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 ...
Change you can believe in.
Where have we heard this term before...hmmmm...
The Democrats are doing a wonderful job destroying our cities.
2. Much of North and West Philadelphia looks like Dresden post-bombing, and has for some time.
Shrink cities today, the population tomorrow?
Also a name change...
From “Flint” to “Obamagrad”
it’s a tough job being a liberal-socialist.
I see Agenda 21 written all over it.
Ping.
“They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis”
Razing the homes of minorities?
And if Pres. Bush had done this......
“We had to destroy 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?
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.
What if I don’t want to live in a crowded, stinky area?
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.
Mega-Cities and Judge Dredd to come.
"Arbeit macht frei" is a German phrase meaning "work brings freedom".
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