Collapse Turning Cities into Post-Urban Wastelands

In early October, the city of Detroit received $15 million of Obama Stimulus cash, to help destitute homeowners pay their bills. Today, estimates are that the total amount of vacant land in Detroit would cover the city of Boston proper, and second only to post-Katrina New Orleans, nationally. Over 9,000 properties have been abandoned, up from 2,000 two years ago, and major supermarket chains have also fled. Taken together, these 9,000 "tax-delinquent" properties alone would entirely fill New York's Central Park.

Last week, the city held an auction to try and recoup whatever possible from the sale of these seized properties— and most of them didn't sell. Of the 1,800 which were sold (this was actually the second attempt), most went to "carpetbagger" developers from New York and California, leaving the few local residents who could pay (many who were turned away simply because they missed a registration deadline), out in the cold.

Having already been faced with this collapse, the (Michael Moore famed) city of Flint started a land bank in 2007, which allowed property owners to sell their land to a local church, for a mere dollar. The city now pays the churches to maintain the houses, or turns the empty land into parks.

New Dark Age, anyone?