Legal Commentary

April Fools Is Early This Year?

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

The UK Daily Telegraph appears to believe that US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

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.

Not only will this not happen (outside of Flint, anyway), it’s probably backwards as increasing gas prices will drive people into city centers for shorter commutes. Only way this happens if if people instead head for exurban centers because the cities are too decrepit. But even so, there’s no way the media-savvy Obama administration will sign on to a plan with such lousy optics.

Full post as published by Discourse.net on June 19, 2009 (boomark / email).