Bulldozing to avoid Bankruptsy

[3113]

Bulldozing neighborhoods in a cities that is, to shrink them down to a manageable size.

The government is 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."

...Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that figure has shrunk to around 8,000. Unemployment is now approaching 20 per cent and the total population has almost halved to 110,000. The exodus – particularly of young people – coupled with the consequent collapse in property prices, has left street after street in sections of the city almost entirely abandoned....Mr Kildee, who has lived there nearly all his life, said he had first to overcome a deeply ingrained American cultural mindset that "big is good" and that cities should sprawl – Flint covers 34 square miles.

He said: "The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful. If they're shrinking, they're failing." But some Flint dustcarts are collecting just one rubbish bag a week, roads are decaying, police are very understaffed and there were simply too few people to pay for services, he said.
If the city didn't downsize it will eventually go bankrupt, he added.

Rest here.

Well, I always wanted us to go back to small town living. I just hadn't imagined it happened quite like this. Whadda think? Will it happen? Could it work? And if so, where's my general store so I can sit in a rockin' chair by the pickle barrel and play checkers with voluptuary_manque?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Bulldozing neighborhoods in a cities that is, to shrink them down to a manageable size.

Rest here.

Well, I always wanted us to go back to small town living. I just hadn't imagined it happened quite like this. Whadda think? Will it happen? Could it work? And if so, where's my general store so I can sit in a rockin' chair by the pickle barrel and play checkers with voluptuary_manque?

Hell of an idea! My parents retired to the Napa Valley. Sophisticated small towns are my idea of Heaven. I dream of Ojai . . .

And that's play checkers while savoring the local vintages or microbrews, BTW.

 

[TE999]

Technology has effectively rendered cities obsolete as centers of dwelling, commerce and industry...most everything can be done on line and people can live pretty much where they choose. Heavy industry is no longer a predominant employer, thus places like Flint MI should be bulldozed to make it cost effective to maintain. I think this is an excellent idea.

 

[_Lynn_]

Bulldozing neighborhoods in a cities that is, to shrink them down to a manageable size.

Rest here.

Well, I always wanted us to go back to small town living. I just hadn't imagined it happened quite like this. Whadda think? Will it happen? Could it work? And if so, where's my general store so I can sit in a rockin' chair by the pickle barrel and play checkers with voluptuary_manque?

I know a town that still has the rocker and the checkers . . . lol

 

[sr71plt]

I watched clips of it happening on CNN a couple of weeks ago. So, it's already happening. Kind of sad to watch.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Shades of The Whole Earth Catalog and the agrarian counter-culture. Stewart Brand must be rolling on the floor as he reads this.

 

[3113]

And that's play checkers while savoring the local vintages or microbrews, BTW.

At the General Store? We got root beer, lemonade and seltzer water. (You can't fool me! I've been to Disneyland. I know what Main Street and a General Store are supposed to be like. No microbrews. Pickle barrel, rocking chairs, checkers, salt water taffy, lots of tee shirts and Mickey Mouse hats....)

 

[Boxlicker101]

At the General Store? We got root beer, lemonade and seltzer water. (You can't fool me! I've been to Disneyland. I know what Main Street and a General Store are supposed to be like. No microbrews. Pickle barrel, rocking chairs, checkers, salt water taffy, lots of tee shirts and Mickey Mouse hats....)

My grandfather actually used to own a general store in a small town, but it was in WI, not MI. He used to sit around a pot belly stove with some of his cronies, getting up to wait on the occasional customer. Of course, the stove was only lit in the winter.

He sold cookies by bulk, and fruit, but I don't believe he had a pickle barrel. I know he didn't sell beer.

ETA: And, it was located on Main Street.

 

[Xelebes]

I doubt this plan is to make Flint seem like a small town - more like a less abandoned place. I'm sure the salvaged areas will converted into more dense neighbourhoods when Flint's fortunes turn for the better.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

In the 60s this practice was called URBAN RENEWAL. It destroyed traditional neighborhoods and packed people into public housing projects with air conditioning and without porches. Heat and porches forced parents to observe and interact with neighbors.

