Reclaiming blighted neighborhoods

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – David Brown Kinloch could have lived elsewhere, but he chose to move into an abandoned home in a distressed Louisville neighborhood that others were leaving in droves. In the 25 years since, Brown Kinloch has seen the Phoenix Hill neighborhood transformed from unsightly rows of vacant homes where crime flourished into a model of urban renewal. Under the stewardship of an active neighborhood association, new homes sprung up on weed-infested lots and boarded up houses were renovated. A small park and a communal vegetable garden offer green space. “We were told that you couldn’t build new housing inside the old…

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