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Keynes Would Be Proud: 'Blight Removal Task Force' Calls For 10% Of Detroit Homes Be Torn Down
20% of Detroit homes are in some state of disrepair and as Bloomberg reports, a much-anticipated report from the city’s Blight Removal Task Force says that about half of these should be torn down immediately. Despite Detroit home prices still rising exuberantly in March, over 40,000 structures in the bankrupt city need to be immediately destroyed and a further 44,000 demand attention. The cost of this demolition - about $800 million - which the task force hopes will come from the government.
One of the question haunting Detroit, as it works to extricate itself from bankruptcy, is how to address the reality of the city’s shrinking population. Abandoned and blighted structures across the city are the residual reminders of the decade’s long slide. Today, a much-anticipated report from the city’s Blight Removal Task Force says that more than one in five structures is in some state of disrepair—and that about half of these should be torn down immediately.
...
They found 84,641 structures and vacant lots that demand attention. About half—40,077 structures—should be torn down immediately, the group says, and the rest need further evaluation and attention.
...
It can take as little as three hours to demolish a house, but the process can be more consuming if properties contain asbestos or lead, thereby requiring extra care. Tearing down homes by the tens of thousands, which hasn’t been done before, could cost about $800 million, the report says.
The Keynesian circle is complete - government subsidized mortgages enabled everyone to own a home no matter how unaffordable and now taxpayer funds will subsidize the demolition of that American Dream. Money well spent... (must be time to build some more homes and demolish them)
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Zorg was a Keynesian.
Why dont we simply get Wall St to securitize the shit and sell it to the Fed - problem solved!
Keynes would not be caught dead in detroit., Well maybe if he was there at the wrong time in an obvious wrong place.
This is just the boost that Caterpillar needs. /s
The stuff we make today lasts about that long.
If only we made anything, anymore.
Thank JP Morgan and Dan Gilbert. We'll see what becomes of this land that they cleared for Chinese oligarchs.
In my neck o' the woods, it costs about $5-$6k to demolish the average house.
In Detroit it costs about 3x that much, maybe I'll move to Detroit and start smashing houses.
I know most contractors are pretty close in pricing across the US, give or take a little adjustment for unions states and such, so wheres the delta going.
My guess is the local politicians and bureaucrats are getting significant kickbacks.
DaddyO
I say they flood the area, and declare the houses as beached vessels, and let people salvage what they can.
Isn't there an animated feature where they sing 'the circle of life?' Money lives then dies tragically. Que Doris Day...
And so it shall be.
Buy the dip in Detroit before Blackrock does
I dipped a toe in that shithole over the weekend. Only drove down to 7 mile but then I took a little detour down a side street....I'll never do that again. The pictures on the Internet do not do this shithole justice. Truly amazing.
Since 1975, nearly 1 million structures within the city limits of Detroit have already been burned or torn down. Yet there is still so much left to demolish.....
kickbacks must be the case. . .
they need to call in these guys, or some local similars - dismantle that shit, and put it to re-use!
So this means I can purchase the house for a few
Hundred, have the Gov't bulldoze it for free, and and still have land that I could farm? This is just getting stupid folks.
Don't forget them land taxes.
Meanwhile, people are paid to put them up, people are paid to tear them down, but there ain't no way people will be allowed to live in them, not without expending the rest of their labour forever. Forget about the millions of homeless, we'll just let them houses deteriorate and then pull them down. Good thing you're not a bunch of communists - you might end up with a huge mis-allocation of capital and labour!
While we're on the subject, does anyone know the approx. man hours needed to build a house these days?
I already know it takes approx. 11 man-years to pay for one and 14 man-years to pay for the interest on one. Just trying to complete the circle.
Oh yeah, and what about the energy / resource footprint involved in the whole exercise? Not allowed to have plastic bags or incandescent bulbs, but nothing wrong with building over-priced houses and then tearing them down again when they fall apart 'cos no-one lives in them?
don't know where you live Stacks, but most city-state-properties zoned "residential" aren't going to let you "farm" any of their "land".
Michigan residents lose ‘right to farm’ in backyards, smaller propertiesDetroit doesn't realize that there's a fortune to be made from those many city blocks of abandoned homes. Hollywood could film "Escape from Detroit" there and blow up a few city blocks. New Mad Max movies could be filmed in the blighted urban landscape. Paint Ball competitions, Howitzer test play, urban tactics, rent -a-wrecking ball contests, etc. The opportunities are endless.
