Looks like the city is reporting about twice as many vacant properties as last year. The city maintains a list of vacant properties, which are taxed at 5 times the rate of regular properties, and this year there are 1350, up from 444 last year. There are also 243 properties classified as “blighted” meaning they’re basically falling apart. Those properties are taxed at 10 times the normal rate. The rates, if you’re keeping track, are $5 for vacant properties or $10 for blighted properties per $100 of assessed value, versus $0.85-$1.85 per $100 for most places.
Not sure if this means there’s more vacant places, or what I would guess, that they’re just enforcing it more. That sounds good to me.
Most of these places are residential properties, and the city has published a list. Taking the idea from the Park View blog, I made a map of all of the Ward 1 properties, below. Some of them are being renovated, but others are just abandoned. You can see that the northwest area of the neighborhood (i.e. Park View) has the most.
And here’s the link to the data and map.
