Remember how the backruptcy judge split General Motors into two:\u00a0 Old GM, with all the bad debt, and New GM, with eveything else?\u00a0 <\/p>\n
My current \u201cBig Idea\u201d solution for Detroit involves much the same concept:\u00a0 \u201cOld Detroit\u201d and \u201cNew Detroit.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, party I mean that the bad debt is hived off onto Old Detroit (good luck collecting it!).\u00a0 But I also mean a physical redrawing of boundaries, creating a city with the business district, the stadiums, theaters (I think there\u2019s still more than one theater), museums and universities, plus those (small number of ) neighborhoods which continue to be viable and stable (or stable-ish), and a certain proportion of the not-so-viable neighborhoods, to the extent that this carved-out city can provide city services to them without shortchanging the functional neighborhoods, and based on continguity and social stability (e.g., a block club, neighborhood watch, etc.).\u00a0 New Detroit gets to shed its debt to Old Detroit, and starts fresh, with its employees participating in Social Security and 401(k)s, and with an independent city government but with the state keeping a close eye for any sign of corruption or incompetence.<\/p>\n
What happens to Old Detroit?\u00a0 Basically, Old Detroit is de-incorporated.\u00a0 The state\/county provide police and fire services, as well as social services to its residents, in the manner of a colony, really, without self-rule, or a territory, I suppose, prior to statehood.\u00a0 If the residents of any particular neighborhood continguous to New Detroit manage to rebuild, they can petition for annexation but in the meantime, New Detroit has a fighting chance to survive if it\u2019s not burdened with a disproportionate number of neighborhoods with deep pathologies and no tax revenue to fund those pathologies.<\/p>\n
Yes, I know this is a really fringe idea \u2014 and I\u2019m just mentally playing with it, so don\u2019t get started on \u201cright wing crazies\u201d \u2014 but the same old ideas (one big redevelopment project after then next) haven\u2019t worked, so don\u2019t we need to try something new?<\/p>\n
Of course, back on Planet Earth, the first thing I\u2019d do is put a stop to every last big tax-subsidized redevelopment idea and plow any money as does exist into basics like police and fire protection!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Remember how the backruptcy judge split General Motors into two:\u00a0 Old GM, with all the bad debt, and New GM, with eveything else?\u00a0 My current \u201cBig Idea\u201d solution for Detroit involves much the same concept:\u00a0 \u201cOld Detroit\u201d and \u201cNew Detroit.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, party I mean that the bad debt is hived off onto Old Detroit (good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n