Fixing the Rust Belt by Shrinking It

[iheartthed]

This blog entry posted in the Atlantic yesterday highlights the most egregious flaw with the Detroit Works project, which is that it doesn't address the actual problem:

The problem with former industrial cities that have lost population isn’t just the changing economy. It’s also a failure to address suburban sprawl.
A close look at population data reveals that, while the populations within central cities’ jurisdictional boundaries have declined substantially, their suburbs have actually grown. The result is that, if one defines "city" as the contiguous urbanized area within a metro region, regardless of political boundaries – the definition that matters to the economy and the environment – the shrinkage may vanish or be shown as far less than we think.
In short, "shrinking cities" have really been hollowing out more than shrinking. Any policy tools that fail to recognize this have little chance of improving the situation, in my opinion.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/nei...inking-it/874/

Every major city in the industrial Midwest has this problem but the situation seems most acute in Michigan cities.

So: regardless of what’s happening in the suburbs, holding on to a city’s core population appears important to overall regional success. Unfortunately, finding policy mechanisms to promote that outcome in the U.S., with our highly decentralized and fragmented patterns of municipal governance, remains a formidable challenge well beyond the scope of a brief blog post.