Downsize Detroit: Strengthen city by phasing out depleted neighborhoods

Downsizing Detroit is no longer a question of if but when. The city cannot afford to allow the uncontrolled shrinkage and devastation of lost jobs, businesses, housing and people to continue. Detroit has to figure out how to manage itself as a smaller, stronger city, like Indianapolis, Charlotte or Denver.

Detroit faces unprecedented social, economic and political challenges by trying to shrink itself. But it also has an unparalleled opportunity to become a national leader since no other city has succeeded in downsizing. Just as Detroit was a pioneer at the dawn of the automobile age, so it can be again in our post-industrial age.

Detroit can no longer afford to provide basic services -- police, fire, sanitation and education -- to vacant and sparsely populated neighborhoods. The practice is extremely costly, much more expensive than providing the same services to fully populated areas.