Urban decay is the deterioration of older buildings and areas in cities due to neglect, crime, or lack of economic support. It can spread to other properties, lower property values, and become havens for illegal activities. Efforts can be made to revitalize neighborhoods and limit growth to prevent urban decay.
Urban decay refers to the deterioration and decay of older buildings and areas in large cities, whether due to neglect, crime or lack of economic support. This is a typical sight in most cities in the United States and many cities around the world. As a city ages, some buildings or properties go unmaintained and become dilapidated, abandoned, or condemned. This can also be referred to as urban decay. People who cannot afford to live elsewhere sometimes have to live in poorly maintained properties, such as housing projects, which may also be called slums or ghettos. The appearance and condition of these properties, as well as their use, can be said to be urban decay.
This problem is not simply an aesthetic problem. When homes or properties are condemned and decay, they can affect other well-maintained properties surrounding them. Just as downy mildew in plants can affect other healthy plants, urban blight can spread or affect other properties. They lower surrounding property values, can become havens for illegal activities like drug dealing, and are more prone to fires, which can spread to other buildings.
Urban decay can also refer to certain unattractive elements in a city that are unrelated to actual buildings. For example, in Philadelphia, the Society Created to Reduce Urban Blight (SCRUB) was formed in 1990 to tear down 60 illegal billboards erected throughout the city. They also fought to prevent more billboards from being erected so the city would remain beautiful. For some, such as the organizers of SCRUB, the bacterium refers to typically urban features that tend to “burn” a city.
Some smaller cities resist high-rise construction and place limits on building heights because they believe tall buildings are a sign of urban decay. Efforts can also be made in towns and cities to revitalize neighborhoods where there are a number of run-down properties. Such properties can be razed or rebuilt, and parks or new businesses can be created to make a neighborhood more attractive.
Other cities may also resist growth beyond a certain point as they believe this will lead to urban decay. They can limit the construction of new homes on an annual basis and also set conditions on where homes can be built. The goal may be to keep some spaces, such as mountain ridges, open and beautiful, as these were the key attractions of a city or country to begin with. Some look to the former open spaces and mountains now dotted with cookie-cutter homes as an example of downy mildew.
In any city of a certain age and size, there are likely to be at least some run-down parts. It may simply be that the growth of the city has reduced its aesthetic value. Alternatively, urban decay can reduce property values or pose a danger to law-abiding residents. Many cities attempt to address this issue, but funding is often limited for such projects.
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