How I’d fix Detroit (in the continuing “if I were czar” series)

Last updated on: July 20, 2013 at 9:29 pm by Jane the Actuary

How I’d fix Detroit (in the continuing “if I were czar” series) 2013-07-20T21:29:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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Remember how the backruptcy judge split General Motors into two: Old GM, with all the bad debt, and New GM, with eveything else?

My current “Big Idea” solution for Detroit involves much the same concept: “Old Detroit” and “New Detroit.” Yes, party I mean that the bad debt is hived off onto Old Detroit (good luck collecting it!). But I also mean a physical redrawing of boundaries, creating a city with the business district, the stadiums, theaters (I think there’s still more than one theater), museums and universities, plus those (small number of ) neighborhoods which continue to be viable and stable (or stable-ish), and a certain proportion of the not-so-viable neighborhoods, to the extent that this carved-out city can provide city services to them without shortchanging the functional neighborhoods, and based on continguity and social stability (e.g., a block club, neighborhood watch, etc.). New Detroit gets to shed its debt to Old Detroit, and starts fresh, with its employees participating in Social Security and 401(k)s, and with an independent city government but with the state keeping a close eye for any sign of corruption or incompetence.

What happens to Old Detroit? Basically, Old Detroit is de-incorporated. The state/county provide police and fire services, as well as social services to its residents, in the manner of a colony, really, without self-rule, or a territory, I suppose, prior to statehood. If the residents of any particular neighborhood continguous to New Detroit manage to rebuild, they can petition for annexation but in the meantime, New Detroit has a fighting chance to survive if it’s not burdened with a disproportionate number of neighborhoods with deep pathologies and no tax revenue to fund those pathologies.

Yes, I know this is a really fringe idea — and I’m just mentally playing with it, so don’t get started on “right wing crazies” — but the same old ideas (one big redevelopment project after then next) haven’t worked, so don’t we need to try something new?

Of course, back on Planet Earth, the first thing I’d do is put a stop to every last big tax-subsidized redevelopment idea and plow any money as does exist into basics like police and fire protection!

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