That’s a big IF.
Personally, as an occupant of an area that is a candidate for this treatment I have to ask again where does the money for this come from? IF a state or the Federal government is willing to provide grants, fine, but the cities in question are broke, how are they going to pay for this?
Around here, abandoned houses have been stripped of usable metal already. Seriously, scavengers knock big holes in the walls, floors, and ceiling, rip out the wires and pipes, and sell them for scrap. I was painting a house still wood-clad in Gary last summer when the house next to it - inhabited and well maintained - had the aluminum siding on it stolen in broad daylight. I’ve also seen inhabited homes where thieves have stolen aluminum gutters. Hell, there have been people in this area electrocuted while trying to steal the wiring out of street lights. Trust me, those buildings are already stripped.
With what money? Those with the means have already fled such depleted neighborhoods. Those that remain, their greatest asset is typically their house/land - and that has lost tremendous value. Eminent domain is typically market value - which is crap in such areas. This will not leave these people with enough money to purchase another home unless here are heavy grants and subsidies… and where will that money come from? What about renters in these distressed neighborhood, who have no equity, and who likely have been unable to find housing elsewhere?
I don’t think it’s always a fear of change. I think that some people don’t want to lose the one object of value they still own (house/land). I think some people don’t have the money to buy another house elsewhere, or to pony up the necessary rent+security deposit to obtain new housing in a better neighborhood. I think elderly and disabled people have genuine problems moving under any circumstances and I fear there will be no help for them.
You also mention bias in better neighborhoods towards those coming from bad neighborhoods and it certainly exists - I have no idea how to get rid of it, though.
That’s going to do jack for the disabled or the 80 year old who needs a walker. That sort of work requires physical strength and stamina.
Indeed. I am being selfish and short-sighted contemplating having to move suddenly because the entire block I live on is about to be demolished. I have been only intermittently employed for nearly two years. I have no cash reserves. Of the ten able-bodied adults in my family all but three of us have lost our full-time work in the past two years, and only four of that group have any employment at all at this point so I can not ask my relatives for help as THEY are all on the ropes financially right now, or paying someone else’s rent to keep that person and family from being evicted. I do not have the money to pay for professional movers. My spouse is disabled and unable to lift and move boxes. He would be able to pack some of the lighter objects, but at least half of what we own is beyond what he can manage. I can not munster sufficient funds for a month’s rent and security deposit to rent elsewhere. Even if I could, paying monthly rent is questionable at this point (my current landlord allows me to exchange labor for a portion of the rent when I come up short. I am unlikely to find another such arrangement).
An order for us to leave our current residence in order to “restore the neighborhood to nature” would be an unmitigated disaster for us. We would almost certainly lose the bulk of what possessions we still have. There is a high probability that we would either be in a homeless shelter or living in our vehicles (they’re paid for, we’d just have to find a place to park at night where we wouldn’t get towed). We would lose our garden, which is currently supplying a significant portion of what we eat every week, thereby increasing our food bill significantly - if we even still had a kitchen at that point. Most probably, we wouldn’t wind up in another “condensed” city neighborhood, we’d wind up living in my sister’s garage in Buffalo (other portions of her house already being occupied by hard luck relatives at this point).
Unless, of course, our move to that new neighborhood in the city was somehow assisted - assisted with help in getting new quarters, in the monetary costs of that and moving, and in physical assistance in moving such basic objects as our bed, which is too heavy for me to do alone and which my spouse can not help me with due to disability. Who is going to do that, and who is going to pay for it? Honestly, I would love to see some of the shitboxes around here torn down and I would love to get a nicer place to live where the roof doesn’t leak and broken windows are replaced with glass instead of boarded up, but not at the cost of being rendered homeless. The frightening thing is that we are NOT the worst off around here, we are NOT the poorest family on the block here. The neighbor behind me has cancer and is so ill he can barely walk without assistance - who would help HIM move? The house next door has been subdivided into rental units, and there are people living 3 or 4 in a room over there because that’s all they can afford.
If there isn’t help in moving the people currently in those last hold-out buildings you WILL be causing great harm to a significant portion of those people, many of whom are trapped there by poverty. Yeah, I’ve got friends who would probably help me. I could go live with my sister (who, again, has already taken in relatives). I’d still lose most of what I have as there would not be room for it were I to move in with Sis. I have neighbors who would not be so fortunate as that. Or did you think the people living in these places are middle-class? They might have been, at one time - they aren’t now. If they were, they would have left already.