Urban Demolition Should Be Part of the Next Economic Stimulus
Some older American cities are sick and dying. Often strategically located along waterways and important transportation infrastructure, they evolved over centuries to support U.S. heavy industry, which largely has disappeared. Also disappearing with those businesses were jobs, opportunities and people. But they left behind the wreckage of residential, commercial and industrial structures that no longer have a purpose. Cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore and Camden are struggling to reinvent themselves and start anew, but they are burdened with thousands of abandoned or deteriorated structures that breed crime, drugs and violence and form a barrier to progress.
The opportunity for such cities to reconfigure themselves for lower-density population and new economic missions is needed now. Federal economic-stimulus money can help. As Congress considers a new round of stimulus funding, it should consider the performance of the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Since becoming law on Feb. 17, only the $130-billion construction component for improving U.S. infrastructure has shown meaningful results in creating jobs and helping the U.S. economy.