Planned Shrinkage Floated as Option for Flint MI Decline

Cities all across the midwestern U.S. are grappling with too many foreclosures. Many cities are witnessing the kind of urban blight in which entire blocks are swallowed by vandalized vacant properties, squatters, and meth labs. In some very large cities like Cleveland, entire neighborhoods are rapidly falling into decay.

Flint Michigan has a lot of experience with urban blight. Michael Moore's film Roger and Me chronicled the steady decline of the city of Flint after General Motors CEO closed several plants there in the 1980s, including the wave of foreclosures and evictions that followed the loss of that city's 30,000 auto manufacturing jobs.

Now a movement is taking hold to tear big portions of Flint down and condense the population into a few viable areas. Instead of waiting for decay to happen, or trying to revitalize a city with an eroding tax base, the new idea is to get ahead of the current downturn by buying up the occupied homes in depressed Flint neighborhoods, relocating the occupants, then tearing down the ugliest areas until the city looks good again.

Flint was suffering before the current economic downturn, but like most cities in Michigan, Flint has been damaged even more in recent years. The city currently has a $15 million  budget deficit, and is laying off police and firefighters and cutting other essential services.

According to a recent New York Times article on the new plan for Flint:

'Sunshine Ceramics' in Flint, MI. Photo by NESJumpman at Flickr.com

"Planned shrinkage became a workable concept in Michigan a few years ago, when the state changed its laws regarding properties foreclosed for delinquent taxes. Before, these buildings and land tended to become mired in legal limbo, contributing to blight. Now they quickly become the domain of county land banks, giving communities a powerful tool for change."

Inner Detroit is an area that was famously destroyed by this 'legal limbo' type of blight. While Detroit may not be a good choice for radical planned shrinkage, smaller rustbelt cities might.

“A lot of people remember the past, when we were a successful city that others looked to as a model, and they hope. But you can’t base government policy on hope,” said Jim Ananich, president of the Flint City Council. “We have to do something drastic.”

Anyone interesting in buying foreclosed property in depressed areas in the midwest would be well-advised to understand neighborhoods and trends very, very well before taking the plunge.

Even Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, while pushing hard for green energy jobs to replace to replace jobs being lost in the auto industry, admits when pushed that Michigan will likely emerge from these huge changes as a smaller place. In a recent interview on National Public Radio, Granholm conceded,

"Well, it [Michigan] may be a smaller state. I don't think people disagree with that. However I do think that because of the resources and the talent we have, the university system that we have it will come back."

A study done by research group Global Insight predicted the state of Michigan will not return to full industrial output until 2014 at the earliest; years behind the rest of the United States.