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US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | June 12, 2009 | Tom Leonard

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News; Government; US: California; US: Michigan; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: agenda21; american2point0; asocialistamerica; bulldoze; bulldozers; change; communism; condemned; confiscation; demolition; dncbrownshirts; flint; housing; michigan; obama; obamalegacy; obamunism; presidentobama; privateproperty; smartgrowth; stalinisttactics; uncrap; unionlabor; wreckingcrew
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To: Schnucki

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


41 posted on 06/12/2009 11:30:33 AM PDT by DakotaRed (What happened to the country I fought for?)
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To: 1riot1ranger; Action-America; Aggie Mama; Alkhin; Allegra; American72; antivenom; Antoninus II; ...
CHANGE, coming to America 2.0

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


42 posted on 06/12/2009 11:30:40 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (There is no truth in the Pravda Media.)
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To: Schnucki

Let’s bulldoze DC.


43 posted on 06/12/2009 11:30:41 AM PDT by Allegra ( Never argue with an idiot. They bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.)
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To: wintertime
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.
44 posted on 06/12/2009 11:33:18 AM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: CaptainAmiigaf

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..


45 posted on 06/12/2009 11:36:37 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: Schnucki

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.”


46 posted on 06/12/2009 11:36:54 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Zeddicus

Si senor Obama. HAHAHA.


47 posted on 06/12/2009 11:37:31 AM PDT by FreeSouthernAmerican (All we ask is to be let alone----Jefferson Davis)
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To: Schnucki
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.

48 posted on 06/12/2009 11:38:01 AM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: Schnucki

Simply relocate the UN to Flint. Problem solved!


49 posted on 06/12/2009 11:40:03 AM PDT by ikka (Brother, you asked for it!)
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To: Schnucki

Does this include Washington, DC?


50 posted on 06/12/2009 11:40:18 AM PDT by goldi
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To: Schnucki

Wasn’t “Urban Renewal” a similar project from the ‘30’s that failed?

And why is this only being reported by a British news source?


51 posted on 06/12/2009 11:40:48 AM PDT by Ellendra (Can't starve us out, and you can't make us run...Country folks CAN survive!!! -Hank Jr.)
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To: DonaldC

Detroit is returning to the countryside on its own.there’s a great article online about a guy catching and eating raccoons
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090402/METRO08/904020395/To+urban+hunter++next+meal+is+scampering+by


52 posted on 06/12/2009 11:41:24 AM PDT by 1000 silverlings (Everything that deceives also enchants: Plato)
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To: Schnucki

The same nuts who a few weeks ago said all roofs need to be painted white.


53 posted on 06/12/2009 11:43:30 AM PDT by NavyCanDo
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To: frposty

It’s not the amount of people—it’s the people themselves, the ones who live in these blighted towns—they destroyed these cities—move the same people elsewhere and they’ll destroy the new city.

Now, I know that there are some decent people who were stuck in these cities when they went down the tubes-I don’t mean them—but the vast majority of the populace-it’s true as the sun coming up in the morning.


54 posted on 06/12/2009 11:44:13 AM PDT by Mac from Cleveland (How to make a small fortune in the Obama era--first, start off with a big fortune....)
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To: JRios1968
Where have we heard this term before...hmmmm...

Most recently? New Orleans, 2005.

Post-Katrina, there was lots of talk about shutting down city services (police, firefighting, garbage pickup, etc.) to large portions of the city to force the city into a smaller "footprint".

Guess what, it ain't happening. The areas that were considered for "shutdown" actually were some of the "newer" portions of the flooded area, and therefore had houses built on monolithic slabs. Although the homes suffered horrible flood damage, they were deemed salvageable - and the city began buying up those houses through a number of straw-man purchasers, gutting and rebuilding the interiors. This like-new housing was made available to - you guessed it - low income families.

Ten to one, that's what the neighborhood organizer-in-chief has in mind: many houses in the designated areas won't be bulldozed at all, they'll be turned into replacements for public housing projects.

Think about it - parts of New Orleans are still, for all practical purposes, depopulated. In some areas, perhaps only one in ten property owners have repaired their homes, while the rest of the houses sit in ruins. Yet, that city isn't on the list. I think it's because the plan is already in motion there.

55 posted on 06/12/2009 11:45:52 AM PDT by Charles Martel ("Endeavor to persevere...")
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To: CaptainAmiigaf
That country disappeared once those people decided that they would turn over their responsibilities for their own livelihood to the government -- and decided to drink the Kool-Aid of government-run law enforcement, government-run schools, government-run fire protection, government-run medical care, etc.

This idea that Americans were "free" in any way since the dawn of the 20th century is largely a myth.

56 posted on 06/12/2009 11:46:12 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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To: Schnucki

In accordance with the prophecy:

“I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.” - William Jennings Bryan

What’s the status of American agriculture? And what’s growing in the streets of Detroit?


57 posted on 06/12/2009 11:47:39 AM PDT by Mountain Troll (My investment plan - Canned food and shotguns)
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To: OB1kNOb

>>Shrink cities today, the population tomorrow?

“Soylent Green, its made of peeeooople . . . . >>

“You damn dirty apes ...”

(I know the latter line does not belong with the first, but I try to use every chance I get)


58 posted on 06/12/2009 11:50:29 AM PDT by job
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To: Richard Kimball
I'm not a big fan of the Weekly Standard, but this is one of the best articles I've ever read about the decline of American civilization:

The City Where the Sirens Never Sleep

It should be required reading for every American who is involved in government at any level.

59 posted on 06/12/2009 11:50:36 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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To: Schnucki

Hmmm, how about returning some of that Potomac bottomland back to Nature by making a Constitutionally small and limited Federal government seat in Nebraska?


60 posted on 06/12/2009 11:51:18 AM PDT by ColoradoUSA (Let's Right This Ship !)
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