 

[xssve]

In the 60s this practice was called URBAN RENEWAL. It destroyed traditional neighborhoods and packed people into public housing projects with air conditioning and without porches. Heat and porches forced parents to observe and interact with neighbors.

Quite true - and small town life is not as idyllic as you think - it's a haven for the terminally nosy, who hound and terrorize "nonconformists", and the resulting boredom drives everyone else to drugs and alcohol.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I was just watching a documentary about Gary, Indiana, and I don't understand why they haven't done this to that place decades ago.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

It would throw 100s of poverty pimps out of work.

 

[ishtat]

It was done to a town called Consett in Durham, NE England some 25 years ago.

Formerly a steel town dominated by its Steel works the entire industry was removed from the map and largely replaced with green fields. Unfortunately, the people still live in the same old houses but with few jobs to go to. Cities without work don't work very well.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Quite true - and small town life is not as idyllic as you think - it's a haven for the terminally nosy, who hound and terrorize "nonconformists", and the resulting boredom drives everyone else to drugs and alcohol.

Remarkably blanket statement, that. Have you perhaps never lived in a small town with a active intellectual atmosphere? Hard as it may be to accept, they do exist and in such places eccentricity is either fully accepted or considered 'normal'. I know of a couple.

It was done to a town called Consett in Durham, NE England some 25 years ago.

Formerly a steel town dominated by its Steel works the entire industry was removed from the map and largely replaced with green fields. Unfortunately, the people still live in the same old houses but with few jobs to go to. Cities without work don't work very well.

Exactly the point of the entire exercise. The cities in question are without jobs and not working. That's why they have to get torn down. The model isn't European, it's western. When the gold runs out of the mine, people leave. At least returning the place to nature beats leaving decay behind. And, as TE999 pointed out, physical cities are becoming anachronistic. We used to have to sit next to each other to talk. Then came the telegraph, the telephone and the internet . . .

 

[R. Richard]

One of the problems with shrinking an existing city is granularity.

You enjoy going to a Thai [or other ethnic] restaurant? After a downsize, there may not be enough patrons to support that style of food. You like live music? After a downsize, there may not be enough cutomers to support the kind of 'name bands' you like to hear. As long as you like exactly what the other people in town like, no problem. However, the choice tend to be quite limited.

Another problem is expense. Lack of competition allows small town prices to rise quite a bit. Admittedly, it can be cheap to live in a small town, if your wardrobe consists of just three shirts and two pairs of jeans. Everything you order via the Internet means one less sale for the businesses in a small town.

If a company in a big city goes under, there are at least other companies to apply to. In a small town, if a big business goes under, the whole town may die.

Living in a small town has its advantages and its disadvantages.

 

[3113]

You enjoy going to a Thai [or other ethnic] restaurant? After a downsize, there may not be enough patrons to support that style of food. You like live music? After a downsize, there may not be enough cutomers to support the kind of 'name bands' you like to hear. As long as you like exactly what the other people in town like, no problem. However, the choice tend to be quite limited.

Another problem is expense. Lack of competition allows small town prices to rise quite a bit. Admittedly, it can be cheap to live in a small town, if your wardrobe consists of just three shirts and two pairs of jeans. Everything you order via the Internet means one less sale for the businesses in a small town.

You make good points, but I think people in such a situation are often happy just to have the businesses they have and not need to move. This sort of situation, where jobs are scare, buildings remain empty and decaying, and police and such are scattered rather than concentrated, is far more alarming then no Thai food. We're social animals, after all, and I think having one diner were people can congregate is often more important in trying times, than having a lot of restaurant choices.

Likewise, I think businesses seeing other businesses going out of business and knowing their customer base is small and maybe not so rich, would be foolish to inflate prices for the remaining customers. They may have no competition, but depending on the business, the people may be able to do without them (like, say, the lone dry cleaning business or that Thai restaurant).

What you say about the internet is especially true, but people are social animals and we do like to get out once in a while and actually shop. We do like to walk in and try on clothes or check out items on a shelf before buying. And buying in a store does avoid the hassle of having to ship something back, or maybe never getting it as it's on back order or such.

