Posted on 09/13/2009 12:07:08 AM PDT by PghBaldy
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...
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“You’re confusing people who want to bring Europe to America with commies. There’s a big difference.”
Not really...
For the most part they are one and the same. Socialists in academia...
The difference is that what was “Urban Planning” in the 70’s has become a core belief and goal of today’s Radical Socialist Democrat. They want it for POLITICAL CONTROL, not for any policy ends. Read the writings and the quotes of the people pulling these strings today, and you cannot come to any other conclusion.
In the Article I quoted, take note of the statement:
“In many places, overcoming public perception of negative implications of density is the most critical aspect of supporting green neighborhoods.”
“Overcoming public perception”...
Now why would Americans have the “Public perception” that land ownership is better than living ‘High-Density”? Because have the lessons of “High Density living” already before us, from the Concrete housing blocs of the Soviet Union, to the high-rise, crime-ridden ghetto’s like Cabrini Green in large American cities, from Johnson’s “Great Society”.
And because we are, at heart, a nation of INDIVIDUALISTS, not Communes. We live in a nation so large, that people could go their entire lives, until VERY recently, and never meet someone who was born outside of America.
Americans are VERY unlike Europeans in a very important aspect. Most Americans look to THEMSELVES FIRST, for solutions to problems, while Europeans have always expected Government, or THE KING, or somesuch, to provide the solution. And over significantly smaller distances.
“In essence, the bank loses its priority rights to the property which have been hypothecated as security for the loan and the bank is reduced to the status of a general creditor and thus defenseless to the whim of the bankruptcy judge.”
They’ve already done this to the bondholders of Government Motors.
It’s a pattern...
You must be in TEXAS!
I say...GO FOR IT!
Excuse me?
This boomer has a husband who is a war vet, was willing to die for this country, and both of us were at a TEA Party today.
Why lay all of the fault on the boomers?
Braddock is a waste land. Lots of elderly and people living on assistance.
Because the Boomers didn’t sufficiently suppress and beat down their hippie peers, that’s why. :P
Rename Detroit the "Ted Kennedy Memorial Park."
I hate to tell you this...no I don’t...but the commies were in our education system when I was in elementary school...in the 50s.
I...in Mississippi of all places...had at Supt. of Schools who came to our classroom every year touting the Soviet model of schools.
He even went there, and came back with slide shows of how much “better” the Soviets were.
Don’t you even try to hang that on us.
Good idea. ;o)
“Why lay all of the fault on the boomers?”
Because that generation had the helm of this great country.
Look at the policies for the last 30-40 years. Sure that generation didn’t have control during the first half but you have for the last 20. Runaway government spending, over the top regulation, and interference from the federal level.
Oh and I’m a war vet too.
I’m wondering how they are going to do this.
Will they just seize people properties and kick them out or will the government buy them out with force?
And will they bulldoze the projects and slum areas first relocating the denizens to more affluent areas by buying up foreclosed housing on the cheap?.
Got to start somewhere.
Okie dokie...lol
“.but the commies were in our education system when I was in elementary school...in the 50s”
Yes but they didn’t have complete control. They were also in Hollywood.
“Don’t you even try to hang that on us.”
Sorry, he who has the helm gets the blame for hitting the rocks.
For the most part Americans are the Europeans who didn’t want the government welfare plan. People came here from all over the world because of what the opportunity here. For what they could build, not for what the govt would give them.
well until recently.
Term limits are unconstitutional. They are a means of voting out of office people that you could not otherwise vote for or against. I voted for term limits in California solely on the basis of getting Willie Brown out of Sacramento. The clowns who replaced him were not any better and Willie moved on to a different elected position.
The more turnover you have in elected positions, the deeper the power of the background bureaucracy retains. It's a trade off.
The founding fathers really did it right. They arranged the electoral college so that a handful of major population centers couldn't monopolize the presidency. They arranged the Senate so that not only would all states be equal, the rules were designed to delay and slow down legislation. They limited the power of the federal government and provided for checks and balances within it to further weaken it.
Indeed gerrymandering is a problem. My own home town of San Luis Obispo, CA has been gerrymandered into alien districts (either Monterrey or Santa Barbara) much of my life, thus mostly depriving us of representation in Congress. I'm not sure there's any way to solve that.
The only way to really solve the problem is to eliminate the bait. The last 21 years (post-Reagan) have been disastrous. Power increasingly has been concentrating in Washington DC. For all the good President Reagan did, he was unable to keep his campaign promise to eliminate the Department of Propaganda^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HEducation established by perhaps the weakest President of the century the preceding term.
A history lesson for any kids out there: President Reagan submitted 8 budgets to Congress. How many of them were (gleefully) declared Dead On Arrival by Democrat congressional leaders? (A: Every one of them).
The only way to reverse the trend is to remove the money and power out of DC and realistically, it just isn't going to happen. President Reagan couldn't do it and he had an overwhelming mandate.
Well, if you want to lay at our feet the fact that most of us were working to build better families, and better (and more) jobs, and the fact that we neglected to keep an eye on the hippies/commies who infiltrated our universities...then I guess we are at fault. Most of us were a tad busy being good Americans, who didn’t want hand outs, who didn’t want welfare, and who dang well don’t want to go on medicare, but we have to.
What has your generation done to help...if anything at all?
That would be a good place.
Do you really think “we” had the helm?
Lordy...”we” didn’t get the helm until ‘94!
As time and generations slide by, it becomes less and less “Important” to teach about the horrors that have been wrought upon mankind by those acting in the name of “Socialism”.
Other things begin to take priority, with buzzwords like “Diversity”, or “Emotional Equality”. “Learning Outcomes” become more important than performance grades.
It’s always up to the previous generations to teach the ones coming up the mistakes of the past, but sometimes, it takes a good kick in the ass to drive that message home. And often, that lesson can come at great cost.
Those of us old enough to remember the Carter Years already knew what was coming if Hillary OR Obama got elected with a radical Democrat-run Congress. Some of us prepared for it. The causes for it have been well-documented over the years on FR, as are the warnings.
Many will have to learn the hard way, yet again, that Darwin can be a real biatch, and that feel-good policy anecdotes, and empty rhetoric about “HOPE!” and “CHANGE” do not feed a hungry family.
In many ways, that is OUR FAULT. We may have taught OUR children, but who was teaching everyone else’s??
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