Conditions of Uptown vacant buildings. (Video/Andrew Morrell)

Conditions at Vacant Buildings in North Uptown

By Andrew Morrell
@RedLineProject

Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2014

After the housing bubble burst in 2008, millions of homes around the country have been vacant for years, lying empty while banks attempt to sell them.

Chicago has an exceptional number of these vacant or abandoned buildings. With the help of Derek Eder's Vacant and Abandoned Building Finder, I targeted three buildings in northern Uptown.

Using the Videolicious iPhone app, I documented the state of these buildings. With a poverty rate approaching 25 percent and an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent, Uptown is one of the poorest neighborhoods on the North Side. In checking these buildings, I found that the info on them was not always current, and that many of them sit in lively residential areas.

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