[wa2ise]

They will not give any handouts to a property owner to tear down a building, sometimes they will issue threats if the place is burned out, to either rebuild it, tear it down, or that the city will do it for them and send them the bill, but in the end the cost is on the owner.

That wouldn't work if the place is in an abandoned or zero value area, like an inner city. The owner would just let the city take it over, by not paying the property tax. This happened in New York City's South Bronx area, even without the above requirement.