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REGULAR MEETING <br />Retnre <br />4 RESOLUTION <br />qM-1 Y <br />FEBRUARY 10, 2014 <br />lffer <br />A RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND <br />ENDORSING THE "SPRING FORWARD" — A COMMUNITY BEAUTIFICATION <br />INITIATIVE TO HELP DETER BLIGHT, VANDALISM AND THEFT OF VACANT AND <br />ABANDONED BUILDINGS BY UTILIZING CREATIVE AND ARTISTIC BOARDING <br />( the South Bend Common Council notes that many communities across the nation, who <br />are dealing with abandoned and vacant, buildings, have instituted creative programs to help improve <br />these sites so that they would not be such eyesores and "magnets for trouble" while awaiting <br />rehabilitative or demolton; and <br />(WsA the Common Council further notes that a Housing Court Judge in Cleveland, Ohio, <br />began testing such a program in 2010. It required boarded up structures to be secured and have plywood <br />panels which were painted to look like windows or doors which resulted in very few of these structures <br />being subsequently broken into or vandalized. The program was later expanded to utilize non -profit and <br />neighborhood organizations, and students utilizing their artistic talents; and <br />last year, the City of Chicago "Safe Passage Program" received world -wide attention <br />when volunteer artists and neighborhood associations partnered with the city so that the public could see <br />"progress and change" through decoratively painted panels such as those depicted on the `Board -Up <br />Art" map in the attached exhibit. The program incorporates concepts of artist Chris Toepfer, who is the <br />President of NeighborServe, Inc., who began working on artistic board -ups as early as 1995 after he <br />visited more than 3,000 "ghost buildings" in 17 U.S. cities. He artistically boarded up 750 of them <br />which resulted in 90° /a of those structures being saved from demolition and being restored for reuse; and <br />NC� the Common Council notes that other positive results of similar artistic boarding <br />programs are taking place such as the one in Cincinnati through their "Future Blooms" — a project of <br />"Keep Cincinnati Beautiful focusing on neighborhoods in transition; as well as in Milwaukee, <br />Wisconsin and its "Artistic Board -Up Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative" which began in 2012 and <br />is aimed at reducing the" stigma of blight caused by abandoned buildings'; and <br />the Common Council recognizes that the Neighborhood Resources Corporation has <br />partnered with neighbors, neighborhood associations, and local businesses to prepare to formally launch <br />Spring Forward: A Community Beautification Initiative in early 2014 in South Bend, Indiana', and <br />19 <br />