Abandoned house in Detroit, haphazardly and inadequately secured

With little market demand to fuel rebuilding, vacant land accumulates as abandoned structures are demolished, while those demolished are soon replaced by new vacancies. A 2001 Philadelphia survey found over 27,000 vacant residential structures, 2,000 vacant commercial properties, and 31,000 vacant land parcels (Mallach, 2005). According to one assessment, roughly one-third of Detroit s land area, or some 40 mi (103.6 km ), is vacant land. The city also contains an additional 35,000-50,000 vacant structures (Fig. 103.1), most of which are likely eventually to be demolished and added to the city s vacant land area. 

Variations in the density of settlement and the configuration of those networks reflect both individual variations between cities and regional variations in settlement forms and housing types, from Boston triple-deckers to Philadelphia and Baltimore row houses, and the more dispersed Midwestern pattern of single-family 

---

Fig. 103.1 Abandoned house in Detroit, haphazardly and inadequately secured...

---