtually all of the storefronts within a couple blocks of the Howard station are occupied, and vacancy farther east is pretty low. All of the liquor stores have stayed strong even though Evanston's laws have liberalized rather quickly and dramatically.

Homelessness has no relationship to urban blight. Chicago's homeless population is much smaller than more expensive and growing cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Seattle. Chicago's homeless population is also falling. The 'homeless tent camps' that pop up on occasion underneath overpasses have nothing on the 'tent cities' that pop up in California.

We also shouldn't rib too hard on the United States, because urban blight is a significant problem in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, South Africa, and many other affluent countries.