Vacancies

It's been a [busy] week since my last post, and I find myself charging full steam ahead into my 9th of 10 weeks of my second quarter of graduate school. I'm not particularly gifted in time right now, but I did want to post an interesting article about my neighborhood, more specifically, vacant buildings in my neighborhood.

It's no secret I intern and live in a "rough" part of town with its fair share of problems. And it's important to remember that people aren't solely to blame for all of their problems. Any social worker worth their salt knows the environment plays a leading role in the big picture of poverty. This quote from a city inspector tells the story:

"Here's a prime example of how vacant buildings create a domino effect to ruin a neighborhood," Bohnert said.

Once a house becomes vacant, "kids break out the windows. Then vandals take all of the copper pipes and anything of value. They knock holes in the walls and the roof. Water gets in. Floors buckle. Plaster and drywall fall apart. The interior is ruined. Garbage gets dumped in the yard. No one wants to live there. The house gets boarded up.

"No one wants to live next to a vacant house. So, the process repeats. Neighbors move out. One house after another gets boarded up."

So read the article (and view the slideshow) for a closer look at Price Hill, Sedamsville, Westwood, and Fairmount, to name a few increasingly vacant neighborhoods. It might shed some light on what we're working with here.