What is the City of Chicago and Cook County going to do to rid itself of more than 51,300 vacant and abandoned properties currently inventoried by the Cook County Land Bank Authority?

Developers and small renovators often bid but generally do not close on the vacant lots and abandoned properties because of burdensome bureaucratic red tape, according to a new report by County Treasurer Maria Pappas, according to Loop North News.

Readers have offered some creative ideas, from building thousands of tiny houses and multi-family "court homes" to transforming blocks of vacant land into urban tree farms.

Read the story.