Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking

Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking

news.yahoo.com

Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green.

(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 3/9/2010 by iMacFanatic]

America has never believed in ruins which I personally think is too bad...erasing the past has never been a good option...we need instead to live with it and be reminded of our history with something more than roadside plaques.

Be that as it may it is a radical and interesting idea for this nation. To shrink a once major city to a quarter of its maximum size and to return it to what? Farm land? Nice idea but I wouldn't want to eat anything grew on it.

Next they will start building walls around the cities.

Enter barbarians stage right.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Thinking about it I am reminded that Christopher Alexander in his seminal book "A Pattern Language" (highly recommend it) suggest alternating sections of city no more than a mile wide with those of open land no less than a mile wide.

I lived in Detroit for 10 years. It's not the physical neighborhoods that are the cause for Detroit's issues, it is the residents there. Moving them to another neighborhood will soon cause that neighborhood to befall the same fate as the original. I like the idea of farmland but they will just be pushing the epicenter of ruin out farther.

Detroit should follow what other cities have done, revitalize and build up the core downtown to make it attractable for people to move back.

Anyone who themselves is a creator understands this practice.

As Yin and Yang are equal opposites, Destruction is the Creators Eternal Brother.

Detroit Grew once as an amazing city but its prosperity is gone. Just as when an inventor creates something and its purpose is no longer as "potent".

Detroit SHOULD return their city to something else. It brings folks closer together not only physically, but mentally as they work together on a project... creating a better city... together. This is bonding at its best... and returning a lot of the city to nature... getting rid of a lot of useless foreclosed homes... Making things cheaper for everyone and quite possibly creating jobs. In the process I'm sure they will use "green" technology also.

I personally am EXCITED about this

Originally posted by iMacFanatic
a once major city to a quarter of its maximum size and to return it to what?

National parks?

reply to post by rjmelter


I like the parallels you drew! You brought the ancient into the present. You have made it easy to see the history of what we do is but a fleeting moment. It is a dynamic, rather than a static growth.

I too am excited to see Detroit looking at growth by shrinking.

Detroit should NOT shrink the city, expand it, reshuffle it or anything.

Detroit needs to SHRINK Detroit.

The single biggest problem that Detroit has is this crass, imbecilic view that passing laws can make things better. EXACTLY THE REVERSE IS TRUE. Every public policy has magnified the problems that the residents and land owners have to deal with.

We own land in Detroit and we have seen how the city has collapsed land prices and then hidden behind the auto industry difficulties to hide it. The actions that the city of Detroit, the Mayor's office etc have taken have massively exaggerated the catastrophe and created a total killing zone for wealth with policies that have had the exact opposite effect of their supposedly intended purpose.

1. The "anti-urban blight" legislation has spread urban blight across the face of the city like wildfire. If someone else leaves a bag of dog poop on your front lawn in the middle of the night, by dawn, you can find yourself facing a $16,000 ticket, so no-one in their right mind would buy a building downtown, so everywhere has become a blighted empty area filled only with drug trafficers and flydumpers. Likewise, they have lawn patrols to check if you've cut your grass, and if you have an untidy garden its a $100 ticket. Result? Everyone who buys a building, immediately pours gravel over any pre0existing garden to obliterate it, making the suburbs a dull, souless place.
2. To improve employment, they City now employs 60% of all the people still employed in the city. Result? The nightmare world of red tape has crippled any local businesses, forcing the survivors out of town and jacking unemployment to the stratosphere.
3. To improve the quality of the housing stock, once you buy a building, the city sends an inspector around and you are blocked from registering it until you have completed all the comprehensive works to bring it up to scratch. Result? ONe guy bought a house and has spend two years trying to repair a house. Every day he does repairs and within one or two days, someone breaks in and steals the plumbing etc, returning it to its original state. He's spent $250,000 repairing a $10,000 home and he is still not out of the woods. As a result no-one buys buildings or lets them out, depleting the housing stock of the city and accelerating the depopulation and flooding the market with unsold properties driving prices through the floor.

My girlfriend's direct ancestors actually founded the city a few hundred years ago, and another of her relatives had the Canadians and Americans fight a battle in their back yard in 1812. It is heartbreaking to see what the Mayor's office has done to it.

All Detroit needs is its own Margaret Thatcher, someone to sack vast numbers of red tape civil servants, dump loads of petty legislation and a $500 lot will be worth $50,000 in a couple of years.

Originally posted by jjkenobi
Detroit should follow what other cities have done, revitalize and build up the core downtown to make it attractable for people to move back.

I do believe that one of the issues here is that city resources are spent servicing large areas with sparse populations. It is more cost-effective to withdraw from the empty burbs, set those remaining up with new digs in better neighbourhoods and re-group.

While it's a sad commentary on the state of the West...it seems a wise move to make.

Originally posted by rjmelter
.
It brings folks closer together not only physically, but mentally as they work together on a project... creating a better city... together. This is bonding at its best...

