Barack’s Bulldozers: Rolling To A Neighborhood Near You

Like a scene from the movie “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” enter neighborhoods could be wiped off the face of the earth as part of a radical “City-Shrinking” plan being considered by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Obviously, Keanu Reeves would not be involved, though … and they would be using bulldozers instead of pirhana-like metallic insects. At least we hope so.

Dubbed, “Shrink to Survive,” the plan is to return huge swaths of urban America back to nature while focusing city populations closer to a more “manageable” center.

In fact, it’s already been attempted in Flint Michigan …

From Britain’s Telegraph UK:

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the “rust belt” of America’s Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

Alright, before we offer the reflexive anti-Green, anti-Socialist, anti-Obama talking points, we’d like to start by saying we think this is a good idea.

Wait … what?

A “good idea?”

Seriously?

Seriously.

Have you people been to Two Notch Road (in the “suburbs” of Columbia, S.C.) lately? That is some straight up urban decay, yo … and South Carolina would be infinitely better off if it was bulldozed from, say, Forest Drive all the way out to I-20.

“Hoes and all …”

Anyway, as you may have guessed already, our support of the “Shrink to Survive” movement is predicated on these government planners adopting a few things prior to revving up the bulldozers.

And since these are all pro-free market concepts that these commie greenies will obviously never adopt – we probably won’t ever end up actually supporting “Shrink to Survive.”

First of all, the fact that the Obama administration is leading the charge is a bad sign. This is something that the federal government should keep its nose out of and leave to municipalities.

Second, any sort of effort like this at the local level must be led by the private sector, not government. There’s nothing wrong with city planners being part of the process, but they should not drive it … lest it be doomed to failure from the start.

Third, private property rights must be preserved at every step of the process. That’s non-negotiable, and likely a deal-breaker for these empire-building bureaucrats.

Fourth, and finally, unless you want some West Bank-style violence going down in dozens of U.S. cities, please don’t try and use this as some class/racial resettlement plan.

We can “all get along,” but that process doesn’t start by bulldozing white projects for black condos, or vice versa …

Assuming these “urban visionaries” are copacetic with all those preconditions … then we’re all ears as to how a market-based “Shrink to Survive” might look.