In May, I wrote about how an old idea of mine had found similar thinking in others:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009Today's Detroit Free Press, a follow-up to their first story cited in my post above had this headline:
Convergence Of Ideas To Fix Detroit
Detroit has shown, through the past 4 decades, that it is incapable of governing itself as an entity over the 138 square miles. The population is too small and scattered to allow for efficient government-provided services. The break-up and rezoning alternative address the need to redistribute population into smaller, more concentrated units. The difference lies in the ability of the present Detroit government to implement successfully the rezoning concept.
Detroit is broken and broke. It grew historically through annexation of perimeter areas. The growth was based on the emerging automotive industry. As that industry has dispersed, the basis for Detroit's wealth has dispersed. The city is now at the brink of collapse along with Chrysler and General Motors.
Rezoning will not address the basic problem. The city needs to be reconstituted by shrinking and allowing the some of the perimeter areas to become annexed by other communities, forming new communities, and placing areas under state management for development into new "greenfields" or park land.
Is right-sizing the right fix?The answer is still "no" ... especially in light of the general disarray of leadership and citizenship in the city.
Strategy aims to shrink city to help solve budget issues
Tax debts, money woes hound councilStill, you have to admire some effort to recognize reality ... just not enough. Big, inefficient, corruput government isn't working for Detroit and it isn't working for America.
Members face trouble, but experts torn on what it means for city
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