No it won't! It'll bring people closer to a bus ticket out of town. People are fed up with being barged around and shifted like chairs pn the boat deck of the Lusitania by the NWO. They will just leave the city.

Detroit seems to be an city forgotten. The blight, neglect, and corruption that has befallen the city is an American tragedy. To me, the city ought to be abandoned and leveled, because I cannot see anything being done to bring it to standing it once held. That city has to be one of the worst man made disasters I have ever seen.

However, they should leave some of the city as it stands as a reminder for future generations how low a city can sink when it is poorly managed, infested with corruption, and why not to put all your eggs in one basket in terms of industry. Why try to hide it by leveling the city into grasslands and what not, it robs to people of the hardships they have had to endure for so long. It will take another 50 years or so to pull Detroit out of its blight, and phenomenal spending.

There is no silver bullet to address the problem, because it is to entrenched and has gone on far to long without any considerable attention by the local, state, and federal government. The city is practically gone. It is a wasteland that darkens the upper Midwest. However, if they think this landscaping idea will work, I guess anything is better than nothing.

reply to post by Jakes51


Not a bad idea... but your still hinting on the fact that the city should CHANGE

If you create a city and let it rot... and die... its a waste...

but If you create a city, it rots and out of it comes new growth like plants... then you are becoming a creator... and doing the right thing. Yes I agree the place is corrupt and needs to leave. However Of it its regrowth would inspire MANY a People.

Detroit needs to be an example of what growth can be made in the U.S. Revamp American Society... rebuild... restructure... Dont just throw away... and give up. That is the wrong message friend

So many differing opinions.

I think this sounds like a great idea. I am thinking of returning to college if I can find an online college, and taking green and sustainable living.

It is the wave of the future.

As someone who just recently moved here to the D a few months ago, i think it's an awesome idea.

It may just sound good to me though because i'm used to living in a more rural area. I hate how crowded it is around here, with all the failing businesses and packed roads. I'd totally like to see more green around.

YES go green, it would be pretty cool for them to actually do this because its fun when you change things specially on this scale. I wonder if there making it smaller so the dome wont have to be as big that will cover the city.

To me this sounds like a good idea as long as historically significant buildings and architecture are allowed to remain. I hate the USA obsession with destroying beautiful architectural works in the name of progress.

www.forgottendetroit.com...

www.environmentalgraffiti.com...



[edit on 9-3-2010 by drock905]

[edit on 9-3-2010 by drock905]

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
So many differing opinions.

I think this sounds like a great idea. I am thinking of returning to college if I can find an online college, and taking green and sustainable living.

It is the wave of the future.

I didn't mean to come off so negative. I applaud Detroit for making efforts and trying something, anything even to pull itself up from decay.

I know Detroit well. I went to WSU in the cultural center area and took every back way to get there. The Eastside was fine until you entered the zone around the downtown oasis. Some really scary neighborhoods. There were nice areas bordering the suburbs that tried to leave Detroit to become part of the neighboring city. My brother bought a home in Detroit right near Dearborn and I'm sure he wishes Dearborn would annex his street. As far as allowing the empty lots to go green, that would just create more cover for dumping and other illegal activities. New cities within Detroit could be built in the least productive areas but they still need to help Hamtramck and Highland Park too.

Is there some link to any new documentary or report from situation in Detroit today... This thread rise my appetite to see and understand whats happening there nowdays.

Links welcomed from Detroit!

Originally posted by Jakes51
Detroit seems to be an city forgotten. The blight, neglect, and corruption that has befallen the city is an American tragedy. To me, the city ought to be abandoned and leveled, because I cannot see anything being done to bring it to standing it once held. That city has to be one of the worst man made disasters I have ever seen.

Urban blight replaced by urban renewal?
The city was built on now defunct manufacturing and industrial standards. Everyone [from the CEOs right down to the janitors] took what they needed and not too many reinvested. The result? Detroit as it is now.

Shrinking the city and redeveloping the land into something we could all use? Food/Farm production plants that produce oxygen? Sure why not. It's better than outdated rusted eye sores.

Detroit is a more glaring example of what many cities in the US need to do. I lived near Baltimore in the state of Md for 17 years. They started something similar a few decades back and slowly they have reinvented themselves. [Lots of work to go still] They took a outdated and run down harbor and turned into a shopping and entertainment attraction complete with a mall, sports bars, music and a world class Aquarium. The Inner Harbor renewal was just the beginning.
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Next they broke ground on the then new Orioles Baseball stadium then they built the Raven football Stadium which drew in the kind of people the city needed "people with cash to spend."

Now they have a plan to systematically reclaim the "Bombed out" neighborhoods of block after block of empty boarded up 100 to 150 year old row homes and bulldoze them and replace them with new mid level single homes. It's an ambitious plan but if they keep at it they'll do just fine.
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