"I thought this was one of the most dilapidated communities that I'd ever seen in my life," Ms. Williams said.
The fire sparked a national dialogue about spaces like Ghost Ship: often illegal and dilapidated communities in cities across the US that play home to artists, musicians, and other creative types (and their exhibitions, performances, meetings, and parties).
"Another issue we've focused on includes residents in the Hyde Park area campaigning to turn a former primary school building, which is now dilapidated, into a community hub.
This was in spite of millions of euros being invested since the riots by the government into refurbishing or rebuilding the communities' dilapidated housing project and public areas.
LOS ANGELES — When the artist Laddie John Dill fenced in a part of the railroad easement behind his studio in the dilapidated beach community of Venice nearly three decades ago, it was less to stake a claim to an otherwise unwanted parcel of real estate than to keep at bay, he said, a growing coterie of drug dealers, prostitutes and vagrants who were encroaching on his work space.
As they peered through the windows at block after block of dilapidated, abandoned homes, a young community organizer spoke eloquently about the area's revitalization efforts.
I've had the blessing of earning significant amounts of money in my career as a real estate re-developer, sustainably renovating tired and dilapidated apartment buildings into spaces where communities can thrive.
Atwater first learned community organizing from Howard Fuller, a charismatic young man who showed up at her door in the mid-1960s, when she was living in dilapidated housing in Durham's segregated Hayti community.
And where there is community consent I will regenerate dilapidated estates, ensuring that no one is worse off, no one is required to move [and] everyone has a better home at the same price".
