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US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

 
mathetes
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06/12/2009 05:51 PM
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US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
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.

By Tom Leonard in Flint, Michigan
Published: 6:30PM BST 12 Jun 2009

A boarded up house sits for sale in Michigan. Photo: GETTY
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.

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."

Karina Pallagst, director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective programme at the University of California, Berkeley, said there was "both a cultural and political taboo" about admitting decline in America.

"Places like Flint have hit rock bottom. They're at the point where it's better to start knocking a lot of buildings down," she said.

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.

In the city centre, the once grand Durant Hotel – named after William Durant, GM's founder – is a symbol of the city's decline, said Mr Kildee. The large building has been empty since 1973, roughly when Flint's decline began.

Regarded as a model city in the motor industry's boom years, Flint may once again be emulated, though for very different reasons.

But 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.

Flint's recovery efforts have been helped by a new state law passed a few years ago which allowed local governments to buy up empty properties very cheaply.

They could then knock them down or sell them on to owners who will occupy them. The city wants to specialise in health and education services, both areas which cannot easily be relocated abroad.

The local authority has restored the city's attractive but formerly deserted centre but has pulled down 1,100 abandoned homes in outlying areas.

Mr Kildee estimated another 3,000 needed to be demolished, although the city boundaries will remain the same.

Already, some streets peter out into woods or meadows, no trace remaining of the homes that once stood there.

Choosing which areas to knock down will be delicate but many of them were already obvious, he said.

The city is buying up houses in more affluent areas to offer people in neighbourhoods it wants to demolish. Nobody will be forced to move, said Mr Kildee.

"Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow," he said.

Mr Kildee acknowledged that some fellow Americans considered his solution "defeatist" but he insisted it was "no more defeatist than pruning an overgrown tree so it can bear fruit again".

[link to www.telegraph.co.uk]

Last Edited by mathetes on 06/12/2009 05:52 PM
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Omega

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06/12/2009 05:52 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Geezus......


Nuthin' surprises me anymore.....
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Better to take action now rather than chances later. Your choice.
mathetes  (OP)

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06/12/2009 05:55 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Geezus......


Nuthin' surprises me anymore.....
 Quoting: Omega

No doubt! Sounds almost like "make work" dig a hole and then fill it up.... repeat
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Miss Maple

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06/12/2009 05:56 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Geezus......


Nuthin' surprises me anymore.....

No doubt! Sounds almost like "make work" dig a hole and then fill it up.... repeat
 Quoting: mathetes

Unbelievable!!
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 05:57 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
AMERICA, A THIRD WORLD CESSPIT.
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 05:59 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
"they live"
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 05:59 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
This shit ain't possible.... they want to reduce the area where we can live until we're all in big cities and we depend on government...
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 05:59 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
"they live"
Is45

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06/12/2009 06:00 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Geezus......


Nuthin' surprises me anymore.....

 Quoting: Omega


GLP deleted a post of mine which gave a link
to a youtube video of a scene from the famous
1915 motion picture, Birth of a Nation.
The scene was of all the perversion and chaos
in government once the savages and perverts
took over.


Now I know why GLP deleted it. It hit too close to home.



~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beyond, There Be Dragons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:06 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
YAY! more contracts for caterpiller!

and where will the people go who live in those neighborhoods?
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:09 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
And with homeless people this makes less sense. Obama is an FAIL.
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:13 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
YAY! more contracts for caterpiller!

and where will the people go who live in those neighborhoods?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 684576
maybe they intend to bulldoze them as well. anything is possible these days.
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:13 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
"The city is buying up houses in more affluent areas to offer people in neighbourhoods it wants to demolish. Nobody will be forced to move, said Mr Kildee."

gotta love that last name. so is he saying that the poor being shoveled out will be able to afford rent in the more affluent neighborhoods? or is he saying that people can still live in the nature once the town is bulldozed?
saying that the town will be bulldozed but people aren't being forced to move is an odd sentence.
Camp FEMA
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06/12/2009 06:14 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
This is the preface to rounding up the inmates for Camp FEMA.
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:14 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
change you can believe in, from cities to towns! chuckle
Miss Maple

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06/12/2009 06:15 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
He's worrying about diggin holes and there's Kimmy the lunatic, who probably has and H bomb! Oh wait, he's really not the president anyway. NO BIRTH CERTIFICATE!

Last Edited by Miss Maple on 06/12/2009 06:15 PM
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:16 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
YAY! more contracts for caterpiller!

and where will the people go who live in those neighborhoods?
maybe they intend to bulldoze them as well. anything is possible these days.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 682487


[link to www.democracynow.org]

Now, her family is suing the State of Israel and Caterpillar–the U.S. firm that manufactured the bulldozer that crushed her. We speak with Rachel Corrie’s father and older sister and the attorney representing them in the suit against Caterpillar.
ALeopardSanctuary

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06/12/2009 06:20 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
That particular plan to give to nature for something to be able to bear fruit might be wonderful idea. Areas without the buzz of green have no harmony and attract no oxygen. Humans don't take up oxygen. The cement kills the oxygen and energy though.
They need gardens all around a city and proper planning for locavorism food and every other benefit.
Brother sun, intuition moon. Home at the forest.

