Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking

[Choleric]

DETROIT - 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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35767727/ns/us_news-life/

[ricko]

The 4-H Club is now accepting membership applications for its new Detroit chapter.

[almighty_tuna]

It's not a bad idea for Detroit.

[TitosBuritoBarn]

A couple other cities want to try this too; off the top of my head Flint, MI, and Youngstown, OH.

I like the idea, just so long as they don't tear down some of the more architecturally significant buildings. Otherwise, it saves the city money in the long run and gets rid of a bunch of |expletive| holes.

[Erik]

I've actually been thinking for a while that one of the best ways to revive Detroit would be to rebuild it..

But to rebuild it would have to require interest.. And to gain interest you would need opportunities..

With a city already built, and 1/3rd at best being occupied.. They would tear down sections of the city and let developers (commercial, industrial and residential) build on the new open field, like it is a suburb..

A suburban style rebuild for Detroit is millions of times better than a rotting neighborhood that smells and nobody wants to live in..

There will be future opportunities for urban core renewals too.. They could always redevelop the downtown as people move back in, and designate certain old/nearby neighborhoods as future mid/high rise locations..

Just my $.02

[Seth]

I think it's ridiculous that greenfield development is still swallowing one million acres of prime farmland a year while thousands of blighted areas like Detroit are sitting empty (and sometimes open).  http://www.farmland.org/resources/fote/default.asp

There are so many reasons behind this that I won't get into it, but there really need to be more incentives to redevelop areas like this rather than let them sit and grow weeds while we pave over irreplaceable, productive land (often due to outright incentives for developers).  Heck, I wouldn't be upset if they built a few suburban-style cul-de-sacs in abandoned Detroit.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I think this is a revolutionary idea to re-invent a dying, desperate city.

I'd be lying, though, if I said I didn't take some moderate delight that this dying, desperate city happens to be Detroit; the city that American car-culture built... and then killed. I think this is a wonderful way to "green-up" Detroit and re-invent its image.

[S33]

I think this is a revolutionary idea to re-invent a dying, desperate city.

I'd be lying, though, if I said I didn't take some moderate delight that this dying, desperate city happens to be Detroit; the city that American car-culture built... and then killed. I think this is a wonderful way to "green-up" Detroit and re-invent its image.

Misguided "delight" perhaps? The city isn't dying because the evil-car culture is dying, the city is dying because people have been preferring Asian cars for some time now. I'm glad you can at least take "delight" into the plight of hundreds of thousands of people, though.

[riceweb]

Actually, it is the auto that killed Detroit (in this man's opinion). We all know the story: car allows for longer commutes, people move out to the 'burbs, cities are left without a tax base to cover essential city services, schools close, crime increases, more people move out to the 'burbs, repeat.

[NovakOmaha]

Actually, it is the auto that killed Detroit (in this man's opinion). We all know the story: car allows for longer commutes, people move out to the 'burbs, cities are left without a tax base to cover essential city services, schools close, crime increases, more people move out to the 'burbs, repeat.

Wow.  Talk about not letting the facts keep you from posting opinion as fact.  

Streets...I don't even know where to start with your comment except to say that it was completely revolting.

I have lived in Detroit for almost 2 years and have been visiting here for decades.  I moved my business here from Omaha.  I love it here.  The people here have been very welcoming and supportive.  It has been a real eye-opener for me.  I now appreciate what a big city can offer that your Omahas, your Des Moines, your Kansas City's just don't or can't offer.  

The truth is that what happened to the City of Detroit is multi-faceted and to simply blame the car or the auto industry is simplistic and ignorant.  It's trying to justify an opinion or wish by correlating two things that may or may not be so.  Car=bad Detroit=cars Detroit=bad?  How do you justify North Omaha?  Did it make cars?

I may post pictures but for now I'll say this.  Light rail is coming to Detroit.   Take a look at Berkley, Birmingham, Royal Oak, Michigan.  Those are but three examples of the type of communities that Streets has wet dreams about, and they are all suburbs of Detroit.  Not like La Vista but actual cities that have amazing downtowns.   People live, work, shop within walking distance of each other.  There are dozens more examples but to list more would be overkill.   There is nothing like it in Omaha, even Dundee.

[Big E]

Light rail is coming to Detroit.

Did I read someplace that some mega-bazillionaire is basically privately funding it?  I have that in my head for some reason.

[almighty_tuna]

Light rail is coming to Detroit.

Did I read someplace that some mega-bazillionaire is basically privately funding it?  I have that in my head for some reason.

yep.  actually, a few mega-bazillionaires are pooling their bazillions.

[S33]

I have lived in Detroit for almost 2 years and have been visiting here for decades.  I moved my business here from Omaha.  I love it here.  The people here have been very welcoming and supportive.  It has been a real eye-opener for me.  I now appreciate what a big city can offer that your Omahas, your Des Moines, your Kansas City's just don't or can't offer.  

