Carolyn Jack
Editor and CEO, Geniocity.com
A project of The Genius Group LLC
Creative Nerve
Is tearing stuff down creative?
Flint, Mich., which vies with Cleveland for the title of Ground Zero in our current China-Syndrome economy, is apparently getting serious about plowing a lot of itself under.
The talk of physical downsizing among ailing municipalities is something of a trend now. For cities with no real hope of regaining their lost economic health – cities that have been watching their own decay and impotently wringing their hands for decades - the idea of deliberately leveling their deserted neighborhoods has begun to sound at least like something active to do. And, in the sudden bubbling of an environmentalism that had never been a burning middle-American passion until climate change literally turned up the heat, the prospect of allowing forest and prairie to bury urban dead zones has, overnight, developed appeal as both solution and absolution for embarrassing urban failures.
It seems more like capitulation than imagination for a city to declare a giant do-over and time-warp back to being a country village. The kinds of jobs available in such a place may not adequately support even the few remaining residents. And yet returning our metropolises to wilderness has a certain cleansing, Thoreau-like simplicity to it , after all the toxic messes our civilization has gotten us into.
It’s not creation. It’s not even re-creation. It’s de-creation. But the planet could certainly use the green space.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
It’s negative energy, it’s stupid. Thanks for acknowledging that there is no logic and no plan operating here. China syndrome analogy is appreciated, too.
April 26th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
I am not interested in the overtly simplistic, land use is a matter to address. If at all possible to create green space it would be wise. We all enjoy parks.
The matter is far deeper than the content of this posting. Ever heard the expression that home has lasted one hundred years it will last one hundred more? Not always true or false for that matter, things outlive useful life. Cleveland has proof of that, but we have this tendency, or at least I do, to think in ideals.
A vacant lot is not a park, but parks can or could be built from open space continuously. Its interesting because the highway can clear a path and they have, but to clear a path for parks or a natural stream that a bit harder to sell isn’t it. If the state declares eminent domain and you are in the path of the highway you leave, you get paid to leave, hey you know they have even moved homes in instances. But to create a park, no, that’s not industry is it.
Oh I got an idea, take the county parcel data and the year built field, then code it with a color. Then link it to a map. Then we could see it grow, with each decade. I would wave the magic wand if at all possible and perhaps take out the some of the 1960 and 1970? When did the first strip Mall get built? I think it was in Fairview Park. When did the last street car get ripped out?
Cleveland was once the home of a million people, some of the homes rotted away, some are still in process. We have acres of abandoned factories, we call them brown zones. There is an expression, it that of highest and best use, it is in reference to land. Look an open space…build a mall or a sub division, look an abandoned factory look away.
Wow we had billions to release into the economy, who would have thought? If we new we could then, why did we not make a plan? The people that live in pretty areas look away and they are in control.