an overgrown tree

[samueljl]

So, I read this article today, and it sorta blew my mind a little. Not that it should.

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...

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now

Comments

[alphasarah]

We are one of the cities on that list, I'm sure. The mayor has a 5000 in 5 plan (I think those are the numbers...). He wants to raze thousands of vacant, dilapidated houses.

Unfortunately, that means that much of the character of the residential architecture in the city center is being lost. There's a lot of interesting commentary on this process in Buffalo in particular here.

[errforce1]

There was an interesting article in Harper's last year by Rebecca Solnit--suggesting that this phenomenon was already underway in Detroit, like it or not, and exploring what it meant.

[manda_x]

Have not had a chance to look at Erik's link yet, but will; was going to comment on Detroit anyway, so here goes. Essentially, yes, this is happening already, naturally. It would be far better if it happened in a more organized fashion, though, for a lot of reasons: First, it'd be preferable for land to actually go entirely back to nature, as opposed to nature sprouting up around the remains of abandoned houses, which tend to be havens for criminal activity and vermin, become general safety hazards to curious kids, and so forth. Secondly, if we could manage what Flint seems to be attempting, which is to create a neighborhoods interspersed with green space, that'd be much more ideal than randomly distributed houses isolated from each other by the vacant lots. The enhanced sense of community, and improved ability to provide services in an efficient way, would be well worth it