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.
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I never thought I would see the day…
“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.”
Ah yes, lets have a concentration camp, it’s so much easier to maintain the books that way. Thank you Owebama the greatest thinker of all time.
When they’re done…can we get them to bulldoze Quebec?
So where did the people go, did they just evaporate?
mid island mike
Back into the apartments and condos they could actually afford.
or living in run-down apartments, or on the street, or under bridges?
The industrious ones followed the jobs and migrated to the lower taxed states in the south and west, leaving the less than productive behind. During the period from 2000 through 2004, Florida gained about 191,000 migrants from other states, while Arizona gained 66,000, Nevada (51,000), Georgia (41,000), North Carolina (39,000), and Texas (37,000). Other big losers included New York (182,000), California (99,000), Illinois (72,000), and Massachusetts (42,000).
Florida, Arizona and Nevada were all major disasters during the housing collapse. Too many overbuilt neighborhoods in unnatural places.
True, but the migration out of higher tax states will continue so the overbuilt housing in Florida, Arizona and Nevada will sell long before the empty houses in Michigan will.
That has more to do with the fact that nothing of value exists in Michigan. Those car jobs aren’t coming back.
Granted, some people will be willing to jump states just to avoid paying a few taxes but the majority of people are following jobs. Most of the states you’ve mentioned have lower population density hence lower need for infrastructure that requires tax money. When those states fill up guess what will happen?
Nothing of value exists in Michigan because any Japanese or European companies looking to increase their market share at GM and Chrysler’s expense, by opening up new plants, are much more likely to locate in the lower taxed states to the south and west, where they can also avoid the ingrained union mentality. As I stated, some people will follow the jobs, but it is true that I was generalizing and there is more to it than taxation, since few people move to the north upon retiring.
Ontario is a popular destination and we have higher taxes. Then again, we have the higher educated work force to show for it.
My point is that high taxes is not the end of the world. If the car manufacturers wanted to pay nothing then they’d all set up shop in Mexico or Guatemala. Then again, you get what you pay for. The cost/benefit analysis has to be favorable at the end of the day.
Canadians have far fewer choices about where they can migrate to and be economically successful, so naturally it doesn’t happen as much here, although there are some ghost towns forming in northern Ontario and Saskatchewan.
O will support this as job creation. A house here was recently the victim of a fire. Last week it was dozed down, what a mess. A huge pile of junk waiting for trucks to hall it away. To think a whole town would have this to look forward to.
Sorta what the O is doing to the American ecomony.
Does anyone know which cities have been identified? In other words, is there a list somewhere?
You can bet that Chicago has got a ‘get out of jail free’ card.
The American car companies wouldnt be in all this trouble if they had built affordable, dependable, fuel efficient vehicles that held their value and that their dealers would stand behind, particularly with well known problems like rust, head-gasket problems, poor front end suspensions, premature fuel pump failures. This list goes on.
No wonder that american auto producing cities are in decline.