vacant homes

With a sprawling, multi-million dollar mansion in Sandy Springs, Ga., sitting empty for two years, some enterprising folks nearby had an idea: Fill it with a big party.
According to USA Today, the Halloween bash at the six-bedroom mansion was a huge success, drawing 1,000 people. It ended only when traffic gridlock got so bad police [...]

Our sister site, The Michigan Messenger, points out that the shrinking cities movement – an urban development approach that has drawn national attention to Flint, Mich. — is becoming an issue in the local mayoral race.
The movement calls for communities to cordon off mostly vacant areas, cut them off from city services and let the [...]

I’ve been meaning to talk about this all week, but that pesky little AIG debacle served as quite a distraction. Anyway, as TWI has reported, there are other scandals concerning bank behavior that also are worth examining. And one of the biggest is the way banks handle their foreclosed and vacant properties.