Neglect, frustration mark neighborhood revitalization effort

The Associated Press quoted Henry Louis Taylor Jr. in a story on an underdeveloped neighborhood in Pittsburgh, where the city has acquired many properties but failed to improve them. “In this case, I would argue that the city is a slumlord that is consciously participating in the underdevelopment of the community,” said Taylor, a professor or urban and regional planning and associate director of the Community Health Equity Research Institute at UB. Taylor said the city should have reached out years ago to nonprofits that specialize in urban land trusts — a way to prioritize the community’s ideas and needs — to help find ways to sell, raze and clean up blocks of neglected and dangerous homes as the city acquired them.