 

[R. Richard]

Likewise, I think businesses seeing other businesses going out of business and knowing their customer base is small and maybe not so rich, would be foolish to inflate prices for the remaining customers. They may have no competition, but depending on the business, the people may be able to do without them (like, say, the lone dry cleaning business or that Thai restaurant).

The problem isn't greed on the part of the business owner, but the need to make a living. There are fewer customers to support the business. However, there are still fixed expenses and wages to pay. Thus the profit margins must rise to support the business. Of course, the rising prices may drive the business to close, but what else can the owner do?

Once the business closes, there are then less customers for the remaining businesses. It's a vicious cycle.

This isn't theory, I've seen it happen.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The smaller the area in which the people life the easier it is to control them, make them dependent on government, easier to socialize them.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Much theorizing going on here but I must ask how many of us have actually lived in a small town. And how are we defining 'small'. If Flint shrinks to 110,000, is that a small town? It's bigger than mine and we have all manner of restaurants. Of course, here on the SoCal borderlands, towns are figments of developers imaginations. It all blends seamlessly one into the next!

However, Calistoga, where my parents spent 15 years, has varied cuisines, art galleries, microbrews, etc., all shoved into 8,000 souls whereas Chattanooga, with 150,000, its own symphony, opera, ballet, national class art museum, etc., only seems to have Southern restaurants. Great food, but kind of limited, given what I am used to.

And let us consider Ojai. That place has a cultural life cities twenty times its size can envy and a collection of eccentric citizens that has to be seen to be believed!

 

[cloudy]

The problem isn't greed on the part of the business owner, but the need to make a living. There are fewer customers to support the business. However, there are still fixed expenses and wages to pay. Thus the profit margins must rise to support the business. Of course, the rising prices may drive the business to close, but what else can the owner do?

Once the business closes, there are then less customers for the remaining businesses. It's a vicious cycle.

This isn't theory, I've seen it happen.

Bulldozing empty parts of a city doesn't make their customer base smaller - it's already smaller. Duh.

 

[john-the-author]

Quite true - and small town life is not as idyllic as you think - it's a haven for the terminally nosy, who hound and terrorize "nonconformists", and the resulting boredom drives everyone else to drugs and alcohol.

I lived in a small town (3,000-5,000 people depending on the school year for the college) when I was young for 4 years and I hated it. The Babe thinks that living in a small town would be fun based on ~her~ experiences living in Burns Flat, OK (even smaller), for 3-4 years when she was young. Nope, I think we'll stick with towns with some reasonably urban feeling.

 

[cloudy]

I lived in a small town (3,000-5,000 people depending on the school year for the college) when I was young for 4 years and I hated it. The Babe thinks that living in a small town would be fun based on ~her~ experiences living in Burns Flat, OK (even smaller), for 3-4 years when she was young. Nope, I think we'll stick with towns with some reasonably urban feeling.

It depends on how small the town is. I live in what most would call a "small town." The population is around 20k, although there are two towns on either side, so close that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins, one with a population around 10k, and the other with about the same.

There's just about everything you could want here, although I really, really want a bookstore - the closest is about thirty minutes away.

On the plus side of the equation, there's no heavy traffic, the longest your "commute" is is about ten minutes, you not only know your neighbors, but their relatives, and the schools are small, with small classrooms.

I grew up in Los Angeles, but I can't imagine living there now. I'd hate it.

 

[TE999]

I grew up in a small town on the east coast of Florida. Life wasn't idillic, but it was pleasant. You knew a bunch of people and vice versa. When the snowbirds arrived we helped them spend their money and were relieved when they went back North. When I left home to live with my Uncle Sam, the pseudopods of the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale amoebas were already engulfing it. Now it's gentility and easy lifestyle exist only in memory.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

All of which is birdwalking away from the original point. Flint isn't contracting because it wants to live in a idyll of long ago. The people have already left! What the city is doing is frantically trying to cut its financial obligations before it goes belly up. The population is moving away from the old rustbelt of the Heartland. Some cities there are thriving and provide great opportunities for the young and ambitious. But small farm towns are just disappearing completely as much as the old company towns like Flint. Everybody seems to be trying to get warm in SoCal, AZ, TX and FL. Like Cloudy implied, it's getting down right crowded out here.