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US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

A forum for discussion of regional topics including oil depletion but also government, society, and the future.

Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby ForlornHope » Wed 01 Jul 2009, 15:36:30

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('anador', 'd')isrespecting our cities is what killed them and got us into this energy mess. It will not solve either.

Respectfully, not so. I think many a poster here fails to think in the long term. The fate of ALL cities in the end is ruins. Starting with Ur(windswept saltpan and desert today), ending with...only the gods know. Cheers
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby anador » Wed 01 Jul 2009, 16:20:32

.... those cities everywhere else in the world that have been continuously inhabited for millenia ... an obvious fluke then.....
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby ForlornHope » Wed 01 Jul 2009, 17:51:24

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('anador', '.')... those cities everywhere else in the world that have been continuously inhabited for millenia ... an obvious fluke then.....

No, not at all. There are very few that have been inhabited for millenia, by the same people. They grow, decay, lay in ruin till another people(or a later rendition of the original inhabitants) rebuild anew.(They do this because usually the previous city was located there for some beneficial reason, strategic, trade, closeness to water etc, hence rebuilt later on the exact same spot). But that hardly counts as a continous city.
Millenia(thousands of years) for a city to survive intact is a rarity. Hundreds of years, definately. In Asia there are more than a handful. In Europe some. In Africa only in Egypt, and these not continuosly. In North America, and the U.S.A. in particular, I believe the oldest Continuosly occupied city since inception is St. Augustine, Florida. And that, for only about 400 yrs give or take.
But back to the OP, its a waste to spend the effort, time, and money to do something that will naturally occur in every city...turn to ruins.
It's only in our energy intensive arrogance that we think we can overcome entrophy and natural cycles with regards to our cities.
Just some ponderings, no arguements intended.
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby anador » Wed 01 Jul 2009, 18:17:38

This is not that same thing though, What we have in this country is form based code policy nightmare that is phasing cities out of existence by CODE.

We didnt fight a war here after 1950, we didnt have a continental economic collapse, we didnt have drought, or famine, none of the traditional cycles of city abandonment and renewal have occurred here.

Look at europe and look at our continent, the cities of our country are raped destroyed and abandoned. The bloody continent that had the war is in better shape than we are their cities are clean and beautiful and people love to live in them and attract people from this country that view them as a curiousity.

And dont give me the age argument because we had thriving towns here 50 short years ago.

The only thing that changed is that we made it illegal to build anything but suburbia, our cities couldnt continue building properly, stagnated, gentrified and were destroyed by Unrealistic modernist suto utopia dreams that were not grounded in reality.
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Re: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby ForlornHope » Wed 01 Jul 2009, 19:44:31

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('anador', 'T')his is not that same thing though, What we have in this country is form based code policy nightmare that is phasing cities out of existence by CODE.

We didnt fight a war here after 1950, we didnt have a continental economic collapse, we didnt have drought, or famine, none of the traditional cycles of city abandonment and renewal have occurred here.

Look at europe and look at our continent, the cities of our country are raped destroyed and abandoned. The bloody continent that had the war is in better shape than we are their cities are clean and beautiful and people love to live in them and attract people from this country that view them as a curiousity.

And dont give me the age argument because we had thriving towns here 50 short years ago.

The only thing that changed is that we made it illegal to build anything but suburbia, our cities couldnt continue building properly, stagnated, gentrified and were destroyed by Unrealistic modernist suto utopia dreams that were not grounded in reality.


Well put. But give N. America time(a lot less time than it took in Europe I'm afraid), and you'll get raped, destroyed and abandoned cities here too.
Suburbia is a strangling force, that has not been dealt with here, obviously due to very cheap oil energy...this is about to change very quickly I think. 8O
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50 US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby lowem » Fri 24 Jul 2009, 04:24:33

globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com -> telegraph.co.uk :

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he government [is] 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 ... as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes ...


What can peakoilers say, except that we saw this coming. People leaving the cities, especially in the Detroit area. Reversal of urban sprawl. It's just that some of these structures are a bit too much of a waste to leave standing around and a bit too much of a hassle to pull down.

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Re: 50 US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby outcast » Fri 24 Jul 2009, 04:55:27

Most "cities" in the US have less than 20,000 people in them, no big loss if they go.
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Re: 50 US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby Waterthrush » Fri 24 Jul 2009, 07:05:22

I have heard this before - the idea started in some of the aging German industrial cities. It's also ongoing in Akron, OH.

But, unlike in Europe, the US's population is is not declining. So where are the displaced persons going? What I don't want to hear is that they are migrating to ever-larger cities, as poor peasants in many parts of the world do. That would be even worse!

They are not going to Detroit. We know that is declining. Chicago? I doubt they are moving to rural areas or smaller towns, but maybe. Other alternatives are that they are not moving out at all, but rather doubling up with relatives in place. But wouldn't that be captured by population counts?

Another answer, and maybe this is the most likely, is that these areas ARE more like Europe, in that they have had aging demographics for decades, and simply are reflecting the smaller number of fertile females. Which would mean that the growing populations are in the large cities of the Sunbelt?

This subject fascinates me. How can the "return of land to nature" be well managed? Michigan was once a land of abundant mammals like beaver and mink, as well as a good source of timber and tree fruits. Would it be possible to find a sustainable, nature-friendly economy at a lower level of population?
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Re: 50 US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby outcast » Fri 24 Jul 2009, 11:40:25

They'll go to other tiny cities. Take for example the city of Happy Valley in Oregon. As of 2000, it only had 4,519 people (according to wikipedia). This is a city, and there are dozens more like it just in the state of Oregon. Just because someone says "city" in the US doesn't mean they are referring to a major metropolis like Chicago.

Edit: Here's another example in the same county, Estacada, population in '07 was 2,695, it is also a city.
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Re: 50 US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby frankthetank » Fri 24 Jul 2009, 13:39:20

Michigan still does produce a ton of different fruits... Its actually a very good area for the peak oil doomer, except for the long cloudy winters (although mild given Lake Michgian warming effects.)
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Re: 50 US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby lowem » Fri 24 Jul 2009, 18:36:13

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('outcast', 'T')hey'll go to other tiny cities. Take for example the city of Happy Valley in Oregon. As of 2000, it only had 4,519 people (according to wikipedia). This is a city, and there are dozens more like it just in the state of Oregon. Just because someone says "city" in the US doesn't mean they are referring to a major metropolis like Chicago.


That's news to me. I've always thought that a city should have at least 100,000 people, and anything smaller is called a town.

I live in a place with a population of almost 140,000 and they call it "Sengkang New Town". I'd suppose definitions of "town" and "city" vary around the world.
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Re: 50 US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby outcast » Fri 24 Jul 2009, 23:32:07

Well in my experience the vast majority of "cities" in the US are really small, like Happy Valley. In fact there are several tiny cities like that in Clackamas County.
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Re: 50 US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Unread postby eastbay » Sat 25 Jul 2009, 03:07:47

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lowem', '
')I live in a place with a population of almost 140,000 and they call it "Sengkang New Town". I'd suppose definitions of "town" and "city" vary around the world.



And it features a very nice swimming park. :) Last month I went down each water slide except the crazy claustrophobic one sending people down a long tunnel.
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