Abstract

Targeting Blight: A Spatial Approach
Track: Urban and Regional Planning
Authors: Timothy Bray, Anthony Galvan

Working with the local arm of a national non-profit community development organization, the Institute for Urban Policy Research used GIS and publicly available data to develop a local indicator for neighborhoods at risk of blight. Through primary data collection activities, the Institute tested the predictive ability of the secondary data approach, then refined the secondary measure for use by the community partner as a prioritizing tool for their strategic planning and deployment processes. The analysis further quantified the differential costs of public services across neighborhoods of varying levels of blight, documenting the economic potential of holistic restoration of traditionally under served communities.