TRACKING GALVESTON’S THOUSAND-PLUS ABANDONED HOMES City planning department officials have counted 1,078 homes in Galveston that are boarded up, look vacant and have unmaintained yards. Another 229 are boarded up but show some signs of maintenance. The city plans to use the data gathered from the drive-by survey to prepare for a code-enforcement blitz. “City staff blamed the abandoned homes on three factors: the high rate of absentee landlords and homeowners in Galveston; and the double whammy of Hurricane Ike, which flooded three-quarters of the island and damaged many houses that lacked insurance, combined with a national recession that forced many homeowners into foreclosure. Of the houses city staff identified as being potentially abandoned, 760, or more than two-thirds, are east of 61st Street and many of those are in neighborhoods north of Broadway, particularly in the Lasker Park area, according to the city’s survey, which is still in draft form.” [Galveston County Daily News]