Live Webcast: The Impact of Blight on Communities: Definitions, Effects, and Programs

The Impact of Blight on Communities: Definitions, Effects, and Programs

The UB Center for Urban Studies will be hosting the fourm with the Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Center for Technology in Government at SUNY Albany. While this forum will take place at SUNY Albany, it will be also be presented via webcast in 301 Crosby Hall on the University at Buffalo South Campus. Following the forum, we will have a panel discussion to talk about the implications for Buffalo. Please join us!

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

10:00am – 1:00pm

301 Crosby Hall, University at Buffalo South Campus

This program is part one of a two-program series designed to consider the issue of urban blight and property abandonment. The second program will be scheduled at the University at Buffalo at a date to be determined. Details on this second event will be posted on the Center for Urban Studies website as soon as they are made available.

Cities throughout the United States are facing the increasingly persistent and costly problem of blighted and vacant properties. These properties consume seemingly endless resources, depress market values, and directly affect public safety and economic development. To combat the cycle from distressed to blighted or vacant, urban leaders across the nation are working in new ways to create 21st century remedies.

To promote understanding of the problem of urban blight and increase awareness of some remedies that are already working, and some that are emerging, the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany, the Center for Urban Studies at the University at Buffalo, and the Rockefeller Institute of Government, all part of the State University of New York, are co-hosting a forum entitled The Impact of Blight on Communities: Definitions, Effects, and Programs. In this forum, sponsored by TW&A Construction Management, the University at Albany’s Division of Research, and Cisco, the issue of urban blight will be discussed and defined within the context of New York State and the issues of economic and social impact on cities and municipalities will be considered. The keynote speaker and expert panelists will discuss the financial cost to cities and municipalities, as well as deterioration, decay, and neglect of the physical environment, with a particular focus on exploring the challenges involved in solving these problems.

From Albany

Keynote Address: Alan Mallach, Ph.D, Fellow, The Center for Community Progress and Fellow, Brookings (retired)

Panel 1

George Galster, Ph.D., Wayne State University, Michigan (via video)
Mayor Gary McCarthy, City of Schenectady
Henry Louis Taylor, Ph.D., Urban Studies Program, University at Buffalo/SUNY
Nora Yates, NYS Governor’s Office, Executive Chamber
A Representative from Olean Economic Development
Alan Mallach, Ph.D, Fellow, The Center for Community Progress and Fellow, Brookings (retired)

From Buffalo

Following the Albany webcast, a panel of local experts will discuss the implications of blight on the development of the Greater Buffalo metropolitan region. Dr. Robert Silverman will moderate the panel discussion.

Panel 2: The Impact of Blight on Metro Buffalo

Moderator: Robert Silverman, Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Art Hall, Office of Strategic Planning, City of Buffalo
James Pitts, Pitts Development Corporation
Aaron Bartley and Rahwa Ghirmatzion, PUSH Buffalo

Hosts

Rockefeller Institute of Government/SUNY; Center for Urban Studies, University at Buffalo/SUNY; The Center for Technology in Government of the University at Albany/SUNY