Detroit's land is huge and the population isn't. There's a lot of space and not enough coverage. Mayor Dave Bing sees that and is looking to enact a plan to address this problem from a governmental level.
Excerpt:
The mayor is looking to the diminished tally, down from 951,270 in
2000, as a benchmark in his bid to reshape Detroit's government,
finances and perhaps even its geography to reflect its smaller
population and tax base. That means, in part, cutting city services and
laying off workers.
His
approach to the census is a product of not only budget constraints but
also a new, more modest view of the city's prospects. "We've got to
pick those core communities, those core neighborhoods" to sustain and
preserve, he said at a recent public appearance, adding: "That's
something that's possible here in Detroit."
Unlike his predecessors, Mr. Bing, a Democrat first elected last
year to finish the term of disgraced former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick,
hasn't touted big development plans or talked of a "renaissance."
Instead, he is trying to prepare residents for a new reality: that
Detroit—like the auto industry that propelled it for a century—will
have to get smaller before it gets bigger again.
Read the entire article
here.
Urban Planning Department head at Wayne State University, Robin Boyle, chimes in on a smaller Detroit
here for the
Freep.The
Detroit News chimes in with a few words on shrinking
here and
here.
Even
mLive got in on the game
here.
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