Posted on 05/31/2012 12:18:22 PM PDT by raptor22
Lost Cities: "Will the last one to leave please turn off the lights?" goes the old joke. In the socialist worker's paradise that was the Motor City, nearly half the streetlights are broken and the city can't afford to fix them.
Detroit, the buckle on the Rust Belt that as recently as the 1970s had 1.8 million people, now has only 713,000 in an area of 139 square miles.
It fell victim to one-party Democratic rule and labor unions that made its key industry — auto manufacturing — uncompetitive and financially unstable. Before there was Greece, there was General Motors.
Now Detroit has announced plans to reorganize that could have come right out of Pyongyang.
As Bloomberg reports, some 40% of the city's 88,000 streetlights are broken, and the city will try to "nudge" people into moving into a smaller, more compact area that can be better maintained.
Mayor Dave Bing proposes to decommission nearly half the city's lights, including all those in alleys, two-thirds of those in declining neighborhoods and a third of those in more stable neighborhoods.
"You have to identify those neighborhoods where you want to concentrate your population," said Chris Brown, Detroit's chief operating officer. "We're not going to light distressed areas like we light other areas."
So Detroit residents can continue to reside in sparsely populated unlit areas — or move where the government wants them to move.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Great opportunity for a little lab experiment here.
Detroit can pull the plug and disincorporate those areas they no longer wish to maintain. Then they can hand them over to Conservatives to run. The Conservatives will implement their own tax and social policies in the former part of Detroit that they run, and we’ll see who’s ideas work best over the next ten years.
Solution: Move Detroit to North Korea. Problem solved. The feral animals can fight over their turf in “da ‘hood”.
Cut off the money to Chicago or LA and watch what happens.
Detroit hasn’t been allowed to keep accumulating debt at the rate many American cities are doing. Detroit is what urban austerity looks like. It could recover in a free market society but we don’t have the free capitalistic society we once had and its even worse on the local level.
Exactly. Let them reorganize into new townships free of Detroit.
Detroit is a toxic stew of critical masses in poverty, disfunctional schools and other public services, feral youth gangs doing God knows what, and liberal Democrats in charge for generations.
If liberal Democrat policies were the answer to so many problems of our big cities, a place like Detroit would be a glittering jewel of prosperity, with a high quality of life.
If racist policies really kept the masses of minorities down, then likewise Detroit would be a shining example of racial harmony and black prosperity. Since black politicians, school board members, black police, etc. have been running Detroit for generations, how can anyone say that racism is a major reason for their problems?????
Let the abandoned are be declared a Tax Free Zone and see what happens.
>Detroit hasn’t been allowed to keep accumulating debt at the rate many American cities are doing.
Interesting - elaborate.
When time comes to flush the democrats and leftists out of America, Detroit is where they will put the nozzle.
Creeping socialism ping.
Detroit has been dumping public employees and services for years because there’s no money. Hell, more than 50% of the schools in Detroit have been closed. How many employees and services has the city of Chicago dumped? How are they keeping their streetlights on?
Stop allowing other cities to operate on the belief that they will be bailed out and after the fires finally burn themselves out, Detroit will look like a paradise in comparison.
>Detroit has been dumping public employees and services for years because there’s no money... How many employees and services has the city of Chicago dumped?
How are they keeping their streetlights on?
Just a guess, but maybe they DO have more money?
>Stop allowing other cities to operate on the belief that they will be bailed out and after the fires finally burn themselves out, Detroit will look like a paradise in comparison.
I have no idea what you are talking about - When a city runs out, it runs out.
And Detroit will never look like a paradise compared to anywhere...
The problem I have with that is Detroit will sue to reincorporate the instant these places become vibrant.
Turn the lights out in the most crime infested areas? What could possibly go wrong?
Chicago isn’t running an ever increasing debt? How bout LA or St Louis.
They must have magical unicorns that craps gold.
EXACTLY ,, take the land out of the city , reduce the taxes by 90%+ ... I’ll come in with a bulldozer and plant cherry and apple trees... no problems with da thugz ,, they don’t want things they can’t pawn..
Too bad the cesspool called Detroit can’t evaporate entirely. Funny thing, though. I remember in the 2000 Census Detroit couldn’t reach the 1 million people mark and they had to “estimate” it up so the city could keep the big benefits from the government rolling in. Interestingly, those city dwellers who couldn’t be found by the census takers turned out to vote at the rate of 95 percent - this in an election year where overall turnout nationwide was about 52 percent. Gotta love the way those Dems can stay hidden for several months at a time and yet manage to show up at the polls! Can you say “Voter Fraud???”
That last is another example of the failures of the GWB Administration. The fact that no one from the Justice Dept. went after voter fraud after the 2000 election highlights the insanity of the GOP-Elite.
Take a look at Post #32 in http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2886275/posts — the liberals LIKE what is happening in Detroit.
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