Endorsing the "Spring Forward" Community Beautification Initiative to Help Deter Blight, Vandalism and Theft of Vacant and Abandoned Buildings

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Before RESOLUTION NO. �4 31 0 — I After A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND ENDORSING THE "SPRING FORWARD" — A COMMUNITY BEAUTIFICATION INITIATIVE TO HELP DETER BLIGHT, VANDALISM AND THEFT OF VACANT AND ABANDONED BUILDINGS BY UTILIZING CREATIVE AND ARTISTIC BOARDING Qfi;,wd, the South Bend Common Council notes that many communities across the nation, who are dealing with abandoned and vacant, buildings, have instituted creative programs to help improve these sites so that they would not be such eyesores and "magnets for trouble" while awaiting rehabilitative or demoltion; and Gq the Common Council further notes that a Housing Court Judge in Cleveland, Ohio, began testing such a program in 2010. It required boarded up structures to be secured and have plywood panels which were painted to look like windows or doors which resulted in very few of these structures being subsequently broken into or vandalized. The program was later expanded to utilize non - profit and neighborhood organizations, and students utilizing their artistic talents; and last year, the City of Chicago "Safe Passage Program" received world -wide attention when volunteer artists and neighborhood associations partnered with the city so that the public could see "progress and change" through decoratively painted panels such as those depicted on the "Board -Up Art" map in the attached exhibit. The program incorporates concepts of artist Chris Toepfer, who is the President of NeighborServe, Inc., who began working on artistic board -ups as early as 1995 after he visited more than 3,000 "ghost buildings" in 17 U.S. cities. He artistically boarded up 750 of them which resulted in 90% of those structures being saved from demolition and being restored for reuse; and the Common Council notes that other positive results of similar artistic boarding programs are taking place such as the one in Cincinnati through their "Future Blooms" — a project of "Keep Cincinnati Beautiful focusing on neighborhoods in transition; as well as in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and its "Artistic Board -Up Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative" which began in 2012 and is aimed at reducing the " stigma of blight caused by abandoned buildings "; and 4 the Common Council recognizes that the Neighborhood Resources Corporation has partnered with neighbors, neighborhood associations, and local businesses to prepare to formally launch Spring Forward. A Community Beautification Initiative in early 2014 in South Bend, Indiana; and