Bruce Stahl on Urban Land Banks

Bruce Stahl, a Grove City College economics graduate, has an op-ed co-authored with Audrey Spalding published on Philly.com. In "Land Bank Is Built to Fail," Stahl and Spalding compare Philadelphia's newly proposed land bank to St. Louis' 40 year old bank and finds many distressing similarities. The authors conclude as follows:

St. Louis was fortunate in that these poor practices were not written into the land bank law and could be easily changed; indeed, the bank has cut its rejection rate nearly in half in the wake of Show-Me Institute research on the subject. In Philadelphia, however, some of these poor policies are written into the legislation, which would make the city's land bank not only likely to fail, but also very difficult to reform.

It is gratifying to see one's students producing good and helpful economic analysis.