If you can avoid all the packs of stray dogs and unemployed UAW "workers"
"Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure...."
Might cost a little extra to remove the squatters. I don't know but 'cos I'm not from there. Just guessin'.
Or maybe it costs more because there is less stuff left to salvage.
Detroiter’s whine at Toyota drivers “you’re sending profits overseas”…..
But will welcome Chinese landlords who’ll be ‘sending the profits overseas’.
If the Chinese do buy-in they are buying in for the water access and will pipe the Detroit River right into Beijing.
Can you spot the difference?
Mayan Ruins - http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/2911714
Detroit Ruins - http://fireplacechats.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/detroit-brick-house-po...
The Mayan ruins are more inviting?
The tacos are really good too.
Well knukles there is always this eloquent display of the D!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aktLRiWXfqg
Of course there is this one that fonestar/g0atfuker sings about his bitcoins, while dancing in front of his full view mirror!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE2l6CPna4M
Sometimes a civilization just up and leaves an area. No one worries about rebuilding the houses because no one is coming back. Of course, when the houses are built from stone, they tend to last a long time.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Tikal_mayan_ruins_200...
most of those old houses are stripped and filled to the brim with either tires, or bodies. something like 15 of them can get arsoned per day there.
Which bureaucrat's brother-in-law is going to get that sweeeeet deal?
"Keynes would not be caught dead in detroit., Well maybe if he was there at the wrong time in an obvious wrong place."
Probably the only reason why an old rich gay blade like John Maynard Keynes would ever find himself in Detroit would be to find himself a hung black man in a gay bar or bathhouse? Not that there's anything wrong with that?
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/347396/keynes-was-gay-not-theres-an...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrybowyer/2013/05/12/perhaps-niall-ferguso...
"get Wall St to securitize the shit and sell it to the Fed"
Wasn't that already done? Now its time to take out the trash.
Krugman just pissed himself.
1) set up lawn chairs 30 miles from detroit epicenter.
2) invite detroit population to "zero day" party.
3) when detroit empty, nuke it gently.
4) rebuild detroit
5) repeat every 20 years
smells like a capitalist's wet dream.
Keynesian economics always provide shovel ready jobs. Once to build, once to tear down.
And always ready to shovel shit.
They will become neighborhood gardens for the revival of the local community. $800,000,000.00 can do alot of good removing those old hazardous structures and invigorate local small and disadvantaged demolition businesses.
The major small biz in D town are crack houses. NO shitty buildings, not good for the crack biz.
It takes a great deal of cash and concern to build anything. And if the residence don't really give a shit, then it is a done deal.
What the residents of Detroit need is lots of little mud and stick huts, arrainged in circles, with a village fire pit. then they can have wars with the neighboring mud hut dwellers with spears, just like they do back home. Of course, you'd have to fence the whole thing off; but it would be interesting.
Finally Ted Nugent can set up his wild safari hunting business he's always been dreaming about. They don't call him "The Motor City Madman" for no reason.
Oh, their unemployed people just need to borrow money and use the money to buy houses. Then they can all get jobs building their houses. Then they will be so rich that they might want to buy a car. Then they might build some car factories!!! "Housing-led recovery"!!! I know all about it 'cos the MSM tolled me so. My idiot pills taste especially yummy today, would you like one?
thumb up!
but where would they get the mud?
Oh yes, plenty of good things can be done with stolen money.
It's almost like someone wrote this instead:
"The ease with which the metallurgical, chemical and electric industries in America can be converted from peace to war has already been impressed upon us by bitter experience. It must also be remembered that the Americans have devastated a large portion of the industries of Europe and Asia, and it is only in accordance with justice that these injured countries should be entitled to remove the machinery they require in order to repair the losses they have suffered. The industries referred to in Detroit and in the Rust Belt would therefore be necessarily put out of action and closed down. This program for eliminating the war-making industries in Detroit and the Rust Belt is looking forward to converting America into a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in its character. The Heads of State and Bankers were in agreement upon this programme."
This guy must be MDB's long lost brother.
seriously i thought you were MillionDOllarBonus
The key is to get the task force to unionize, guarantee double pension for all, only work four hours a day and use spoons alone to demolish!
