Hollow States and Foreclosure

Lots of interesting developments as foreclosures gut a community (examples from the WP):

The rate of increase exceeds the capability to police it:
In Prince William, police said real estate agents have been calling stations to ask that officers watch for trespassing at houses they are marketing. The Circuit Court recorded 3,344 foreclosures (a number that includes foreclosures in the city of Manassas and Manassas Park) last year, up from 282 in 2006.

Crime: When foreclosures rise, crime often follows, researchers said. A 2005 study by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Woodstock Institute found that, holding other factors constant, each foreclosure in a 100-house neighborhood corresponded to a 2.4 percent jump in violent crime.

Bandos: ...a 27-year-old woman was arrested by Loudoun County sheriff's deputies after she, her husband and two children moved into a foreclosed house in Ashburn and allegedly tried to use forged documents to convince officers that she was the new owner, officials said.

Vandos owners: "People are angry," Loudoun Sheriff Steve O. Simpson said. "And our deputies who go to these houses to serve evictions find that people have stripped their houses of toilets and stoves and refrigerators." At the Lucketts property, deputies found that the hardwood floors also had been stripped.

TAZ (temporary autonomous zone) development within communities: In Modesto, Calif., police said marijuana is being grown in the yards of vacant houses. In Atlanta, police are compiling lists of vacancies, where drug use, prostitution and squatting are becoming more common, a police spokesman said. In the Tampa area, the Hillsborough County sheriff's office has assigned a detective to specialize in metal theft, a response to a spike in copper tubing, air conditioners and other appliances being stolen from vacant houses.

Pleas to respect the ownership of the banks/servicers/vulture funds, essentially rentiers of all sorts (LOL, good luck with that):

"Is it OK to 'hang out' in a house or building that is vacant . . . ?" the flier asks. "NO," it answers. "Even if no one is living in the house, someone still owns the house/building and you would be committing a crime. . . . Think twice before entering a vacant building

Comments

[infopollen]

Been following your posts on the RC book in progress. Came across this this morning, and I thought you might be interested:

Now if we could line up all of the building inspectors and planning commissions, and zoning boards, and septic engineers, and relieve them of their credentials and wallets, empty their bank accounts, foreclose on their houses, and give them a small plot of land and some hand tools to work with, a few sacks of seeds, and some food staples for a year's survival, we might, just might actually see something "open" in terms of architecture.

http://cryptome.org/open-shut.htm