The Free Press says the Bing administration is to be applauded for recognizing that it no longer has the resources to provide city services to neighborhoods whose population density has dwindled, in some instances, to that more commonly associated with rural areas.
The paper's Cecil Angel reported in a front-page story Sunday that the city is withdrawing services and grants to neighborhoods that have declined to the point where nothing can save them.
In today's editorial, the Free Press says attempts to provide uniform services and redevelopment tools in every neighborhood will guarantee only that no neighborhood receives even minimally adequate support. The better option is to concentrate the city's scarce resources in areas where it is most likely to sustain or boost property values -- and ultimately generate the new revenue required to return Detroit to solvency.
The city's Detroit Works project is in the process of hosting community meetings to discuss its long-range plans for the city and its rationale for distinguishing distressed and transitional neighborhoods from steady and varied ones. Mayor Dave Bing has repeatedly assured Detroiters that residents will not be forced out of any neighborhood. But in strategically abandoning the most blighted areas to the mercy of market forces, his administration has made it clear that remaining in such places will become an increasingly untenable option.
