Shaming Property Owners Into Action

Bridgeport has added a new tool to its anti-blight efforts: a “shame campaign.”  As ctlatinonews.com reported, the city recently started a website that posts photos of the city’s worst blighted properties and their owners’ names.  The city has been running similar ads in the Connecticut Post.

Source: www.helpfightblight.com

Other cities across the county have tried similar approaches to put pressure on negligent property owners to clean up their properties: 

• Reading, Pennsylvania has an online “Wall of Shame” that features blighted properties and their owners.
• Columbus, Ohio published a list of over 100 blighted property in the Columbus Dispatch.
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Webster, Massachusetts are among a growing number of towns that post large signs on blighted buildings, in public view, with the owner’s contact information.
• Baltimore’s blight website, Baltimore Slumlord Watch, was started by a resident who grew tired of the blighted conditions in her neighborhood.