COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's capital city hopes to pressure owners to clean up blighted properties by publicly identifying them online and in a newspaper.
The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/STMVFN ) reports the newspaper and a city website were scheduled Wednesday to publish names and addresses of owners who ignored city notices and didn't clean up more than 100 blighted properties.
Mayor Michael Coleman says the owners should do their part to help keep blight out of Columbus neighborhoods.
The public identification of the owners is part of Coleman's plan to demolish hundreds of hazardous properties and rehabilitate others. His office says 66 homes have been demolished so far and dozens more are cleared for demolition soon.
Councilman Zach Klein says the city has to hold owners accountable when their negligence affects neighborhoods.
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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com
