| abstract
| - Vacant property may not be a sexy topic, but it sure is hot. A convergence of gatherings in the city last week attracted about 470 people to vacant-property sessions, in part owing to the conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which wrapped up a weeklong visit yesterday. Most of the crowd assembled at the Pittsburgh Project on the North Side for a first-time, two-day Pittsburgh Green Forum Thursday and Friday. The challenge was: What actions can change vacant land from liabilities to assets for neighborhoods? The numbers and diverse types of people joining vacant-property discussions these days indicate that the subject has opened up to environmentalists, small-growth gurus and regular folks who live beside weedy lots. Attitudes about possibilities are shifting, too. As Liz Hersh, executive director of the Housing Alliance, told one trust session: "When I was growing up in Philadelphia," with 60,000 vacant properties: "I thought that was just part of the natural landscape. I didn't think there was actually something you could do about it." Vacant lots and abandoned properties are among the most pervasive obstacles to revitalization in post-industrial cities, but greening groups have found creative and sometimes low-cost solutions, even temporary ones, in some cities. Both citywide and in neighborhoods, green solutions are showing up increasingly on idea lists, from simple clearing and planting of grass, with neighborhood stewards, to large urban gardens on private property in anticipation of lien clearing or sale. Representatives of Philadelphia Green and the Parks and People Foundation in Baltimore described to the Green Forum their methods for getting large-scale greening off the ground with help from public officials. Those cities had greater commitment of public money, but their vacancy problems were far greater. In 1990, Philadelphia had 40,000 vacant properties. Today, it has half that, just a few thousand more than Pittsburgh. Maitreyi Roy, a landscape architect with Philadelphia Green, said the simplest solution offered payback: numerous weedy, heavily trashed lots were cleared, planted with grass and a tree and surrounded by a fence. The group trained and supported lot stewards, and what once had been dumps have not been dumps since. Joan Reilly, director of Philadelphia Green, a 30-year-old initiative of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, said that group started with a garden on one blighted parcel. It has hundreds of city gardens now that grow produce for senior centers and schools. Philadelphia Green also has the benefit of an emergency nuisance abatement provision. As the city's agent, it has "permission to enter private property, through city ordinance," said Ms. Roy. One-third of that city's vacant lots have become public property, and some have sprouted as parks and other gathering spaces. In Pittsburgh, the bureaucratic nightmare of disposing of tax-delinquent properties is compounded by the fact that Capital Asset Research Corp. owns about $50 million worth of liens on city properties that are, in many cases, worth less than the liens. Pittsburgh has about 15,000 vacant properties, "too much for the people we have," said forum moderator Kate Dewey, of Dewey and Kane Consultants. "We now have the opportunity to do something creative." The late Mayor Bob O'Connor created a vacant land working group last summer, and city officials and staffers in finance and real estate have been working with Carnegie Mellon University Heinz School graduate students, whose report based on data on vacant property is due next month. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl told the Green Forum he is committed to buying hybrid city vehicles and increasing recycling efforts. The city also has budgeted for a green coordinator next year. "Vacant land development is crucial to our economy," said Mr. Ravenstahl, "and my administration and a group like you will develop a green plan. We are determined to show Pittsburgh that it is easy being green."
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