Flint Michigan Joins the List of Cities Embracing Planned Downsizing

From the New York Times today:

Instead of waiting for houses to become abandoned and then pulling them down,
local leaders are talking about demolishing entire blocks and even whole neighborhoods.
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.

Like Youngstown, Flint is a rust belt city with a manufacturing past experiencing a reduction in population. Also like Youngstown, the city leaders have decided to grab the bull by the horns and plan the reduction of their city.

Flint government plans to encourage people to leave streets and neighborhoods so structures can be leveled, pavement torn up and the areas returned to nature. This will allow them to concentrate population near commercial entities and concentrate their services on a smaller area. They seem to be fully prepared for the heartache this will cause but I wonder if they have counted on the sheer inertia some people have regarding their home. After all, even in Youngstown some residents refuse to leave no matter how deplorable the conditions are surrounding their home.

Flint too has its blogs and they are reporting on the Mayor's plans. This one, Come Heller High Water, has some insightful comments from readers. From those comments it's clear that some people are ready to face reality while others have a wait and see attitude. It's almost comical how relevant their comments are to what our area has faced. Should the surrounding county support mass transit and the libraries? Lay off cops and firefighters? Closing popular schools because of low attendance? We've been there and done that.

Hopefully cities like Youngstown, Flint and Buffalo can write the book on how to manage shrinkage and maintain a vibrant, relevant community. If nothing else it's good to see we're not in this alone.