Downsizing Detroit News Today

What mayor of detroit is trying to do with the city and the downsizing thing is really interesting. and nobody knows how its going to play out. in your book, you say the prospect of such a comprehensive reckoning with land use, to say the downsizing, depopulation sprawl and the future of the american city felt like an important moment one with potential application for the aging metropolises large and small which made the present day state of our union so atypically morbid. the plan could be one...

Is detroit ever going to be a manufacturing center like it was in we really dont know. i think the president pointed out, you know, hes gotten hit hard from the republicans as far as economic recovery and jobs coming back and this is what he said in the second debate and i thought it was an interesting moment of honesty about where americas sort of manufacturing jobs are going to be. lets take a listen. >> theres some jobs that are not going to come back. because theyre low wage, low skill jobs....

Just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. an auto industry back from the brink, artists and entrepreneurs and now the world series, we have been made to think detroit is undergoing a renaissance but a documentary shows us the motor city has a long and winding road to recovery. deet cline of the great american city, next on "now." ♪ leaving my homeland ♪ playing a lone hand ♪ my life begins today ♪ ♪ fly by night away from here ♪ ♪ change my life again ♪ ♪ f...

It would be an amazing ♪ effectively to clarify, turning this land over to become gardens or vacant lots i think, 40% of the real estate parcels in the city only 40% are paying taxes but detroit is 140 square miles and 40 square miles of that are vacant. >> the problem is, its not -- people think its like one chunk of vacant land the size of paris, but its spread over the city. the tricky thing is incentivizing people to move into more dense urban cores and then b, getting this vacant land awa...

Grocery chains, in the city of detroit. you have to leave the city in order to get food, produce, and -- but there is a whole foods that is opening, but the majority of people cant afford that. >> thats really for the newcomers and all the young, new excited people coming to detroit which is wonderful, but we want to make sure the rest of the detroiters who have stuck with the city for all these years dont get left behind. >> and salon article from this year speaks to that. they were in the piec...

As to places where this has worked and they can take inspiration from? >> actually, youngstown, a smaller city but with the same problem as detroit and also the same manufacturing path, steel town, et cetera, they tried to do this with very mixed results. youve got people if you dont pay them to move, where are they going to go and whats their incentive to leave. someone thats the only house on the block, mowed their lawn, manicured, proud of their home to get them to leave to go to a more dense...

Detroit. >> that is a scene from the documentary "detropia." 1930 detroit was the fastest growing city in the world. a mecca for industry and innovation, a metropolis of more than 1.5 million people. now, 82 years later it is the epitome of decline, fastest shrinking city in the country. in just ten years, from 2000 to 2010, detroit lost nearly a quarter of its population, dropping to about 713,000. left behind, abandoned buildings, shuttered factories and empty land. so many vacant lots you cou...

Of "detroit city is the place to be" due out next month. thank you for joining me and wes. we are he excited to talk about this topic underdiscussed the decline of americas great cities. rachel, there is a talk in and around the movie of ruin, to say this idea that these cities, theyre all these vacant homes artists can go there, thing are happening with food and arts and culture but the city as it is for residents, its a false narrative. that these cities really are struggling and you look at w...

Good quality of life. our story hopefully sheds light on them. >> heidi, when were talking about the narrative of detroit and the problems, theres systemic failures were looking at. this statistic was staggering, the national institute for literacy says 47% of adults living in detroit are functionally illiterate. thats half the population of the city thats functionally illiterate. theres a problem with education which leads to social mobility and economic success. >> absolutely. thats why proble...

The educational disparities, doing things like making sure the education is trained towards jobs available and making sure were putting in places where they can actually be successful in their work, thats how you increase the tax base, thats how you encourage more business to invest inside the area and address the economic disparities mitt romney is talking about without saying if we decrease taxes for the very rich somehow it will trickle down. that experiment has not worked. >> i will try to l...