Obamanomics Bitchez - broken window fallacy on steroids!
Fuck it, while Im at it why dont I just shoot my buddy in the ass myself and club a baby seal......
When they demolished the Robert Taylor homes in Chicago a while back, the city and the great Mayor Daley required them to use wrecking balls and skid steer mounted jack hammers which took months. Could've knocked em down in seconds with explosives but that would have put a lot less union boys to work. Got to keep them Dem voters happy.
Another anecdote about city of Chicago union bureaucracy..... My dad was a local 9 right of way electicin (worked on street and stop lights). The union contract stated they were not allowed to have ratchets and sockets on their service truck. Open end and box wrenches ONLY. That was because you could make "the jobs last longer". Cannot wait for Chicago to go they way of Detroit. It can't come soon enough.
Really? I thought it already had. I don't see the ships going into the harbor anymore. The south side is completely demolished, and the rest is just welfare lands and drug dealers.
But if they tear them down how will paleontologists be able to study the decline of our civilization thusands of years from now?
Oh yeah, our NPLs, derivatives contracts and the national debt will still be on the books. My bad. Nevermind.
Redacted Archeological History
The NWO's fucking dream
they'll just say that aliens built it. the usual cover when they don't want to you know something about the past.
So I've been reading this absolutely amazing (great stuff and exceedingly well written) book on the history of Area 51. Decided something light for escapism after many weighty tomes on Quantum Mechanics...
Written by Annie Jacobson (sp?)... It all begins with the premise of how much crap goes on there and elsewhere that is not even known to anybody at the Congressional and Presidential levels... amazing stuff... all about the "need to know" doctrine of secrecy. All stems from an initial "presidential signing/finding" (now executive order) by Truman that had it's roots in... get this... the CIA and DoD's involvement in the Roswell Crash!
No shit! She doesn't go into anything about UFO's other than the so-called rumored conspiracy mumblings, connections to Area 51 (at least half-way or so through the book at least) but think about it... the whole super secrecy compartmentalized BS to hide everything from the public began, deep state roots, with Truman's signing due to Roswell.
Cool ........
Just you wait until the Annanuki come back for the rest of the gold....LOL
Krugman'll really shit himself, then!
Did it mention the secret tunnel from Area 51 to Roswell?
edit: I didn't downvote you, not that you probably care, I don't.
I saw what V'you'V{indeterminate} did there. hahahahahahahahahahaha
So you're telling me Roswell was planned by the 'deep state', in order to initiate the era of 'national security' and 'state secrets' in the post-WWII era?
No shit.
I remember on the TV series X-Files, they explored just about every scenario for aliens, UFOs etc. But was the possibility of UFOs as experimental military craft discussed? Of course not.
>>x-files
and in the end of that show, it turned out that the aliens were not aliens at all... but something rather unsavory attempting to cross over a boundary that was not meant to be crossed... same thing our ancient ancestors warned about constantly, but that most modern humans have decided, in all their 'scientific' wisdom, couldn't possibly be true...
You should probably go back and watch the show again. The entire first season was trumped by Mulder discovering that the US Military had built UFO's themselves. The whole actual alien thing came in the second season.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/luna/esp_luna_16.htm
-- But if they tear them down how will paleontologists be able to study the decline of our civilization thusands of years from now?
Easy. Those paleontologists will be our distant descendants. They will still be paying off our debt and will only need to look at their tax bills to infer majestic palaces of gold, silver, ivory, onyx and alabaster.
Now they be plenty of bricks laying around to bust out the windows in the GM Building .... go foarward with haste... !
Instead of spending 800 millions, what about selling them 50 000$ each and make 2.5 billion in the process?
Where have you been?? $50,000 for POS structure in shithole Detroit?
No, no; it's a great idea. We'll sell them to the Chinese; wiith the usual false pictures in the info. folders, of course. What do they know about Detroit? it's REAL ESTATE. I think we shold incorporate immediately and get right on this.
Yep, they love ghost cities.
You could give them away, except for the fact that because of the schools, among other things, the lots are worth only in the middle hundreds. In some cases, maybe more, depending on the neighborhood.
Should fund a new landfill or two.
I suspect that most of these houses are made of shoddy materials and that they also have been stripped for any copper etc already.
The real question is "what then?"
