What can a mayor do about a vacant property?
In Somerville, municipal matchmaking is the name of the game. Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson and former head of Somerville Youth Soccer, former head for Somerville youth soccer, met to discuss the issue of vacant commercial storefronts and empty lots in the city. The vacant properties are not just a problem in Somerville, but in the densest (and arguably quirkiest) city in the state, blight can feel more anomalous in Somerverville. The city takes a mostly carrot approach, rather than a stick approach, as many of the most punitive measures against vacant properties aren't actually available to the city under state law. The mayor and his team aim to play matchmaker with the help of the City Council and developers like Federal Realty Investment Trust. However, due to staffing shortages, the city's vacant property ordinance is not really operative and the use of eminent domain has often backfired spectacularly.
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