Posted on 06/13/2009 4:32:34 PM PDT by John Semmens
Many cities in the US’s so-called “rust belt” have been in decline for years—losing both jobs and population. Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, Michigan has proposed leveling portions of these cities in order to reach a more optimal balance between living accommodations and needs.
“The idea is that rather than continuing to waste society’s resources maintaining unnecessary housing, we demolish the surplus units and move people closer together to gain economies of scale,” Kildee said.
While Kildee’s focus is on cities already in a decaying state, the Obama Administration’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan, sees a much wider potential application for the idea. “Americans’ consumption of housing far exceeds that of other countries,” Donovan pointed out. “On top of this there are redundancies in the way we configure living space. Too much of the space is only used on a part time basis.”
The Secretary suggested that “a college dormitory style configuration would be the most efficient housing arrangement. Sleeping quarters could certainly be individualized. But dining, bathroom, and recreation facilities could be shared.”
“A side benefit of these more efficient living arrangements would be the boost in community solidarity and camaraderie,” Donovan added. “Instead of the lonely, isolated existences promoted by our current dispersed and atomized lifestyles, we’d have more togetherness.”
Donovan hastened to clarify that individualized accommodations would not be outlawed. Private dwellings would still be available, but at a “premium price.”
The demolition activities are expected to provide employment that will stimulate the economy. The demolished areas will provide much prized “open space” for our urban regions.
(Excerpt) Read more at azconserv1.wordpress.com ...
Someone has been playing too much SimCity.
What if they don't want to move closer together? Who decides what housing is "unnecessary"?
Thanks for that John. Enjoyed your presentation as usual.
Just don’t move all those urbs to my back yard!
They’re too close together already, maybe if they spread them out it would slow down the breeding rate!
ping
Charlie to destroy the evidence?
What if it's private property, as in houses people own and don't want bulldozed?
"Urban planners" aren't God, and don't have the right to just impose their will.
As for the other part of the article, it sounds reasonable to knock down older rundown housing as it would improve the city. It is true that cities today are competing with the suburbs which did not even exist before the existence and popularity of the automobile. Since there is not a great demand for housing in the cities, it is good for the cities to demolish the worst housing and open up those areas for parking, selling the empty lots to neighbors would let them enjoy larger yards etc. Small parks and parking garages would also benefit the neighborhoods.
later
They should not be allowed to bulldoze houses that the owners want to keep but in many cities there are abandoned housing and slum housing that are a blight to the neighborhood. There are also many unscrupulous landlords who have property in the poorer areas but do not keep up their property and do not pay taxes, ie Tony Rezco in Chicago.
Could these idiots use the Kelo decision to justify tearing down half the houses to for everyone to move into the other half - destroying tax revenue but increasing “efficiency”?
So, now some 0bamunist gasbag has decided that the gubmint should decide who lives where and under what conditions? Communal dining, bathroom and recreational facilities? No thanks.
You can keep your marxist BS. I’ll take my freedom...
It’s time to take back the country.
“The Secretary suggested that “a college dormitory style configuration would be the most efficient housing arrangement. Sleeping quarters could certainly be individualized. But dining, bathroom, and recreation facilities could be shared.”
So my kid can’t go into the kitchen to make a sandwich without supervision because of fear of some lunatic sharing my ‘space’ will harm them?
The government has lost it’s everloving mind.
“Someone has been playing too much SimCity.”
Can you believe these people?
Americans want to prosper and this is what they have to offer?
Hokey smokes...After the counter revolution, a right winger will be a mayor of even DC.
Of course there will be a lot less lefties...
In the theology of the left, humanity is God and the Left is God’s brain. They feel they can and should do anything at all for the greater good of the brain.
Yes. Kelo seems to justify any taking of property by a government unit.
Start with Chicago.
good rejoinder
I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
A, o, way to go Ohio
It could happen with the douche bag in the wh.
