The second round of Blight Fight demolitions begins Monday at 8:30 a.m. with the house at 4290 Worsham Avenue. Media members are invited to attend this demolitions and interview those on site. Once this demolition is completed, Public Works will move on to 1070 Crescent Avenue and 90 Green Street. More blighted houses may come down next week depending on how long these take and if others are cleared.

In April this year, the County began a targeted approach to eliminating blight by identifying houses which could be torn down. Mayor Lester Miller announced a goal of 30 houses demolished in 30 days, and that goal was met 9 days early. There were a total of 44 blighted houses removed in the first round, and there are 40 included in this second round. 

“We started this attack on neighborhood blight with a very aggressive goal, and I’m proud to say we reached that goal ahead of schedule,” says Mayor Lester Miller. “And even though we're just starting the demolitions in round two, we're not resting. Letters are already being prepared to notify the owners of the houses that could be included in round three.”

This round of demolitions was selected by the Code Enforcement Department as properties that were either burned or are classified as Vacant/Abandoned/Dilapidated. All but two of them have Code violations going back more than seven years, and all of them represent a public safety and public health issue for the neighborhoods. Once all of the houses are demolished in the first and second round, we will have removed 84 blighted houses from our neighborhoods since the start of our initiative.