INDIANAPOLIS -
The city is on target to tear down a record number of vacant structures this year, including houses, garages and commercial properties deemed unsafe.
Last year the city demolished 530 structures. This year it will tear down another 1,500. Reggie Walton with the city's Department of Metropolitan Development says that's still a fraction of the 10,000 or so that meet the requirements for demolition.
Yet the $13 million in Rebuild Indy funds the city is using covers 2,000 structures.
Standing in front of a burned-out house on Southeastern Avenue, Walton said, "This is just a safety hazard. We want to get rid of these types of properties."
He said the goal was to "strengthen communities."
Paul E. Thompson Jr., walking through a heavily boarded-up neighborhood on the city's west side, said the abandoned houses, "make the area look real bad, for us and others who live here, but the kids are the main thing."
But some think the city is moving too fast. Most of the buildings slated for demolition are in Center Township, where incomes are low and unemployment is high.
George Nelson who owns Pa & Ma Bar-B-Que said the city is "more into grabbing and tearing up than building up."
Nelson said the neighborhood needed more housing options, not fewer.
"A few [houses] do need to be torn down, but I think we should look more into rebhabbing them and getting loans for people and families in there," Nelson said.
Connie Zeigler, a preservationist who lives in Fountain Square, agrees.
Her neighborhood also has a lot of boarded-up houses. Zeigler thinks many of them are suitable for rehab. In fact, she and several neighbors helped get three houses slated for demo off the hit list and found buyers who are now rehabbing them for new owners.
Zeigler believes the city should direct some of the $13 million set aside for demolition toward "homestead loans or revolving loans. I think it would be a much better use of money. We'd save houses and have more residents in inner city neighborhoods."
Walton said it's not that easy. He said the $13 million can't be used that way. Also, the city can't sell or give away most of the homes slated for demolition because it doesn't own them.
"People laugh when I say this but we don't have to own it to knock it down if it's in violation of the unsafe building law," Walton said.
He noted that most of the houses on the hit list are owned by banks or lending institutions which ignore the notices the city sends them warning of demolition.
Walton said they also ignore the bills they're sent for the $6,500 in demolition fees.
"If I were to give you a percentage, it's very small. Probably two percent pay," he said.
Walton said about 400 buildings slated for demo are on a "hold list" because of recommendations from Zeigler and others, but he also said it's up to them to track down the owners and get possession.
