America is in peril of a Demolition Derby, financed by public dollars, striking many of our grand old cities.

Flint, Youngstown, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Detroit are typical of the post-industrial cities in which troubled neighborhoods are experiencing abandonment and foreclosure and public officials are talking of using public funds to demolish whole blocks if not whole neighborhoods.

But is the bulldozer the best solution? One is hard pressed to find a city or even a neighborhood that was ever regenerated through demolition of vacant buildings. Didn’t we learn of the hollow results from the discredited post-World War II urban renewal policies that destroyed — and for decades left bereft — vast tracks of troubled residential structures?

Granted some appealing urban gardens are now sprouting in these cities, where piles of debris might have accumulated. Clearly this is better than rubble-strewn lots.

But vast clearance? The fact is the presence of vacant buildings is nothing new in any of these cities; the condition in today’s recession and industrial collapse is just worse. No citywide benefits ever materialized from mass demolition. And the big-bang projects that have sometimes risen where neighborhoods once stood– stadiums, arenas, convention centers, malls and the like — have not only failed in their promise and cost dearly but provided no fundamental basis for citywide resilience in good times or bad.

Huge projects never live up to expectations; small initiatives always exceed theirs. So why not emulate real success?

Boston, for example, has declared a moratorium on new home construction which certainly makes sense when so many existing solid structures stand empty. At the same time, the city is cleaning streets, fixing pot holes, working with lenders and improving investment conditions. The foreclosure rate has slowed.

But more is possible beyond the critical maintenance of neighborhoods. Where some see hopelessness, other recognize opportunity.

Take Wilkinsburg, Pa., a one-time working class streetcar suburb of Pittsburgh. Abandonment of residential and commercial buildings was unabated. Almost four years ago, the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation acquired and renovated four vacant Edwardian row houses, one apartment house and one commercial building (a former Packard dealership).

The Edwardian houses with five units have since sold, the first sales in the area in years. The apartment house with 27 low-income rental units is under construction. A Housing Resource Center is now going into the renovated car dealership, where people will be trained to do their own work. Using low-income tax credits, this has been a real partnership with the county, a foundation and a bank. Grants have also been given to local churches and non-profit organizations to do additional work.

Importantly, they are going beyond bricks and mortar. As part of a community building effort, Charley Batch of the Steelers has organized a baseball camp for almost 100 youngsters. The tide has turned. Renewal is spreading.

Or look at the once-rich, now beleaguered Buffalo where the mayor can only think of demolishing 5,000 houses in five years with city, state, federal and foundation funding. Think of using the funds for genuine regeneration instead. In one of the most difficult neighborhoods — considered a lost cause by experts — the West Side Community Collaborative is not waiting for government to be creative or playing the blame absentee landlord game.

Instead, this community group is going directly to problem property owners or meeting them in Housing Court to buy the properties cheaply and find local buyers to fix and occupy. Most significantly, they are finding buyers for fixer-uppers at less than $25,000 who could never afford standard market prices. In the process, these new home owners are building equity they never had, equity that then gives them something to borrow on to start a business or fund a child’s college education.

Besides finding buyers, community volunteers are painting over graffiti, cleaning out rubble lots, crowding out drug dealers and prostitutes by strategically working with the police, planting trees, fixing sidewalks, mowing lawns and anything else to show the determination and caring of this extraordinarily diverse community. They only demolish when a building is no longer structurally sound and then they salvage reusable parts.

When they started seven years ago, this long declining Buffalo neighborhood was considered hopeless. Abandonment was accelerating. Now, houses are selling and new people are moving in where only departures were common for years. The strategy is spreading and leaders from other neighborhoods are seeking advice on how to develop a similar strategy.

The number of success stories is endless. Each one is different. But all are initiated by people and community-based organizations who recognize that demolition does not solve social problems. It just moves the problems to another locale. The erase-not-retain policy for both people and buildings is the current, more subtle version of the 1950s slash and burn urban renewal. Demolition is simply planning by default. It doesn’t work.

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