Rebuild rather than downsize

Potentially answering our question on whether Detroit will downsize or stay stretched, in today's News (http://detnews.com/article/20090423/POLITICS02/904230393/Bing+plans+to+rebuild+Detroit+s+vacated+areas), Dave Bing proposes to rebuild the vacated areas, although he does allow for some clearing. He doesn't mention anything about farms or parks though (speaking of parks, I read a troubling article about the dilapidated state of our parks due to low state funding; here it is: http://detnews.com/article/20090423/METRO/904230341/1409/METRO/Crumbling+state+parks+threaten+tourism; speaking of low state funding, here is a disturbing article about how U of M is thinking of going private due to low state funding - http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1893286,00.html - that would be horrible!).

Here is the highlight:

"Estimating there are about 70,000 parcels of vacant land citywide, Bing said his first priorities are to clear land near and around schools, churches and senior citizen complexes. He would eventually create areas similar to what people have come to expect in some suburban communities. "A lot of people who moved out of the city are middle-class people, and I don't think a lot of them feel we've got the communities they like to live in," Bing told The Detroit News editorial board. "Wouldn't it be great if we could look at some of this vacant land to build a city within a city? "