Editorial: Blight fight vital; devil is in the details - Evansville Courier & Press
City officials get, nor offer, no argument on the need to eliminate hundreds — make that thousands — of blighted properties in the city. In a nutshell, the issue this past week came down to Kelley Coures, city metropolitan development director, arguing for the city to create a land bank with the goal of demolishing nearly 2,000 homes over the next five years vs. City Council... A land bank would acquire vacant, abandoned and blighted structures and would bank and maintain the newly empty lots and structures deemed salvageable. Coures, who said he considers the demolition project a form of capital improvement, said if the city does not move now on eliminating the blighted properties — "if we just do it the same old way" — "we'll never get there. " Indeed, Coures believes the city's growing problem with blighted properties threatens the city's quality of life. That is why, even though some city officials and council members disagree on how to pay for a land bank, few disagree on the. Source: www.courierpress.com
