Who Has the Right to Say What’s Blight? Bill Perkins vs. ESDC Darling
“t gave The Times this quote: “As a firm of planners and analysts, AKRF’s responsibility is the collection and assessment of data in an objective and thorough manner. Our analyses help inform a public decision-making process. They are not advocacy documents.”
But regardless of whether a blight study firm serves two masters, there might be more structural issues at hand. Much like credit-rating agencies, firms that do blight studies are paid by those who want favorable ratings: The state only brings on a firm to do a blight study when it wants a finding of blight, an implied disincentive for any firm that might repeatedly fail to find blighted conditions.”
Brown, Eliot. Observer 6 January 2010.