New statistics indicate that over 20 percent of Detroit is standing empty. One in 5 homes is abandoned or foreclosed on or both. And that is just one of many statistics that are so far over the top about the once-prosperous metropolis that they almost seem surreal. So it may come as no real surprise that the next step in the saga for Detroit is careful, contemplative, strategic destruction.
Turns out, Detroit officials have actually been considering reverting large swaths of the city back to farmland since the early 1990’s. Fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace empty neighborhoods, and the newly minimized metropolitan area would actually benefit, argue many urban development experts, because the people would be living in more concentrated patterns that would allow them to make better, more effective use of public services like transportation. Sound unthinkable? It certainly did to most Detroit natives until now.
“Things that were unthinkable and now becoming thinkable,” said James W. Hughes, dean of the School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, in an interview with a member of the associated press.
However, even for people who think the idea of downsizing Detroit is a good idea, the methods behind the process are frightening and unclear. This raises a lot of issues for real estate investors, who own or are at least considering investing in many of the properties in the area that are available for pennies on the dollar or, in some cases, fractions of pennies on the dollar. What happens to the owners? Do they receive a payment for the loss of their homes? And if you are invested in the area, do you also, or do you fall victim to a sweeping act of eminent domain by the local, state or federal government? And what does it mean for other areas that are currently in serious economic distress? Can the members of the city vote the investors out?
Other, smaller cities have made downsizing and shrinking work for them. Youngstown, Ohio is a good example. But while most of the news from that area is good when it comes to the results and ramifications of deliberate downsizing, you don’t hear much from the owners of the properties – and they have to be out there somewhere – that were demolished.
I want to know what happens – and what the precedents that will be set if this goes through will mean for investors everywhere.
This is absolutely nuts. I need to swing through there next time I’m up in that region. I can’t even imagine a city like that. I knew it was bad, but had no idea it was that bad.
This is a strong example of the Progressive/Marxist push being waged by the metropolitan governments across the country. The government is using dictatorial powers more and more as the only real interest they are showing is to have more power, and more taxes.
It will be very cute to see the little serfs out in the fields the Gardening Czar allows to be out there working and being told how very nice the government is by allowing people to work on their (the government’s) land!
I recently listened to a very long, very Marxist presentation about this very subject and when I asked even the basic questions about what gave the government the right to decide what should be destroyed, and yes they wanted to use emminent domain to do it., I was told it would be a panel of appointed experts! Unfortunately I could get no information about what made one an expert of any examples of who they would be. This is an active program, not a suggested one in Philidelphia.
This is nothing more than one more power grab and in this case a land grab to steal any ability to make wealth or a free life in the private sector. There is an active effort across the country to do this and is being presented as the salvation of the big cities, it is nothing of the kind! It is theft, enslavement and one more big lie about how it is going to help us out of our woes. Now they want to have a government ID card to help with the illegals. Soon it will be a government stamp on our ass as we come out of the womb!
It is a part of natural evolution –
One of the ideas involved in the concept of entropy is that nature tends to decay.
It’s time to go back and watch “1984″ and “Animal Farm”. Seems our “science fiction” movies were far more accurate than most anyone thought.
Power, centrally concentrated .. and controlled by people who are convinced it is their duty, right, and obligation to lord over others, is exactly what the framers of our Constitution were trying to keep out of America. But today, the 3 branches of government are essentially conspiring against the one thing that protects our God given rights.. the Constitution and the Bill of Rights attached thereto.
Tyranny is the normal condition.. and America has fought it off for a long time. But today, the threat comes from within and is intent on destroying freedom, and naturally the free enterprise system that it naturally accompanies it.
Destruction of property rights, if not stopped, will destroy freedom, liberty and the opportunity to prosper. You WILL become a subject of the State.. What the State gives, the State can take away in the blink of an eye..and do it from the business end of a rifle.
I have read of several investors having wholesale experience in this area. I can’t imagine entire blocks of homes being seized. This could be a huge opportunity to get involved with the city planners, and take a shot at being the investor that owns the homes not leveled.
You cannot get involved unless you are the friend of the people making the decisions and are on their list of approved entities given the right to buy the land and the blocks with building still standing. One should look at the approved lists, you will quickly learn private investors are not on any of those list. It is only certain non-profit corporations that oddly all have ties to Acorn, SEIU or the like, only “progressive” outfits need apply.
If you doubt this will come to fruition, look no further than Flint, another Michigan city where it is already happening! My advice to real estate investors EVERYWHERE is this: Stay away from cities that are run by these Progressive Democrats. You never know when a neighborhood that you invested in could wind up like the Fort Trumbull section of New London in my home state of Connecticut.
Most opportunities (especially Real Estate) are made thru creative cooperation…
Cities or any local government has costs to provide services…
infrastructure maintenance (such as roads, water and sewer), service (police, fire and school), bureaucratic overhead, etc…
Those costs are usually meet thru property taxes…
If you only have 5 or 10 homes in an area that had 60 or 100 actively paying tax with the remaining either abandoned or delinquent…
When you have vast areas that nobody wants to live in save a few who have lived there for years…
How to you cover the short fall?
1) Raise taxes in that area?
2) Buy out the few remaining residents and redevelop it?
a. Build new structures?
b. Create a green field which improves the living and psychological conditions of the local area – possibly increasing property values in the areas surronding…
It is easy in most states to form a not for profit company
If you help solve a problem even jaded government bureaucrats will become your friend…
As investors which would you rather be fighting a tide or riding it?
The problem with the “redevelopments so far is they all use up more tax money than they create. If you are not “progressive” (read libral/marxist) enough, you will not get your foot in the door.
This redevelopments are nothing more than thinly veiled land grabs by the government and has nothing to do with the density of service in any of these areas. Most cities just plain do not provide any service, be it fire, police or anything else to many of these areas. I cost no more extra to leave a water pipe in the ground for water service if people are living there, than it does to come through and tear everything down and throw the people living there and paying taxes.
It is simple and pure theft, nothing less and some times much more!