Larry Jackson has lived on Patterson Avenue in McKeesport since 1992.

In all that time, he has never met a man named Harvard R. Hale, who is listed as the owner of the house across the street.

For a while, Mr. Jackson said, the house was occupied by a family that he believed rented it. They moved away years ago.

Since then, the brick house at 1306 Patterson Ave. has been occupied only by the pigeons that fly through the broken windows, and the cats that wander in and out to catch them.

"It should be torn down. It's dilapidated," Mr. Jackson said.

The city's planning just that.

The house at 1306 Patterson Ave. is one of 40 buildings on the city's demolition list, which will be the subject of a public hearing Tuesday morning. The 40 buildings represent part of the second year of demolitions that have been financed by restructuring the city's debt with a $35 million bond issue.

That bond issue also financed $5 million to pay for 1,000 handicapped-access ramps and the repaving of 70 city streets.

Together, street paving, installation of the access ramps and the demolition of more than 300 buildings are part of a program that Mayor Jim Brewster calls Renaissance 2005. Council approved tearing down 106 buildings this year. The city razed 86 buildings last year. More will be demolished next year.

Before buildings can be demolished, the city has to try to contact the owners by certified mail, then hold the hearing.

Bethany Budd Bauer, the city's community development administrator, said many of the letters come back because the property owners have moved and there is no forwarding address or because the owner has died and no one has stepped forward to take over the building.

In the case of 1306 Patterson Ave., Mr. Jackson had never heard of Mr. Hale, who is still listed as the owner. Maureen Patterson, 47, who has lived next door for 12 years said she met Mr. Hale's son, but as far as she knows, Harvard Hale, who property records said bought the house 75 years ago has long since died. She said the house has holes in the ceilings and floors.

"I'm glad they're tearing it down," she said.