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The Abandoned City Data Explorer
The Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia (RDA) is undergoing an overhaul by the administration of Mayor Michael Nutter, aimed at making its inventory and dispoal policies more transparent and accessible to the…
Raw Data: Everything the Redevelopment Authority has conveyed since 1986, to whom, and for how much
The City's Redevelopment Authority has unique powers of eminent domain and condemnation, as well as the ability to sell land at less-than-market-rate prices (including nominal fees) for redevelopment purposes. Over the…
Philly's Vacant Land: Raw Data
As part of our special Abandoned City collaboration with CityPaper, Technically Philly, and programmer Tis Wisniewski, City Paper obtained a list, current as of March 2011, of all land believed to…
The Vacant Land Issue
There are more than 40,000 abandoned lots in Philly. Why are we a city full of holes? There's maybe no single issue that permeates every facet of city life — crime,…
Surprise Package
Every system has its flaws. But when it comes to vacant and abandoned property in Philadelphia, there are sometimes more problems than answers. Despite a push by Mayor Michael Nutter's administration…
Righting the Blight?
In 2008, Bob Coyle, the now-infamous slumlord, walked away from millions of dollars in mortgages he'd taken out on a small empire of crumbling houses in Kensington and Port Richmond, leaving…
Down for the Count
How many vacant lots are there in Philadelphia? The question seems so simple. The answer, however, is not. Take "40,000," the number most frequently cited in recent news articles. That count…
Blight Fight
Tens of thousands of abandoned properties and vacant lots stretch across Philadelphia. Counts vary, but recent studies estimate at least 40,000 such properties, 75 percent of which belong to private owners…
Neighbors, City and Conrail take first steps to clean up Kensington "Wasteland"
On Saturday, as neighborhood groups around the city organized spring clean-ups, about 60 neighborhood activists, residents, and city and Conrail workers got down to (the beginning of) the dirty work of…
The Wasteland: How a neglected railroad turned into a neighborhood nightmare
Of the many, many terrible things that have happened to Theresa Lugo in front of her house, getting stuck in the foot with a used syringe is not, if you can…
