I know there was a shrinking city thread for Youngstown, but Detroit is set to officially adopt the idea of shrinking the city.  Though this has been done in other areas, Detroit will be the largest city to adopt the ideology.  Should other depressed cities in similar situations (such as Cleveland) follow suit?

 

 

 

 

Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking

By Associated Press business staff

March 08, 2010, 3:22PM

 

After decades of decline that gutted many once-vibrant neighborhoods, Detroit is preparing a radical renewal effort on a scale never attempted in this country: returning a large swath of the city to fields or farmland, much like it was in the middle of the 19th century. Under plans now being refined, demolition crews would move through the most desolate and decayed areas of urban Detroit with building-chomping excavators, reducing houses to rubble. detroit-map.jpgView full sizeAssociated Press

 

DETROIT -- Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

 

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

 

 

More at:

 

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/03/detroit_wants_to_save_itself_b.html

Wow.  I never realized Detroit was almost twice the land-mass of Cleveland.

Almost every major city is at least twice the land mass of Cleveland.

Detroit is huge.  That's the main issue, too much service area, not enough tax base to cover it.

 

It's not a magic bullet, but i think it's a good start.  Do this and maybe shut down and totally reorganize the schools?  might help.

Wow. I never realized Detroit was almost twice the land-mass of Cleveland.

But it still has over twice the population, right?

Seems to me that there are a lot of unanswered questions here.  How much will it cost, how much will it save, etc.  I have a feeling that the crux of their idea is to get a lot of federal money to save themselves a little bit of local money. 

I like what Anderson Cooper said (not verbatim): "Rebuilding Haiti is not our responsibility, saving Detroit is"

Seems to me that there are a lot of unanswered questions here. How much will it cost, how much will it save, etc. I have a feeling that the crux of their idea is to get a lot of federal money to save themselves a little bit of local money.

 

There are a TON of unanswered questions here.  Because this has never been done before, there is no roadmap.  There is no timeframe, there is no financial plan.  Upfront, there will be demolition costs, and fees to acquire & consolidate land.  But "shutting down" entire blocks of the city is definitely the way to go.

 

Search the Free Press for articles by Robin Boyle, he is the head of the Urban Planning program at Wayne State and is a big advocate of this approach.  For some of you who aren't familiar with how desolate parts of Detroit are, you really have no idea, and words can't explain.  You have to see it for yourself.  The intentionally set "Devil's Night" fires from 10-15 yrs ago cleaned out hundreds of homes and now there are blocks of crumbling structures & foundations with no homes.

There are a TON of unanswered questions here. Because this has never been done before, there is no roadmap. There is no timeframe, there is no financial plan. Upfront, there will be demolition costs, and fees to acquire & consolidate land. But "shutting down" entire blocks of the city is definitely the way to go.

 

Search the Free Press for articles by Robin Boyle, he is the head of the Urban Planning program at Wayne State and is a big advocate of this approach. For some of you who aren't familiar with how desolate parts of Detroit are, you really have no idea, and words can't explain. You have to see it for yourself. The intentionally set "Devil's Night" fires from 10-15 yrs ago cleaned out hundreds of homes and now there are blocks of crumbling structures & foundations with no homes.

Devil's Night was a phenomenon from the 80's...so, not quite 10-15 years ago.  Dennis Archer put a pretty significant stop to that by the late 90s.

 

Watch the PBS show "Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City" that was on a little while ago.  Fantastic (i believe Mr. Boyle is interviewed) look at infrastructure and some of the issues facing Detroit and the US as a whole.  The perspective of Spanish government officials is interesting; they discuss how the US infrastructure system was to be envied in the 20th century and yet now it is to be pitied.