Obama tries his hand at urban planning
The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.
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Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.
Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.
Cities come and cities go, but you can bet that when government starts managing the footprint, bad things will follow. I’ve got to run, so I’m not going to hunt for data for that last statement, but I bet I could come up with some data pretty quick. (American Thinker has already started exposing the flaws in this little plan, though.)
