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Housing Law

Fordham Law School

Blight

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Full-Text Articles in Law

New York’S Fight Over Blight: The Role Of Economic Underutilization In Kaur, Kaitlyn L. Piper Jan 2011

New York’S Fight Over Blight: The Role Of Economic Underutilization In Kaur, Kaitlyn L. Piper

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This note discusses the issues raised by the policy of seizing land through eminent domain by saying that a certain property is "blighted". The author of the note feels that blight should be limited and not merely a way of saying that economic interests of the city are better served by seizing the property through eminent domain. Part I of this Note describes the background of eminent domain and, in particular, the elimination of blight as a qualifying public use. It summarizes the history of the “public use” requirement in the federal and state context and how economic underutilization fits …


Blighting The Way: Urban Renewal, Economic Development, And The Elusive Definition Of Blight, Colin Gordon Jan 2004

Blighting The Way: Urban Renewal, Economic Development, And The Elusive Definition Of Blight, Colin Gordon

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article examines the way municipalities have used increasingly broad interpretations of "blight" to compete for state tax increment financing (TIFs) for economic development purposes. It traces the definition of blight in the context of state and federal urban redevelopment programs from the nineteenth century through the Progressive Era to the advent of TIF laws in the 1980s and 90s. It goes on to discuss the how the concept of "blight" has shifted from a condition of substandard housing to a condition of "sub-optimal" local economic development, in part due to intense competition among municipalities for TIFs. The article concludes …


Neighborhood Preservation In New York City, Phillip Weitzman Jan 1975

Neighborhood Preservation In New York City, Phillip Weitzman

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The push to the suburbs, financed in large part by federal mortgage guarantees and highway construction moneys and bolstered by exclusionary zoning, has generated forces which tend to leave old urban neighborhoods in shambles. The syndrome of housing deterioration is well known. The dilemma of the deteriorating neighborhood is heightened in a city such as New York, where a large proportion of its population lives in old multiple family buildings. After almost forty years marked by a succession of programs designed to eliminate slums and blighted areas, New York City has concluded that its older neighborhoods must be protected from …