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42 Percent More Vacant Buildings Torn Down In 2017 Than 2016; Here's Where

By  Heather Cherone and Tanveer Ali | October 27, 2017 6:03am | Updated on October 31, 2017 11:36am

 City crews tore down 42 percent more vacant homes in 2017 than the year before, as officials redoubled their efforts to prevent the empty buildings from creating blight and attracting crime, officials said Thursday.
City crews tore down 42 percent more vacant homes in 2017 than the year before, as officials redoubled their efforts to prevent the empty buildings from creating blight and attracting crime, officials said Thursday.
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DNAinfo/Andrea V. Watson

ROSELAND — City crews tore down 42 percent more vacant homes in 2017 than the year before, as officials redoubled their efforts to prevent the empty buildings from creating blight and attracting crime, officials said Thursday.

In 2017, 359 buildings were torn down by the city, up from 253 in 2016, Buildings Commissioner Judy Frydland said.

Some 47 vacant homes were torn down in the 34th Ward, which includes Roseland on the Far South Side, the most of any ward in the city, according to the data provided by the Department of Buildings.

Frydland told aldermen while answering questions about her department's 2018 budget that she would continue to focus on reducing the number of vacant homes throughout the city by hiring a firm to scour public records and develop a complete list of all of the vacant buildings in Chicago.

The effort is designed to allow the city to intervene before a vacant home becomes an eyesore, Frydland said.

"We're very reactionary to vacant buildings," Fryland said. "We don’t get to a vacant building until somebody complains to us about it. We don’t have a comprehensive list. We need to make them go register early and get to them before they get into such a state of disrepair."

Here's a map of the vacant buildings torn down by city crews this year:

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