Back in May I posted about the exploits of Detroit Mayor David Bing’s right-sizing of the motor city.
Mish has provided a comprehensive update including Bing’s latest plan: “to cutoff city services including road repairs, police patrols, street lights, and garbage collection in 20% of Detroit.”
Detroit city planner Karla Henderson, says, “What we have found is that even some of our stronger neighborhoods are at a tipping point with vacancy. Vacancy adds to blight and blight is a disease that takes over the whole neighborhood. So the sooner we can get those homes occupied, the better for the city.” That’s a tough prospect considering Detroit’s population has been halved since 1950.
By the way, if vacant homes are the problem reportedly America has 19 million of those.
But evidently the trimmed down police department requires new quarters so the city borrowed $100 million and to build a new station. Mayor Bing says, “The financial markets believe in what we’re doing to bring fiscal responsibility back to Detroit.”
The markets? “The city sold so-called Recovery Zone Bonds authorized under the U.S. economic-stimulus plan, borrowing at 4.55 percent,” Bloomberg reports.
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Check out Detroit Disassembled. A photographic/”artistic” record of Detroit’s decaying wasteland. Perversely fascinating.
http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Moore-Detroit-Disassembled/dp/8862081189
There are a lot of cities in the Rust Belt that have the same problem – bureaucracies don’t know how to right-size. Buffalo has some insane number of houses per year that the city buys and tears down. Huge parts of the city are essentially abandoned. Many other cities in New York and Ohio have the same issues. But God forbid that housing prices be allowed to reflect the vast excess supply. I mean, ANYBODY could own a home and pretty much pay for it in cash. Can’t have a whole generation of people mortgage free like that. They’d be too able to improve their standard of living without all that debt. Or imagine – entrepreneurs might buy a whole block up for next to nothing and – gasp – run successful, low overhead businesses. They might even employ people! Best to just tear it all down. If nothing else, it’s honest. Government is really good at wrecking things.
I’m guessing those bonds were sold as part of the Build America Bonds program which may expire soon. If so watch for muni’s to begin to fail. Don’t think the new repub house will care to prop up muni’s in the likes of Cali, Ny, Illinois etc. We’ll see some major fallout and maybe can see that a muni default may not be so bad except for the crony interests feeding of the public.
All the 100 IQ people moved out in the 70′s and 80′s. All that is left are race warriors who live off the remaining taxpayers. You want a per capital income of $300 per year? Let the parasites take over the country.
It sounds to me like 20% of Detroit is going to turn into a libertarian utopia, with no government intruding on things with such things as police patrols.
Until someone tries to actually protect their own propery, then the police will show up and jail the victim as typically happens in Michigan.
You’re probably right. The city will try to concentrate their subjects into a smaller geographical foot print, but I’ve heard nothing about the city giving up political power over the abandoned areas.
It could be the start of a libertarian utopia. If the city simply abandoned all claims political or otherwise, on large sections of the city, then people, some group, or maybe some corporation could buy it up cheap and establish a private property city. You wouldn’t even need to move out the residents that still lived in the area. They could sell to new buyers or stay with the rights of any other property owner.
But it will never happen. The present politics won’t allow it. The city will still demand control of the abandoned areas and they will become truly lawless urban jungles. The only real control that will keep the chaos from metastasizing will be the winter weather.
19 million vacant homes and who knows how many vacant rental properties. It seems we can solve our housing problem by importing 100 million people.
Good luck trying to get 100 million productive people to come to the United States.
That is also how they plan on lowering the deficit: import more people to work on the tax-farm.
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