Identify and investigate what you believe to be the reason for urban neighborhood blight. What do you believe to be the main reason some neighborhoods are well kept while others are not and is part of it, some of it or none of it directly related to income?
Summary: The assignment was not as easy as I thought it was. I did some research on urban blight, and discussed the causes and effects of urban blight, as well as I covered its effects on health economy and the environment.
Reason: The reason the question is being asked is because parts of our towns and neighborhoods are being ignored and are causing the towns to look bad overall. The question is the overall focus of this course.
Purpose: The purpose of asking this question was that the students do some research on the topic and get better understanding of the reason behind why our cities and towns are falling apart.
Direction: To complete this essay I did some deep research on the topic. Found the causes and effects of urban blight, and wrote the essay.
Impression: I had never done research on this topic before or thought of urban blight. And I never had a chance to have discussion on it. I learned a lot from writing this essay.
Part 2.
“Blight is ‘a deteriorated condition’ caused by any number of circumstances that worsen over time due to human neglect and disinvestment” (http://wichita.kumc.edu/care/fact-sheets/Urban-Blight-and-Sprawl.pdf). Urban Blight is an area of a town or city that has not been given much attention by the city or people living there. The area or neighborhood is mostly consisting of poor and lower class people. This Particular area mostly consists of large and small apartment buildings. There are many reasons for urban blight, however, less money, and low-income is the main cause of urban blight.
In order to highlight the urban blight, it is very important to reflect on the other side where people with more money live. The neighborhood stays clean and nice if enough money is spent and is being taken care of. In a nice area of a city or town we usually see single family houses with nice and clean yards. We see table, chairs, grill and children playing in the yard. We sometimes also see people barbecuing, gathering, and enjoying. All this is because of “money”. Wealthy or well-off people buy nice houses in a nice neighborhood. They buy the house that has nice yard where their children can play. They spend money, clean and maintain the yard. They fix, paint etc. the house when necessary. Overall they keep it clean and spend money on it.
In other hand we see poorly maintain buildings. The area usually is consisting of old buildings, unpainted houses, unpaved streets and sidewalks. In this particular area of any city is inhabited by poor, low-income people. There are many reasons for urban blight, however, less money, and low-income is the main cause of urban blight. When people lose the jobs, they depend on the state, and have no money to renovate or maintain the home. They barely can afford the food and rent.
There are many impacts of urban blight on the health, environment, economy and crime rates. All these issues are connected to each other. Joe Shapiro asserts that “in poor urban neighborhoods, as many as a quarter of the school children have serious health problems. Part of the reason might be the condition of the buildings. Run down or abandoned homes tend to attract vermin” (NPR report). Urban blight has serious impact on health because such places are not kept well clean. The unclean yards attract worms and other insects, which later may cause serious injury and illness.
In addition, urban blight has a great impact on the economy and the real estate. The area that is not well maintained does not have good value. The prices of the houses dramatically go down. “Failure to address neighborhood blight contributes to decreased property values and discourages business development”(http://wichita.kumc.edu/care/fact-sheets/Urban-Blight-and-Sprawl.pdf) . When the value of the house goes down the tax revenue for city and state goes down as well.
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