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Posted on 06/12/2009 11:11:02 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
No. I had heard it on a History Channel documentary.
Not everything in this world has a link.
“Somebody needs to photoshop obama into a borg image...hehe”
Resistance to my change is futile.
“Barackistan!” pronounced like “Pocky-ston”
“...when
Franklin deplored the shocking condition of its streets,
especially in wet weather, or when Washington had to
wade through mud to get to the theatre where he found
his recreation. It has become actually the Filthydelphia
somebody once called it in jest...”
http://www.archive.org/stream/ourphiladelphia00penn/ourphiladelphia00penn_djvu.txt
I was talking about the scum of the earth that have trashed many of our cities in modern times.
Either way the city sux.
I found out long ago, it’s generally not the land, the town or city that sucks, unless they just have brutal nasty weather, but it’s the people, that will generally turn a once nice area, into a nasty, disgusting pit.
Sure - but leave it to the cities to do that, not the Federal Gov’t.
So Obama is proposing bulldozing large abandoned areas of mostly BLACK cities?
Actually, that's not a half bad idea. Bulldozing the blighted areas (And I mean blighted the way sensible people, not the Kelo court, would define the term!) would have the potential for restoring property values in the surviving areas. Imagine that there are two residential areas separated by a rusted hulk of an abandoned factory. Bulldoze the factory and give each neighborhood an attractive (read: curb appeal) greenbelt. Now both areas have higher property values.
The idea has potential. What will put a stop to it is the thorught that someone somewhere might turn a profit as a result. Liberals just can't stand that. They'd prefer the rusted out factory.
The list, ping
Hitler had the roads into the mountains blocked off, so as to concentrate the population and local services into more viable areas. Worked out well for all, didn't it?
FWIW, abandoned buildings are a major reason for crime in a given area.
Brilliant!
why bulldoze? The riots that are sure to come will take care of this without using taxpayor money.
Then, just don’t rebuild.
But, but, but.....where will all the ‘latte-drinkin’-liberals’ live? ;-)
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I agree; the Cites in question should submit proposals to first state and the federal governments outlining..
1) Maps of what areas are being plowed under
2) What savings in terms of infrastructure support this will provide.
3) What compensation is being provided for any home owners who will have property taken
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Truth of it is unless this is done right youll just create urban parks that are havens or crime..
Actually it did. It made Germany easier to bomb.
They can start with releasing Michael Moore into the wild, to join his fellow feral pigs.
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