Downsizing Flint

Several weeks ago I wrote that conservatives hoping to compete in the Northeast and Great Lakes states need to come up with serious plans to address their declining populations and the homes left behind.

In short, I argued that conservatives should work to accelerate the process of tearing down abandoned neighborhoods and run against the governing Democrats who have failed to address this long-festering problem.

Yesterday’s New York Times detailed innovative efforts to downsize Flint, a href="http://edpills-buyviagra.net/" style="text-decoration:none;color:#676c6c">sildenafil< Michigan. Abandoned communities in Flint and elsewhere contribute to higher crime, decreasing property values, and a smaller tax base. But this article on Flint helpfully discussed an additional burden that these abandoned neighborhoods place on communities – the continued provision of essential services to the few citizens who remain in largely empty neighborhoods.

The scope of the problem in Flint is remarkable. The last time Flint updated its master plan was in 1965. At that point, it was an industrial city of 200,000 looking to grow to 350,000. Today Flint’s population stands at 110,000.

Flint is composed of 75 neighborhoods encompassing 34 square miles. The cost to the city of policing, removing refuse, and maintaining streets and public land in vast and often empty neighborhoods is substantial, siphoning off precious tax revenue that could go toward more productive ends.

No doubt, abandoned neighborhoods in parts of Wilmington, Newark, Detroit, Rochester, Cleveland, New Haven, Hartford, and Baltimore are a similar drain on resources.

Conservatives running in these states, whether for Governor or Senate, should promise action in these abandoned neighborhoods. This might not be an argument for small-government conservatism. But these candidates could make this case as fiscal conservatives and realistic reformers who recognize that these historic decreases in population are undermining the efficient and sensible allocation of scarce government resources.