Weekly Link Round Up

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The weekly link roundup is a collection of links related to Newburgh, revitalization, urban planning and anything else that might inspire change or create dialogue. “Mill Street Bridge” Photo by Brian Wolfe

Changes underway at Newburgh police department [HV Blogs]
Put pressure on owners of vacant structures [PJ]
‘Zombie Properties’ Get Artistic Makeovers in Humboldt Park [DNAinfo]
Should Urban Universities Help Their Neighbors? [The Atlantic]
City to take earlier, more aggressive approach to abandoned houses [Baltimore Sun]
Bringing sustainability to small-town America [Better! Cities & Towns]
London’s population will finally overtake its previous peak [City Metric]

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One Comment

  • Not exactly the “shovel ready” we had in mind is it? The legal limbo cloud of questionable accountability is BS. The mortgagee owns the property. The mortgagor simply owns the right of possession, a privilege of paying taxes. The local municipalities just can’t afford to litigate the issue. On a state level, the “Zombie Law” continues to be deliberately kicked, not that it has any teeth to begin with. As per the PJ article closing comment on “strategies”, how soon we forget…The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Feb 24th, 2009. How’d that work out? The bankstas got saved and we got shorted. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-Address-to-Joint-Session-of-Congress
    The banks tangible assets have depreciated to the point where their leveraging value no longer trumps the carrying costs. You’ll see more properties being ‘donated’ in mass. Vested parties are already beginning to merge in an effort to ‘make things right’, fix what’s salvageable, demo what isn’t, create ‘accessible’ housing programs paralleled with newly legislated codes, zoning, ‘rights of ownership’ and possibly rent controls. On the long end, there will be little threat of another housing crisis as the fed.gov, now owning the majority of mortgages, will offer some form of forbearance or mortgage renegotiation. Think ‘Universal Housing’. It’s too bad really as this should have been an opportunity to retrench and shed the obsessive view of real estate as the wealth indicator. It’s money wasted on preserving a false ideal rather than spent on tangible projects, i.e.infrastructure, that provide a real ROI. Instead we’re given a pecked clean bone every once and awhile and told to get ‘digging’.
    -Universities receiving their bread and butter through tax payer subsidized student loans should not be getting into the property game. That is a stealth way of subsidizing the housing industry. Tuition is high enough, just pay property taxes.
    -The Newburgh PD will have beat cops as well…
    http://newburghny.swagit.com/play/01282015-933 (Item 4b 1:28 min. in)