I gotta ask, what were the main factors for locating your business there?

[riceweb]

The truth is that what happened to the City of Detroit is multi-faceted and to simply blame the car or the auto industry is simplistic and ignorant.  It's trying to justify an opinion or wish by correlating two things that may or may not be so.  Car=bad Detroit=cars Detroit=bad?  How do you justify North Omaha?  Did it make cars?

I actually think the Detroit METRO is doing just fine. Detroit itself, however, has suffered, in part because of sprawl, to which the automobile has contributed. North Omaha suffered in much the same way. Yes, the packing plants leaving made an indelible mark, but the construction of the North Freeway as well as the race to West O also fueled North O's slump.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Novak, I certainly didn't mean to insult, and as Riceweb pointed out, I know that "metro Detroit" offers great places to live, etc. But it is no secret that the city of Detroit is probably in the worst shape of any American city. The woes of it's inner-city neighborhoods are not unlike those of other major cities, and the causes are all just as diverse. But it's also no secret that all of these woes can be easily traced to the desertion of cities for the suburbs (whatever the cause; racism, whatever) which was facilitated by widespread car-ownership.

Since Detroit is a metonym for the American auto industry, there's a tragic irony that it's in the state it's in.

As I said, I love that Detroit is seizing this opportunity to re-invent itself.

[S33]

But it's also no secret that all of these woes can be easily traced to the desertion of cities for the suburbs (for whatever the cause; racism, whatever) which was facilitated by widespread car-ownership.

Don't even go there... People have the right to live wherever in the heck they want without being labeled racists. That |expletive| has run its course.

Side note: Admin, you must be a church going fella, because this is the strongest language filter I have ever seen!!! lol

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I'm not going there. I'm saying, whatever the reason, it was cars that facilitated it.

[mrdwhsr]

I'm not going there. I'm saying, whatever the reason, it was cars that facilitated it.

100 years ago the same thing was said about streetcars..the middle class was deserting the city and riding the new streetcars from the suburbs.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

Which would be fine if we still built suburbs the way they did 100 years ago. Those suburbs are now some of the best "urban neighborhoods."

[OmahaJaysCU]

But it's also no secret that all of these woes can be easily traced to the desertion of cities for the suburbs (for whatever the cause; racism, whatever) which was facilitated by widespread car-ownership.

Don't even go there... People have the right to live wherever in the heck they want without being labeled racists. That |expletive| has run its course.

Side note: Admin, you must be a church going fella, because this is the strongest language filter I have ever seen!!! lol

The brochures for FHA loans in the 1950s explicitly said "colored and jews need not apply."  There is a picture of it in one of my text books.

[Seth]

But it's also no secret that all of these woes can be easily traced to the desertion of cities for the suburbs (for whatever the cause; racism, whatever) which was facilitated by widespread car-ownership.

Don't even go there... People have the right to live wherever in the heck they want without being labeled racists. That |expletive| has run its course.

Side note: Admin, you must be a church going fella, because this is the strongest language filter I have ever seen!!! lol

The brochures for FHA loans in the 1950s explicitly said "colored and jews need not apply."  There is a picture of it in one of my text books.

It is amazing what happened back then.  I recently read a a very interesting book by Lizabeth Cohen entitled "A Consumer's Republic" which describes the extreme segregation in postwar housing development.  It wasn't only racial or ethnic, but also class-based.  With the large-scale subdivision developments, entire neighborhoods were constructed and priced out of blue-collar workers affordability specifically to keep them from living near the wealthy.  This often forced them to live much farther from their places of employment than they would have chosen.  Coupled with the FHA standards for loans which included maps that denoted regions "too risky" to guarantee loans (coincidentally in poor, minority, and working-class neighborhoods) and you ended starting the trends that helped gut old cities like Detroit.

[Big E]

It is amazing what happened back then.

"White enclaves", anyone?

[S33]

White Folks = Bad

[nativeomahan]

Do any of you know the real story of why Memorial Park was built where it was, when it was?

It was built to prevent lower income housing from going in next to the WASPs of Dundee and Fairacres.  That was the plan at the time, and the richy riches banded together to buy the land and donate it to the city for a big, beautiful park.  Oh yeah, it would honor the WWI vets, so how could the city object?

When your family has called Omaha home for 125 years you get "the rest of the story" that you won't read in any C of C brochures.

[Linkin5]

Anyone interested in a 4 story 19,000 SF building for $25,000?

http://www.realestateone.com/homes/2110 ... t-MI-48206

[S33]

Tear it down.

I like the idea of turning large swaths of Detroit's ghetto into urban farmland. Destroys crack houses, creates jobs (for those who are actually willing to wake up in the morning and put on work gloves), and makes the city look cleaner and safer.