4.23.2009

Shrinking Cities...

We live in one. In 2007, Pittsburgh had the steepest population decline outside of cities hit by Hurricane Katrina. Ouch.

Pittsburgh's population peaked in the 1950's, hitting nearly 700,000. Today, it is around 300,000.

The list of shrinking cities is not surprising...Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, Youngstown. Former industrial powerhouses that lost their livelihoods to cheaper labor markets over seas.

Pittsburgh, however, is often lauded as a shrinking city that doesn't let its shrinking status get us down. Business Week called it one of the best places to ride out a recession. We were named at the top of the list for Best Cities by Rand McNally in 2007. However, problems that plague shrinking cities are still on the forefront of our agenda, especially now that the mayoral race is heating up. Public services such as schools, police and fire have trouble adjusting when the geographic limits remain the same, but the population has changed considerably. The school system, in particular has been fighting this for a long time.

In addition, when cities shrink, certain neighborhoods tend to become blighted. Houses are abandoned, empty lots get overgrown and filled with trash. If you travel through Homewood or the Hill District you see a lot of this. I ran across this interesting article in the New York Times today about how Flint, Michigan proposes to tackle this problem...by essentially razing whole neighborhoods and returning them to their natural state.
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At first, I thought this was an awesome idea. But there are a couple of reasons why it may not work well here. First, people do still inhabit these blighted neighborhoods. And because of the blight, their property isn't worth so much. So even if you buy it from them to get them to relocate, they will have trouble finding anything they can afford in one of the still densely populated neighborhoods. Second, is it a good idea to have large woodsy areas in the city? Would these areas become more attractive to vagrants and criminals, and would they be difficult to patrol? And third, what are the environmental ramifications for letting nature take over? Alan Weisman explores this issue in his book The World Without Us.

The difference between Pittsburgh and Flint is that we may be shrinking, but we still have a lot of appeal. Pittsburgh is an affordable place to purchase a home, we have hospitals, museums, universities and an international airport. We are close enough to the beach to vacation there and close enough to New York and DC for business people to easily travel there. It may be premature to seed over our blighted neighborhoods....we may need them for the next population boom.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello, I wanted to thank you for mentioning Flint, Michigan, in your recent blog post.

I wanted to point out that while it's true Flint is looking at a variety of options due to the decline of the economy, housing market and auto industry, we are a community on the rebound with many positive attributes. Like Pittsburgh we have many excellent parks, museums, an international airport, four colleges and universities and cultural activities that take place throughout the year.

Our downtown also is experiencing an impressive revival with many new businesses, restaurants, apartment lofts and college-student housing being built and opened.

If you want to learn more about Flint, Mich., and the surrounding Genesee County area visit our Web site, www.visitflint.org, our chamber’s Web site, www.flintchamber.org, and our informative city Web site, www.cityofflint.com.

In addition, you can become a member of our Facebook page "Discover Flint and Genesee County Michigan" or go to our area events page at www.geneseefun.com.

Learn about the many colleges based in our town, including University of Michigan-Flint (www.umflint.edu); Baker College (www.baker.edu); Mott Community College (www.mcc.edu) and our internationally recognized engineering school Kettering University (www.kettering.edu).

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to learn more about our area.

If you are ever in Michigan, I encourage you to take a little extra time to discover Flint and Genesee County. I’m sure what you’ll find will surprise you.

Matt Bach
public relations manager
Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau
mbach@flint.travel

Michael Kelly said...

You wrote: "The difference between Pittsburgh and Flint is that we may be shrinking, but we still have a lot of appeal."

I take from this you think Flint has no appeal.

You may be well informed about Pittsburgh but it looks as if you know little of Flint. I live in Flint and we have wonderful assets; a cultural center that would rival (gasp, dare I say it?) even mighty Pittsburgh, strong colleges, excellent hospitals, and close proximity to the Great Lakes -- not to mention REALLY CHEAP real estate.

Don't fall for the illusion that declining cities are vicious wastelands. There is no shortage of folks who would make the same kind of ill-informed comment about Pittsburgh.

Anonymous said...

Flint, MI, is ahead of the curve moving towards an economy based on higher ed, culture and new forms of energy. Downtown is home to 30,000 college students, Michigan's second largest art museum, great symphony, theatre, restaurants and considered one of the best walking cities in the US.

Crissy said...

I am from Flint and I just want to reiterate the things that have been said. There are lots of good things going on here. As you know, good news is rarely reported : )

The fact is that we do have a fantastic cultural center, including an art museum (that also shows indie films), history museum, planetarium, and auditorium that features Broadway shows.

We also have several colleges, with top-notch programs. The downtown area is being transformed into a "college area" that could one day rival downtown Ann Arbor.

It does take time to change. We've made a lot of progress and we're working on making more. Check back with us in a few years and see how far we've come...