Sure every post I have mentions goat blood...How do you think we get plasma tv's?

Organic needs are being assaulted. I'm not amused by this & encourage all to grow heirloom seed for themselves.

The garden gives greatest power.
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Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:21 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
This shit ain't possible.... they want to reduce the area where we can live until we're all in big cities and we depend on government...
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 701309



they did that when they implemented a minimum amount of time a woman could get assistance for children. It meant that all those rural homeowners had to move to the city to start finding descent wages to actually raise a family.

it's an evil plot to make land grabs available for the wealthy and the internationalists...and I think Hulu is behind it all
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:23 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
That particular plan to give to nature for something to be able to bear fruit might be wonderful idea.
 Quoting: ALeopardSanctuary


if that's their true intention. what about the people living there?
jarha

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06/12/2009 06:26 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Geezus......


Nuthin' surprises me anymore.....
-------------------------------------------------------------​-
No doubt! Sounds almost like "make work" dig a hole and then fill it up.... repeat
 Quoting: mathetes

"dig a hole and then fill it up.... repeat"

First they will fill the hole with LIME,

then they will put LIME over.
Pheenix11

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06/12/2009 06:26 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
I think this is a great idea, I'm all for it.

Can we start with Washington DC and the Wall Street area of NYC?
S. * M.
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06/12/2009 06:27 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
I agree with some things in the article. We have to see growth differently. Bigger is not better all the time. Tear it down and give it back to nature. Its gonna happen anyway. Why postpone the inevitable.


Maybe instead of being a city of industry it can become a city of art and beauty and culture. Its a lot cleaner anyway.


*



---V---
jarha

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06/12/2009 06:29 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
He's worrying about diggin holes and there's Kimmy the lunatic, who probably has and H bomb! Oh wait, he's really not the president anyway. NO BIRTH CERTIFICATE!
 Quoting: Miss Maple

You got it Right!
tb
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06/12/2009 06:29 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
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.

 Quoting: mathetes

can you say ghetto?
.
Avian

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06/12/2009 06:30 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Stalin is looking more moderate by the hour

lock and load
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."
- Frédéric Bastiat

food, water, ammo, weapons, battery back up solar, hand well pump, wood stove and 1 year of food...oh yeah PM's too...good luck
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:31 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Right on track for Engine UN Alternative 21 Agenda, "The Rewilding of America."

As storm continue to destroy neighborhoods of foreclosed housing, wanna bet that foreclosed housing never get rebuilt?
Wraithwynd

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06/12/2009 06:31 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Population nearly halved.

Great so there is about half an empty city.

They should disassemble the area, haul out all of the usable recyclable material, replant the area in native flora and native fauna will return.

Around here in California a few of the 'new' suburban sprawl areas either were dead upon birth (the bottom dropped out of the housing market while they were being built) or have been perpetually "For Sale".

These houses - heck whole neighborhoods are sitting empty, weeds up to a giraffe's shoulder, kids busting out windows, drug users/dealers/makers taking advantage of a 'quiet' neighborhood.

Last week in the local newspaper (a free weekly periodical) a young woman (17 years of age) was gang rapped in one of these houses in an abandoned neighborhood.

Closer to home, 10 years ago they build these huge ugly cheap houses taking out a vineyard and an almond orchard - at least 1/4 to 1/3 of those houses sit empty with another 1/4 with big for sale signs in front.

If these suburban 'people farms' are sitting around empty with no buyers, then they should be removed.

The worst part is that these new houses have a short lifespan when taken care of, with no one taking care of them they are bound to have a shorter life span.
Sinkhole list:
Thread: Sinkholes Updated 28 Dec 2010
find a sinkhole, add it to this thread, please.

"Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." (1 John 3:15, NKJV).
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:32 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
They call it "REWILDING".... the economy is a good excuse as they plan on doing it anyway.

Look it up... part of the NWO plan!
Anonymous Coward
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06/12/2009 06:35 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Some idiot said the evil elites would build a wall around the cities and non-compliant folks would be starving outside.

No! They'll just pull the city inward like some giant clenching asshole and anyone left on the periphery is obviously "a loner" and so the polarization will be slow, painful and absolute.

If Grampa Jones wants to keep his home when all others are being razed for a superhighway, we'll be way past caring at that point. Grampa, just stfu already and accept your nice bunk in the shelter.
jarha

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06/12/2009 06:36 PM
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
That particular plan to give to nature for something to be able to bear fruit might be wonderful idea. Areas without the buzz of green have no harmony and attract no oxygen. Humans don't take up oxygen. The cement kills the oxygen and energy though.
They need gardens all around a city and proper planning for locavorism food and every other benefit.
 Quoting: ALeopardSanctuary

Yeah, Something Like:

"YOU WILL EAT WHAT WE WILL TELL YOU,"

"YOU WILL EAT WHEN WE WILL TELL YOU!"





GLP