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Baltimore Housing Stamps Out Urban Decay with Vacants to Value
Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello residents celebrate the removal of blight
(Baltimore, MD – September 10, 2012) – Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano joined elected officials, community leaders and residents to raze a large multi-family building in the northeast edge of the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello (CHM) neighborhood. The towering structure, located at 1901 E. 31st Street, had been an omnipresent monument of urban decay that plagued residents for years.
Through Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s Vacants to Value Initiative, Baltimore City is launching targeted code enforcement efforts in a portion of this community to ensure that blighted, vacant buildings are rehabilitated, sold or demolished more quickly. These blight elimination efforts will improve the quality of life, security and safety for the surrounding neighborhood.
"Today we celebrate a step forward for this community, and another victory for Vacants to Value," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. "Our effort to grow Baltimore by 10,000 families in 10 years will succeed because we are removing blight from good communities, and creating new incentives for people who want to live and work in this great city."
In addition to today’s demolition, Baltimore City will be undertaking acquisition and demolition activity in the 2700 block of Tivoly Avenue. The City has taken title to 33 properties, and the transfer of title for the other 46 properties is currently underway. The elimination of these blighted properties will greatly enhance the neighborhood for its residents.
“Removing blighted properties in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood is part of the City’s strategy to help rebuild this otherwise strong community with the residents who have persevered,” said Commissioner Graziano. “Our demolition today is further testament that the City is committed to making a major impact in this wonderful neighborhood.”
Launched in November of 2010, Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s Vacants to Value initiative seeks to encourage reinvestment in neighborhoods impacted by blighted properties by strengthening code enforcement, promoting rehabilitation; streamlining the sale of vacant city property, and, by providing new, targeted incentives for homebuyers and developers who invest in vacant homes.
For more information, visit our website at www.baltimorehousing.org.
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