Help is on the way for dealing with the city's 13,000 vacant and abandoned properties -- not a magic wand, but a strategy for greasing the wheels.

Pittsburgh is one of 15 cities recently chosen to receive first aid from the blight-fighting Center for Land Reform in Flint, Mich. The inclusion resulted from Pittsburgh officials having been invited early last year to "tell our great story" at the national conference of the National Vacant Properties Campaign, said Kim Graziani, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's director of Neighborhood Initiatives.

There, she met Dan Kildee, who was until recently the treasurer of Genesee County, Michigan. "He is known for creating a land bank for Genesee County and [the city of] Flint," she said. "Dan mentioned the [land reform] initiative and the mayor approved our going for it."

Ms. Graziani said Mr. Ravenstahl "has charged me with trying to get our arms around" the problem of abandoned properties. She said that the city has "a great story to tell" about the Green Up and Redd-Up initiatives, which look to tidy streets and revitalize blighted vacant lots. Pittsburgh has mechanisms for moving properties into productive use, including treasurer's sales, the side-yard program and a land reserve for neighborhood nonprofits, she said.

But the process does not keep up with the number of properties falling into decline.

"We can only do 300 in the land reserve for community groups [each year]," she said.

The mayor is expected to create a task force to meet with representatives of the Center for Land Reform next month. The center will provide technical assistance for the city to a more extensive plan for dealing with vacant and abandoned property.

Mr. Kildee, soon to be president of the foundation-supported Center for Land Reform -- a merger of the Genesee Institute and the National Vacant Properties Campaign -- said he left the Genesee County government after 33 years recently to run the center full-time. The problem of abandoned properties "has become my passion. It is an area of public policy that keeps many cities from realizing their potential."

One impetus, no matter what a municipality's particular issues may be, is to move properties as rapidly as possible while honoring the neighborhoods.

"Just getting properties on the tax rolls is not the ultimate goal," he said. Often, a speculator is willing to buy numerous properties quickly "but then treats them like baseball cards on the market, with no concern for the neighborhood. The ultimate goal is finding an owner who will treat it as a neighborhood asset" for the long term.

In Pittsburgh, the land reformers will "assess existing systems to get an understanding of how they work," said Mr. Kildee. "We will look at tax collection and foreclosure processes and suggest redesigns allowable under existing law. We don't typically get involved in advocating for legislative change," although that may be a necessary next step, he said.

Success will depend on "the local appetite for change," he said. "That's where public leadership is most critical -- willingness to rethink the way we do business. It is the most significant variable in whether this can work."

Cities are saddled with 19th century laws that were written to protect family farms from foreclosure, he said. "Fast forward to the second half of the 20th century, when with a loss of population in our cities this process becomes a source of instability. Now it's not the property owner but the people who live on the street who need protection."

The center was able to help several Tennessee cities speed up the movement of cases. Instead of thousands of abandoned properties filed as a separate cases through the courts, he said, "We came up with ways to bulk-petition the courts. We have done 1,600 properties in one day. Of course, it takes a year and a half of legal work."

If such mass movement could work in Pittsburgh, a municipal land bank would be set up to buy the properties. The risk that the populace sees local government as another slumlord is worth it, he said.

Whether the city owns it or not, a blighted property is "a local government problem," he said. "If the city owns it, at least they have a better chance of doing something about it. "This is hard work that requires the effort, planning and courage of public officials to take responsibility."

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