While luxury high-rises sprout like weeds in Atlanta’s wealthier neighborhoods, many of the city’s underprivileged communities remain littered with run-down, boarded-up residences.
Concentrated on Atlanta’s Southside and Westside, many of those dilapidated properties are uninhabited — not to mention uninhabitable. Sometimes, that’s because those homes belonged to longtime Atlantans who have passed away and perhaps left the houses to family members. All too often, though, these properties are owned by investors and developers — people who are content to sit on the land while the property values rise.
Regardless of how properties might become vacant and blighted, the city needs to crack down on the causes of this urban scourge to protect its most vulnerable communities. So say Atlanta leaders like City Councilmembers Antonio Brown and Carla Smith.
You are ABSOLUTELY right! Property ownership carries with it a responsibility to the neighborhood. Property owners do not have the right to create blight, nuisance and danger. Whatever laws prevent enforcement need to be changed.
The city fines residents for not maintaining their property. there should be a better vehicle for making it too expensive for these people not to do something.