GOODBYE DETROIT: The Bulldozing And Burning of Detroit

As a town in which the inhabitants fled to escape an apocalyptic catastrophe leaving they're very possessions behind, is Detroit. Abandoned. Streets and buildings scattered with the debris of personal belongings left behind as if the inhabitants fled for their very lives. The conditions are reminiscent of the Titanic lying on the ocean floor. Photographs, shoes and children's dolls litter the landscape in piles of debris. And the houses, the family homes where the Christmas tree had once stood in the window, the lawns neatly cut, now stand deserted and delapitated, shells of what once was. Detroit, the once grand American city, the home of the once thriving American auto industry has fallen. It did not happen overnight, but over the last four decades. Slowly breaking away, bit by bit. Little by little, Americans stopped honoring the rule of buy products (and automobiles) made in the USA. Little by little, America increased it's trade with foreign automotive industries. Little by little, automobile manufacturing was outsourced to other countries as well as to non-union companies paying far less in wages outside the city of Detroit. When the jobs left, the people left. Their homes were foreclosed, they moved on in search of work, just as the "Okies" did in the dust-bowl days. They left behind their homes. Homes that had no buyers. Homes that stood empty. Dilapidated homes.

With a dwindling tax base, loss of half the former population of the 1950's and 45% unemployment, there are no buyers for the over 90,000 unoccupied homes, let alone no funds to improve the homes. In some areas, there are only one to two occupied homes per city block. The vacant homes and structures daily fall victim to arson. Over 500 arson fires are set in the city of Detroit per month. The cost of extinguishing the fires has become prohibitive. The danger factor for the firemen dispatched to fight the fires has become extensive. Worthless, dilapidated, abandoned homes are not worth time, safety and cost. The Detroit Fire Commissioner, Donald Austin has suggested that it be wiser for the sake of cost and safety, to allow some vacant structures to burn when set on fire by arsonists. He has suggested the fire department handle the fire as a controlled burn, rather than extinguish the fire and leave a half burnt down shell that poses the danger of an unpredicted collapse.

In 2010, Detroit Mayor, Dave Bing, proposed a radical plan to bulldoze a quarter of the city, in the way of abandoned, foreclosed homes, turning it back into pre-1950's farmland. Several other cities within the United States have already instituted this program in conjunction with the banks that hold title to the dilapidated homes. Flint, Michigan, Cleavland, Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois are just a few towns in which banks are demolishing homes in conjunction with city government, rather than placing them for sale. These burned out homes in Detroit have become safe havens for gangs. In the case of the carjacking, beating and murder of 21-year old Matt Landry, the murderers took him to one of these homes, scheduled for demolition, to murder him. These conditions are not new in Detroit, but now far more wide spread. Just as in the movie "8 Mile", filmed in 2001-2002, a child was taken to one of these abandoned homes to rape her, followed by youth torching the home. Yes, this was just a movie, but it seems that fact is following fiction with these abandoned homes being used by thugs as an open door to commit crimes. If there had been nowhere to take Matt Landry to kill him, perhaps he would still be alive.

But what about those homes still occupied remaining in the abandoned neighborhoods scheduled for demolition?The law of Eminent Domain would come into affect to force the remaining families from they're homes, paying the "Fair Market Value" for they're homes. Unfortunately, given the market in Detroit, these families might only receive as little as $1,000 for they're "roof over their heads" that may have been paid for free and clear. While bulldozing may help to alleviate the arson problem as well as the supply and demand problem, it may cause a hardship for those barely hanging on.

Detroit, dubbed one of the once thriving U.S. cities due to manufacturing is now referred to one as one of the cities in the "Rust Belt". The Rust Belt consists of cities in which once great manufacturing industries thrived but have dismantled and fallen to economic poverty due to the careless U.S. trade policies.

The housing bubble burst of 2008 was just a symptom of artificial economic stimulation through non-qualifying mortgages being approved and dispersed. The bigger problem, such as Detroit is facing is the loss of the manufacturing industry to other countries. With no jobs, the mortgagee cannot pay the mortgage and the home falls into foreclosure. With this being rampant in Detroit, the only avenue to take is to bulldoze the dilapidated homes. This may be just the beginning ripple effect. The initially hit of course would be the "Rust Belt". But what about the West Coast, the East Coast? Are they next? What will we as a country substitute the now departed manufacturing industry with?