How about abandoned commercial properties?? The building in South Baltimore, on the corner of Fort Ave and Patapsco, has been vacant for over 7 years. Now the owner has partnered with a fee developer to build 10 townhomes on the site (with 2 parking spaces each), and the idiotic NIMBYs in the area are opposed to the project.

Let's be honest, as bad as residential is, office, retail, hotel, and others are worse...let's be a little open minded here.

By the way, I am nothing more than a neighbor who would like to see 'highest and best use' of space in my neighborhood...wake up.

How about eminent domain? I am well aware of the abuse this sort of thing has generated over the years but there is clearly a public good issue here. Prompt seizure and resale of the offending properties will get owners/lenders to shape up or forfeit the various properties and give responsible owners an opportunity to turn some of these places around.

Unfortunately there are vast swaths of housing that simply need to be torn down.

I can't believe that Baltimore only has 1600 abandoned homes. Have you driven through the neighborhoods west of MLK?There has got to be 16K abandoned homes in that area alone.

Why does it cost so much to demolish each home? Surely if you demolished blocks at a time it would be less expensive per house.

Jaded, it's 16,000 according to the city's count, not 1,600. (Or did you mean to say that you can't believe it's 16,000?)

It probably would be less expensive to demolish whole blocks than select homes. There are a lot of blocks that are still partially occupied, though, even if only by one person.

Oops! I meant to say 16000.

16K homes vacant? Wow!

This is one of those instances where the car is nearly burned down to a molten frame. Just let it burn out... Bulldoze the neighborhoods and put in parks or create some sort of venue for instate or out of state tourism like shops. It's not like they need that area for homes.

I'm glad we have the wonk. The real estate section of the sun seems to be somewhat lacking in standards in the comment section. :\

thanks frankie, my sentiments exactly...we do need to make the best of our spaces in the neighborhoods...not only do we have attacks on our home there is a church (refuge on old york) that wants to turn most of my view from my porch in to parking lots...excuse me , not only are negligient people slowly destroying my home now they want me to look at trashy fenced in parking lots to boot....my husband and i care for the green spaces across from us and enjoy watching the kids have a safe non glass infested place to play...you turn all that and more into parking lots just so you can rake in more tythes and grow your business...wheres God in all this....? anyhow...we definately need a positive change!!

A friend of mine is almost traumatized after driving through some areas where he said there are thousands of townhomes abandoned etc. What is the reason for this,is it the economy in this area or something else?

Brad, a lot of the city's abandonment happened years ago -- decades ago, in some cases. People left, jobs left, more people left, more jobs left, etc. At least some of the vacancy seems to be the result of an elderly resident dying and the heirs doing nothing with the place.

Hello??? $18,500 to replace a rowhome roof and remove drywall??? There's you're freakin' problem....TONS of taxpayer money POURING into the city and it is WASTED. It's unbelievable the shape the city's in with all the tax money pouring in...the City's property taxes alone are double if not triple that of the county last time I checked. Track exactly where every penny of that $18,500 went and I'm sure you'll see a microcosm of the grand incompetence and/or corruption that's going on BIG TIME in Baltimore City.

Going after the owners...what are fines, citations going to do if they obviously can't maintain the home to begin with? And getting the city to do anything...I'm surprised she just didn't pack up and move. Better idea I think...mandate that insurance companies can't deny and must pay out on claims for damaged property due to a neighboring abandoned home. Got a better chance of them figuring out viable solutions than the City.

Seems that a lot of people want to blame the city here. The government let, or actively encouraged, the city's housing stock to deteriorate, they spent too much money for the work done, etc.

Seems to me that the three capitalist entities in this scenario (the real estate investor, the insurance company, and the bank) have completely abdicated their responsibilities. Why? Because it was the economically efficient thing to do. And what happens when private entities do the "economically efficient" thing? The government, meaning you and me, have to pay the price. In the story, the insurance company even ENCOURAGED the homeowners to get the city to fix it.

Once again, all these capitalist entities, who repeatedly rail against taxes, the government, etc., etc., suddenly want everybody else's taxes to pay for the bad economic decisions they have made. Seems to me, if you want the rewards of capitalism, you should also be prepared for the losses. But that's not how it works in our country; as a capitalist in this country, I get all the reward, pay the absolute minimum in taxes, and then get the other schmuck taxpayers to pick up the tab when I might take a loss.

First of all i would like to say that i disagree with the many people who say that we should demolish Baltimore's abandoned homes.MS Hopkin's first sentence is one main reason not to.Many of the abandoned houses are on mainly occupied blocks

Yes, there are abandoned blocks which are in bad shape and should and can be pulled down.But a lot of the abandoned houses are on blocks where people live. In Pigtown you will find a block with an abandoned house sitting next door to a $300,000 house.Next door to that is a section 8 house .Then a house with an older blue collar couple.then a couple of more abandoned houses.And then another $300,000 house.

Above Patterson Park you will find most of the abandoned houses on sidestreets.N.Rose is especially bad. How do people think bulldozers are going to go into these narrow sidestreets and bulldoze vacant houses that are right next to houses that people live in?

Small cars have a problem getting through someof these streets.

The reason that many of the sidestreet houses are vacant is that they dont have parking which makes them worth less.But they cost more to rehab since you cant put a dumpster on the street or drop lumber off.You have to pick-up truck everything in and out.

The City should relax some of the rules about blocking of streets.The City should also bring back th Dollar House program. And the City should stop raising the permit fees .The permit fees have been raised tremendously in the past year.

One other problem is that while you can buy a rowhaouse cheap at auctions[one went for 15 thousand dollars a hundred yards from my own house], you need cash.The City or the Federal Governemnt should devise ways to help people get loans to buy auctioned houses.Instead of encouraging them to buy mcmansions that they cant afford

I do interior demolition of rowhouses for a living.and i can say that out of the 200 houses that i have worked on.Only 2 needed to be pulled down[ironically they were in Canton].

Most houses in Baltimore are structually strong.We actually have someof the best, if not THE best, pre-world war 2 housing stock in america.

We should be proud of our rowhouses.The newer houses being built today are garbage! Thats why i choose to work on rowhouses.I was embarresed by how badly new houses were being built

Once upon a time people thought that Federal Hill and Fells Point should be bulldozed.How shortsighted that was.Lets not make the same mistake again.

Pete, I love hearing your housing-stock experiences. (Two hundred homes is an impressive number.) Thanks for your comment.