The Blight Train Rolls On

By: Mr. Wilson on September 25, 2006
City officials want to declare yet another big chunk of Lincoln blighted, this time over 1,200 between West O and Corhusker, Sun Valley and Capital Beach. The sarcastic "Why don't we just declare all of Lincoln blighted?" jokes are quickly losing steam, so instead, some exciting bullets:
  • Is Lincoln spreading its resources too thin? By declaring so many large chunks of Lincoln blighted, are we decreasing the effectiveness of each individual blight designation?
  • Blight carries such negative connotations. "Prime Redevelopment Zone" sounds so much better. If you were bringing a business to town, would you rather locate in an area officially described by the City as "One of our crappiest!", or would you rather locate in an area "Ripe for economic expansion"?
  • The tax benefits that go along with a blight designation are all well and good. But when property taxes from huge chunk after huge chunk of the city are suddenly turned inward, what strain, if any, gets put on property tax-dependant bodies?

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foxspit
September 25, 2006 at 3:16PM

My first thought when I read this was your first bullet point.  I was happy for the possibilities of blight designation for West O Street earlier in the year, but now those possibilities may be diluted a bit if this passes.

The public does seem to have a problem with the word “blight” but I have yet to see a community rephrase the designation.

Your third bullet is illustrated by an interesting Journal Star story this past weekend.

Link

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