I got a 30 or 40 year old freezer in my apartment. Since Im only 30 years old myself i have a hard time place the exact date, however i feel confident it will outlive most new freezers that are being sold today.
Good old days huh
I hope the weather stays good so they can do this quickly. Otherwise GDP will rise too slowly.
Call in a motherfucking air strike.....napalm....scorched earth...
wait....it already IS scorched earth....
As a bonus they could then record the entire thing as if it were a military exercise, put it up on CNN under the headline "Liberation of Crimea Begins" and offer it as evidence that we're finally kicking serious ass in Ukraine. Nobody would question it.
You're in danger of becoming "cynical". just sayin.
Invite all the welfare basket cases to a "free Catfish barbecue"; bring the children !" and then drop a neutron bomb on it. Reality TV. Whoo!
Have a joint Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton/Louis Farrakhan rally on Belle Isle offering free bottles of MD 20/20 to the first 500,000 participants. Once everyone is there and the rally gets underway, blow up the Belle Isle Bridge. Since they can't swim, Detroit's problem would be solved!
Just like the CCC paying people to dig holes and then paying them to fill them in.
All of you are missing a great truth; Detroit is the safest place for your survival compound.
1. New farmland is being created daily.
2. The population already has the scavenging/escape/evade experience.
3. TPTB would never false flag it as no one would notice nor care.
4. Taxes on a 10 dollar house cannot be that high.
This reminds me of the comment made be the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch when he said he'd rather burn his unsold clothes than see homeless people wearing them. The only difference here is...none.
I have not seen anyone wear those clothes in 10 years.
Good idea; subsidize dozens of abandoned, vermin-infested wood frame derelict buildings to house all manner of street freak. Use public funds. Fill to the brim and stir vigorously.
Oh and don't neglect to mandate that they be integrated.
Pretty good analysis, only off by a decimal point...
The same company that wrote the Oblamocare web site will be doing the demo. A billion down and a billon to get it right.
Go long on CAT stock. Misery always follows this company.
Detroit: two words: Controlled burns!!! Think about the cost savings.
Think of the GDP boost if Detroit adopts France's hookers and blow model. It will make Manhattan look backwater, at least on paper.
They haven't all ready?
Maybe it's a green movement plant some green pastures of marijuana!
Pension funds solved!
Who just bought the Detroit muni bonds?
The Rothschilds.
It be fo da chillen
Huh? More dumbed down economics...why not get this subject right? It could still be interesting!
"The Keynesian circle is complete"... This is not KEYNESIAN!
When you give $800 million to developers you then call it KEYNESIAN????????????????????????????? BULLLLLLLLSHHHHIT!
Again, Huh? Spending that goes to developers and builders and investors is TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS which is the OPPOSITE of Keynesian policy.
And do I really need to tell you this, Tyler? I guess so. Generic Government Spending DOES NOT EQUAL Keynesian!
I am long time wondering why Keynes must be abused ... .
It was described to me that the ZH "inside joke" is to refer to anything done by the government based on borrowed money as being "Keynesian". But, as you know, this site is owned by a Russian fellow and Russians hate gays and Keynes was gay...you do the math.
It was Keynes who felt government spending should be used in times of economic downturn to spur the economy. How is this not Keynsian? Keynes was a fabian socialist, therefore, he believed the government should make these types of decisions. Keynes also knew the government would never pay back debt created from spending, but recommended it anyway because he was one of the Elites academic poodles.
Keynes was a tool used to fool the public and provide academic cover for the new fascism. Keynes is rotting in the deepest, darkest circle of hell and yet, it really leaves me with no sense of true justice for his actions.
Let's not forget Keynes enjoyed placing his penis in little boys; strange is it not how pedophilia recurrently runs through stories about the Elites and their machinations?
But did the fact that Keynes was gay influence his economics?
"In the long run, we're all dead." What kind of man has zero care for his future children ... why, a man who will have none! How 'bout that?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrybowyer/2013/05/12/perhaps-niall-ferguso...
If you pay attention to economic debates you know by now that a celebrity historian named Niall Ferguson made some off-hand comments at a financial conference in which he linked John Maynard Keynes’ homosexuality to some flaws in his economics
"How is this not Keynsian?" Because it is NOT you moron.
\Your sophomoric ad hominems are just a mask for your stupidity. Take a course in economics! Please!
