[vel0city]

Given what seems like a high rate of vacancies in a lot of markets maybe its time for those landlords to be wiped out, the loans defaulted, and the buildings sell to get back to their real valuations.

But no, we can't have wealthy people lose some money or the banks take a loss, that'd be terrible. We'll just continue crushing the middle class and poor with high rent costs and empty properties.

[fzeroracer]

In an ideal situation, cities should be placing pressure on property owners and businesses to lease out vacant space because otherwise they are effectively offloading the negative externalities of empty space to the city and its tax base. If the city isn't going to outright buy vacant property for the sake of development, then it should heavily tax property owners for leaving said property empty or undeveloped.