imo demolishing buildings is just chasing something that can never be caught.

It's true that abandoned buildings are places where crime happens and they bring down the neighborhoods around them. But demolishing the houses doesn't address the real problems of the neighborhoods.

The absence of abandoned buildings is not the presence of positive factors that help the neighborhood.

There's already some acceptance that they can't handle the entire city [[it's not their fault, there's just so many buildings), so they prioritize areas around schools for example.

But I think that every time they demolish a house in one of these critical areas they should replace it with a new house. There should also be coordination with other city resources and non profits on these critical areas. If the neighborhood is ultimately going to fail there's no point in bothering in the first place, so I think it really needs to be a full effort on specific areas in order for it to be successful. And I think part of this is acknowledging that some parts of the city are going to fail and that there's nothing the city can do about it.

That's what I think but the political, legal, and financial realities don't allow that.