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If the movies have taught
us anything about zombies,
it's that left unchecked,
the plague will eventually
overwhelm us.
Turns out, this is as
true for real estate as it is for our reanimated
neighbors with the munchies. In truth, zombie
properties‒‒abandoned, derelict buildings left to
rot in the elements for years on end‒‒can be just
as devastating to communities as any apocalyptic
exploitation monster.
If that sounds like alarmist hyperbole,
consider a place called Brannen Hill. Brannen
Hill is a condominium complex just outside of
Atlanta, Georgia, that started as a beacon for
mainly Somali refugees looking to escape war
and extreme poverty, but then became a living
nightmare. Much of the campus is abandoned,
much of it dilapidated, and some of it actually
rubble.
Conditions are so bad that the rotted
wood, bullet holes, punched-out windows,
missing doors, and burned-out rooms have
created a Petri dish for drugs, violence, gangs,
prostitution, and sickness. DeKalb County
officials referred to Brannen Hill as the worst
neighborhood in America. And immigrant
refugees from war-ravaged countries have
actually said that the living conditions at
Brannen Hill are worse than where they left.
So, yes, community blight can get as bad as
any horror movie, and this very non-fictional
zombie plague is playing out in cities all over
the United States. It's partly a remnant of the
housing collapse and partly an offshoot of
the fact that until recently, nobody anywhere
had really done anything to fix the problem.
Properties would just go vacant and, left to
their own, would fester and metastasize until
they become the kind of place that makes war
refugees long for the good ole' days.
"I see what happens to communities where
properties become vacant," said Robert Klein,
Chairman of national property preservation
I N D U S T R Y I N S I G H T / S C O T T M O R G A N
THE ZOMBIE NEXT DOOR
had
Vacant and abandoned properties
harm communities.
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