A clean slate for the city

Posted at 11:28 AM on April 22, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (2 Comments)
Filed under: Economy

The New York Times reports on a plan — and from what you'd gather from the article, a surprisingly non-controversial plan — to effectively wipe out entire blocks and neighborhoods in chronically depressed Flint, Mich.

The population would be condensed into a few viable areas. So would stores and services. A city built to manufacture cars would be returned in large measure to the forest primeval.

Michigan's laws afford local governments a lot of leeway when it comes to dealing with tax-delinquent properties.

The numbers, here, tell a powerful tale of boom and bust in the last half century.

Nothing will happen immediately, but Flint has begun updating its master plan, a complicated task last done in 1965. Then it was a prosperous city of 200,000 looking to grow to 350,000. It now has 110,000 people, about a third of whom live in poverty.

The story ends with the reporter meeting a woman, her pristine house about the only thing left on the block, contemplating whether she would abandon her home if the city offered her a spot in a more stable neighborhood.

Would you?

Update: Bob from the comments recommends this Harper's article: "Detroit Arcadia - Exploring the post-American landscape" (pdf).

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Comments (2)

Check out the July 2007 issue of Harper's -- there's an article by Rebecca Solnit called Detroit Arcadia: Exploring the Post-American Landscape.

Here are a few excerpts: "A third of Detroit, some forty square miles, has evolved past decrepitude into vacancy and prairie -- an urban void nearly the size of San Francisco."

"This continent has not seen a transformation like Detroit's since the last days of the Maya."

"Between the half-erased neighborhoods are ruined factories, boarded up warehouses, rows of
storefronts bearing the traces of failed enterprise... some areas have been stripped entirely and a weedy version of nature is returning....

Posted by Bob | April 22, 2009 12:16 PM

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And also http://www.sweet-juniper.com/

This blogger is a stay-at-home dad living in Detroit, and while his family does pop up, he's done a lot of exploring of abandoned Detroit, struggling Detroit, hopeful Detroit...

Some of his photos are unbelievable.

Posted by Heather | April 22, 2009 2:39 PM

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