NFR - A scary and depressing read

[finnster01]

I must say I find this whole topic fascinating as I had never thought of it like that. The whole notion of bulldozing large areas and introducing Urban farms is pretty cool. It is sort of a reverse urbanization which is contrary to what has been going on in the world since the industrial revolution.

Kind of blows my mind, but makes sense from a cost perspective. I wonder if you take away the expense of the social services provided to the 1/3rd of Detroit in question, invest that money in bulldozing it down and build large farms on the land, creating jobs in the process yet saving on servicing (assuming very few people actually live on the farm), how long would it take to break even?

The other 2/3rds of Detroit will producing an increase in housing costs, giving the city more taxes and the house value of the people already living there will go up, giving them more money to spend and the City can collect more sales tax...

My head is spinning  :029:, I wish I had SimCity and Detroit accurately modeled on my computer right now...

[The Equalizer]

Detroit is a sh!t hole! They should do everyone a favor and burn it to the ground and start all over again.

You been watching too much Robocop mate?

[Logicalman]

As Mr Hat correctly pointed out, Detroit was hit with the efflux of monies and jobs, and with the disruption inside of the motor industry (both commercial and private) it has allowed the companies to move to less union-friendly areas and finally rid themselves of costly and redundant work-rules that serve nobody but the union masters at the end of the day. Detroit and Michigan are not the only ones to see this motor industry move, though Detroit really has less other opportunities available to it to maintain its size.

I can understand the reasoning of the Mayor, and I have little doubt that his intentions are of the highest moral base, but I just cannot see how he will accomplish this in the short term, and it's the short term he needs to get things turned around in. It was a weird but learning curve weekend for me this past weekend. Visiting folks in Holland, MI, I joined my brother-in-law and niece-in-law at a homeless mission in Grand Rapids (one of the other large cities hit so hard by the downturn in Michigan) to serve the regular weekly hot meal. Looking at some of the 'regulars' there is quite head-turning. I noticed one lady, seemed around mid-forties, her hair was permed, she had nice, warm, winter clothes on, and appeared almost out of character in the place. When I asked the pastor about her, and others like her, he simply explained that so many people here live so close to the mark, and losing your income can easily mean you are out on the street in a fortnight! It was a shock to hear, but as I looked at it more and more, it became the reality of what life is like in a lot of big US Cities. Little to do with politics, just plain old society, nothing more.

I applaud this Mayor for doing what he believes is right, I wish him all the best, and I hope that none of us on this MB ever live to become entangled or the victims in such schemes.