Good job, btw. You caught a bunch of folks with this one. :)
Well, I guess Kelo says that they can do this...
Not to worry, the government will make every effort to notify residents before bulldozing occupied homes — especially at night. :)
Gee whiz, which political party is responsible for running these cities into the ground??
.....bulldozing cities in the name of socialism
change you can be-leave'n
“”Urban planners” aren’t God, and don’t have the right to just impose their will. “
And secured creditors come first in bankruptcy proceedings also, right?
Comrades. We must all learn to live together and give up our wasteful habits for the betterment of society! A new day is dawning.
>Who decides what housing is “unnecessary”?
a) A housing czar,
b) A magic 8-ball,
OR
c) Anyone fitting the description of “right-wing extremist” as defined by the DHS memo.
Those are my guesses.
And the communal housing unit could be run by a Residents’ Committee, which would enforce order and good thinking, turning anyone who doesn’t adhere to order and good thinking into the central government.
Mao thought that was a great idea too.
This is nothing more than another thinly veiled part of Obama's STEALTH REPARATIONS.
Who lives in these "surplus units?"
Where will they move? (hint - it won't be into cheap housing)
Who will pay for the move?
Who will pay for their new digs?
Who will pay for their ongoing housing costs? (hint - take a look at the Katrina moochers)
“Red Dawn”?
Obama's "community organizing" left Chicago neighborhoods in ruins.
Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy"About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition."
Believe it or not some of the liberal nuts here are moving their families into housing just like this.
Only if they start with Detroit.
Of course, I’m sure that they will use the same rigorous standards that they used in closing auto dealerships.
Make BO move in with Pelosi!
FU you GD communists bastards. Disgusting and repugnant.
The same bad habits that destroyed these neightborhoods will destroy the new neighborhoods when they'll be moved. It's not the color of the skin that matters - it's beliefs, habits, and ability to obey the law. The problems these liberals have will follow them...
You translate governmentese with the skill that an autobody craftsman approaches a gussied up clunker from the local Bondo-Bucket car lot.
Loved the analogy of the Treasury and the banks and the stimulus and the bonds.
What works best as a motivator for these moments of brilliance?
Getting dressed up, tanked up or just plain old fed up?
That's the way it used to be.....
.....before the socialist gates opened wide with the Kenyan.
There are so many rules and conventions being broken now and planned in the future in the name of the "Kommon Good" that the private person is in jeopardy.
I hear what you are saying.....
.....but in places like Chicago, where the Rezkos roam, it's usually the little guy who gets bulldozed; either by the Rezkos or the local government.
Well, certainly not YOU!
or me
Cheers!
Where I live, a few years back it dawned on developers and the politicians that the city's "projects" were sitting on prime waterfront real estate that had skyrocketed in value. So they declared that it was discriminatory to keep government wards cooped up in the projects - after all, don't they deserve to live in housing equal to other residents? So they moved everyone out of the projects into subdivisions and other middle class neighborhoods using government housing support (section 8 maybe?) to help them rent and buy houses they really cannot afford. That way the government could tear the project housing down and put the land up for sale to developers.
Now the neighborhoods where they moved the project transplants are well on the way to being trashed. as a consequence housing values were negatively impacted even before the mortgage crisis. Now that the crisis has caused housing prices to drop even more, the numbers of the government transplants is increasing at an even faster rate in the nicer, more expensive neighborhoods.
People with no equity and insufficient income (or no income other than government handouts) are moving into desirably housing that working class people can't afford to buy. It looks like multiple families and/or large groups of people are pooling their government subsidies to move into fairly expensive homes. We do have local rules governing the use of single family residences as muti-family housing or boarding style residences but the local government rarely challenges minorities on violations.
So instead of keeping the trashiness in one area of town the local government is using our tax money to spread the trashing to neighborhoods all over the county, damaging our own property values in the process.
Feel-good liberalism is truly a mental disease that over-rides common sense and reason on the part of the afflicted.
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