US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | June 12, 2009 | Tom Leonard

[Schnucki]

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

Karina Pallagst, director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective programme at the University of California, Berkeley, said there was "both a cultural and political taboo" about admitting decline in America.

[ConservativeMan55]

Change you can believe in.

[Huskrrrr]

Obozo must be desperate to create “new jobs”.

[JRios1968]

...concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area...

Where have we heard this term before...hmmmm...

[Welcome2thejungle]

The Democrats are doing a wonderful job destroying our cities.

[Clemenza]

1. Detroit should be turned into a national park/national forest, with its inhabitants transferred to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or one of our other colonies.

2. Much of North and West Philadelphia looks like Dresden post-bombing, and has for some time.

[OB1kNOb]

Shrink cities today, the population tomorrow?

[Mac from Cleveland]

Also a name change...

From “Flint” to “Obamagrad”

[ken21]

it’s a tough job being a liberal-socialist.

[Dasaji]

I see Agenda 21 written all over it.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[keepitreal]

“They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis”

Razing the homes of minorities?

And if Pres. Bush had done this......

[Travis T. OJustice]

“We had to destroy the village in order to save it”.

[Little Pig]

[ClearCase_guy]

Gotta burn the village in order to save it.

We are now Hmong tribesmen living in huts, and our government is coming along with zippo lighters, setting our homes on fire. Thank you sir, may I have another?

[CaptainAmiigaf]

Many years ago, in a history book I read of the existence of a country called the United States of America. One of its tenets was the FREEDOM of people to choose their places of residence, their life’s work, the food they ate, their hobbies, methods of transportation, they friends they enjoyed, and the type of schools their children attended.
Is there possibly a FReeper who can tell me where that wonderful sounding country went?
I would be most grateful.

[FreeSouthernAmerican]

What if I don’t want to live in a crowded, stinky area?

[dragnet2]

Much of North and West Philadelphia looks like Dresden post-bombing, and has for some time.

Pretty sad... Being on the west coast, I tend to think of Philadelphia as where much of our history was made, with neatly kept lawns and houses, and proud respectable Americans...

I know better though...To bad we allow the scum of the earth to trash our great country.

[TheWasteLand]

Mega-Cities and Judge Dredd to come.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

"Concentrating"... "population"... Hmm...

"Arbeit macht frei" is a German phrase meaning "work brings freedom".

[Clemenza]

As we may have discussed before, Center City is still in good shape, and their has been some (not enough) improvement in the near North. See our heritage in Independence Park, hit a restaurant and do your shopping on Walnut Street, but don’t go north of the expressway or west of 30th Street Station unless you want to see the Fourth World.

[South Hawthorne]

Sounds good to me. The section 8 jerks can camp in a park or live in a tree.

[Paladin2]

"Where have we heard this term before...hmmmm... "

Well, some of those places could use some pacification.

[MrB]

I think this is where it will be in < 5 yrs...

[DonaldC]

This idea in places like Detroit (iirc) where there are tens of thousands of empty houses, may not be a bad one.

[Buckeye McFrog]

sounds eerily similar to a plan implemented by Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania, shortly before they strung him up. Bulldozing large sections of Flint is an idea that has occurred to some other people. Would make an interesting plot for yet another Michael Moore film...

[TexasBeth]

Who is going to own the cleared properties? Let me guess.....Comrade Obama

[GeronL]

how dumb. especially for the fedgov. Let the cities do what they like, especially 25% of Detroit.

Don't force cities to condemn private property.

bye bye property rights

[KarlInOhio]

While the New Urbanism crowd is looking to march suburbanites back into the cities and plow their houses under.

Vee like being crowded into cities. You vill too.

[Churchillspirit]

The Kenyan has already bulldozed his way through The Constitution, so what’s a few cities here or there?

[MrB]

property rights? what’s that?

That’s so... old America.

[Buckeye McFrog]

it could also take the concept of Gerrymandering to a whole new level...

[Zeddicus]

What if I don’t want to live in a crowded, stinky area?

We'll have none of that talk. Now, run along little worker bee and get back to your assigned task in the hive.

[ComputerGuy]

Obama administration ... economic decline

[frposty]

Many of our large cities seem to not be able to sustain themselves. It’s usually blamed on some policy, stupidity, lack of planning, politics, demographics — something that was a mistake.

But maybe these large concentrations of people, streets and other things are inherently self-destroying, and that fixing the cities is not a matter of eliminating mistakes. Perhaps they reach a point where bulldozing and restarting is the only cure, along with a hope that the rebuilt cities will fare better.

[N3WBI3]

HOnestly he is right about this, though I am somewhat amazed there is no

Shrinkage Czar -

Cities like Buffalo, where I grew up are laid out for more than a half a million people, right now the population is south of two hundred and fifty thousand. There are neighborhoods falling apart and it would be nice if the city would just plow them over make some Olmsted like parks and imporve live in the city..

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL

[wintertime]

A lot of Kensington, too.

I worked at two offices in the area ( one block from K&A and Hunting Park) in 1999. Lots of boarded up homes and businesses then. It must be worse now, and the blight has probably moved further up Frankford Ave.

[DonaldC]

“Now, run along little worker bee and get back to your assigned task in the hive. “

Somebody needs to photoshop obama into a borg image...hehe

[Richard Kimball]

The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee.

We're not shrinking in Texas, but if enough more Californians move here to vote in the stuff that killed California, all bets are off.

[DakotaRed]

And how long before they turn the reclaimed ‘natural pristine’ land over to developers to create shiny new government housing projects for the sheeple?

[a fool in paradise]

CHANGE, coming to America 2.0

Smart Growth wasn't appeasement enough. Now the Luddites want to tear it all down.

[Allegra]

Let’s bulldoze DC.

[Clemenza]

The blight has spread up Frankford throughout the NE part of the city. You can blame the spread of section 8 (and drugs) but alot of the problem is just abandonment not seen in NYC since the 1970s.

[N3WBI3]

You want to choose where you live? why not just set up a home in central park... Communities should be allowed to zone in an appropriate fashion and so long as the FED has nothing to do with the zoning I am ok with it..

[PGR88]

It’s a microcosm of Libs plans for our whole society.

Tax and abort population out of existence, return it to nature to be more “sustainable.”

[FreeSouthernAmerican]

Si senor Obama. HAHAHA.

[Richard Kimball]

I don't know the details, but some of this does need to happen. Properties that have been abandoned and are creating a public hazard need to be destroyed. If they can persuade people to move into more viable areas, there's nothing wrong with bulldozing abandoned neighborhoods.

I don't believe 0bama when they say they won't force people to move, but IF they mean it, and I lived in the only livable house on a street, and the rest were being occupied by transients and rats, I think I'd like it if the city bulldozed those houses and planted trees, etc. Now, I have a choice of selling a house that may have some value because it's not in a demilitarized zone, or living in a country location.

The idea isn't bad. It all depends on how it's done.

[ikka]

Simply relocate the UN to Flint. Problem solved!

[goldi]

Does this include Washington, DC?