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Blighted cities prefer razing to rebuilding. Half of the nation’s 20 largest cities in 1950 have lost at least one-third of their populations

by Timothy Williams

Destroying in Order to Build: As the populations of many former industrial cities dwindle, buildings are being razed rather than raised to better position the cities for growth. Photo: Gabriella Demczuk/New York Times

BALTIMORE — Shivihah Smith’s East Baltimore neighborhood, where he lives with his mother and grandmother, is disappearing. The block one over is gone. A dozen rowhouses on an adjacent block were removed one afternoon last year. And on the corner a few weeks ago, a pair of houses that were damaged by fire collapsed. The city bulldozed those and two others, leaving scavengers to pick through the debris for bits of metal and copper wire

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  • About WHES & Hunger Notes
    For the past 50 years, since its founding in 1976, the mission of World Hunger Education Service is to undertake programs, including Hunger Notes, that
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