This idea in places like Detroit (iirc) where there are tens of thousands of empty houses, may not be a bad one.
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Actually, I tend to agree with the idea. I grew up in suburban Detroit and I can tell you that there are blocks and blocks and blocks where no houses have stood since the 1970’s. Many more blocks are joining them as crack houses are torn down. Cities like Flint, Gary (Indiana), Philly, Pittsburgh, etc. have sections of town that have not seen any vitality in years (only crime). The chances of any revitalization are pretty dim especially when you have DUMS running the city. The city’s population has decreased and will continue to do so.
Converting these portions back to nature would beautify the that part of the city and reduce costs (utilities, police, fire). Last but not least, crime would decrease since there would be no place to live in that area.
When I first read the article, I thought of how a business contracts by closing stores, laying people off, etc. A city could do the same.
Trust me, the Cass corrior in Motown aint never gonna come back! Make it into a park like Grant Park in Chicago or Central Park and NYC and people may come back there for concerts, festivals or just a picnic.
Once in a very rare while, a Libtart can actually stumble into a good idea.
Why do you assume a decrease in crime when every effort at subsidized low income housing since FDR has resulted in higher crime rates. And that encompasses every urban design scheme from high rise concentration, ro townhouse clusters, row housing you name it, it's been tried and every time it has been a tragic failure.
The only benefits are political; insuring a dense population for electoral districts, sweetheart contracts to cronies, eternal and ever increasing Federal aid, and a bloated local bureaucracy and a perpetual slave class. The socialists don't want the urban poor to be educated or trained for meaningful and rewarding work, the poor have become the raw resources by which to conquer the rest of the citizenry.