Heh $20K a pop, actually cost about 3000 each
Just wait for Devil's Night 2014. The savages will burn quite a few down for free.
Free firework for every occasion and for years to come.
Not anymore, there's a curfew for minors. Every cop in town and some number of thousands of concerned citizen types all hang out together and protect Detroit's "housing stock". The poor misguided fools.
Boondogle
Errr Coondogle!
Don't demolish them. Just let them rot where they now stand. Ruins have a certain aesthetic all their own. If we sink old aircraft carriers to make coral reefs, why not apply the same logic here? Birds need nesting sites, foxes and raccoons need dens, deer need browse to forage in. I say just fence off some of the worst blighted neighborhoods and let nature take its course. It'll save you the $800 million.
Is that racoons or coons, because the coons are already using them as dens and we probably shouldn't promise housing for one if it is already taken...
Edit: someone must be all sensitive or something.
I'm waiting for the guy who was living in one of the "abandoned" structures to go on TV saying, "The govment tore down my house!"
Then Obama grants him a NY brownstone.
Take a perfectly livable home and move one of the Free Shit Army into it and in less than six months the structure will need to be classified as derelict.
They tear down 40k properties in Detroit and in two years they will need to tear down 40k more. The only real solution is to drop the remaining stock of daisy cutters on the city and let the Chinese start over.
Here's my prediction: when the economy crashes 0Blamm0 will EO all middle class people to allow one poor family (read: urban and minority) to live in one or more of their spare bedrooms.
How do they know you have room? Your census data:
4 bedroom and just you and the missus? You have room for 6 'guests' until the crises passes...and they already have your GPS coordinates right to your front door.
0Blam0 phone, activate! And plot us a course to our new home...
"over 40,000 structures in the bankrupt city need to be immediately destroyed and a further 44,000 demand attention. The cost of this demolition - about $800 million - which the task force hopes will come from the government."
$800,000,000.00 from us taxpayers? WTF?????????
I remember when the "citizens" of Detroit nearly burned the city in the 60's-- for FREE!
People still focusing on the smoke, not the action.
The important thing is not whether buildings are going up, or buildings coming down. The important thing is that the political class has money to spend on their friends, contributors, and family.
On its own, Detroit will be a city again, some day. Detroit is just the name, spending other people's money is the game.
$800 million of taxpayers monies required?
80,000 structures? Do the math.
Yea, no scam there.
Airstrike!
Think of all the dead bodies they'll find.
$20,000 per structure
If I lived in or near Detroit, I'd go out and buy a dump truck. Possibly even a 420 and get this show on the road.
Government is paying. It's like free money. Get in before it's gone and everyone else got theirs.
There is of course a lot of embedded energy in each structure. Somehow you have to make the materials that are salvageable available on a database level. I would suggest that the raw property has value to remaining homeowners. And if you containerized and termite treated a full and inventoried sea-train container of materials that could be shipped anywhere in the World you could off set the deconstruction costs. Each container could have a picture of the original structures enclosed as a sales tool.
See, now you're thinking like an entrepeneur - nice idea, but entrepeneurial thinking went out of style at least 6 years ago, probably a lot longer. State bureaucratic solutions are what's in today - why don't you propose setting up a new government agency to study the problem and put out a voluminous report with some recommendations and several hundred pages of draft legislation to govern the new process?
I'm sure this is mostly a Keynesian wet dream, but there are other considerations like safety... and probably most of these houses are no longer livable with the piping gutted out.
Might as well turn it into greenfield if possible.
Didn't have time to read everything, but what happened to the 330 million Obozo gave sofar? And another thing what about the Asbestos?
hey, that was my house
I guess the Chinese buyers need to get the government to clear some space for themselves.
In 2000 years time Archeologists will conclude that the worst disease known to man kind "Mortgage repossession". After finding the foundations of thousands of dwellings and in the area notices saying "due to Mortgage repossession" that clear out and must have killed all the humans from the area.
So all those abandoned ancient cities where actually the people leaving due to negative equity not natural disasters or invasion.
The single, only competant unit of government within the entire city of Detroit has been the Fire Department for well over a a generation now. This is the direct result of that sorry fact.
In July 1967 the looters and rioters were shooting at the fire fighters as they were trying to put out the fires started by the people that were trying to burn down their own neighborhoods.
Blight Removal = Bulldozers needed to cover up the financial crimes!