SUBJECT FOR A POSSIBLE DOCUMENTARY."BEYOND the MELTDOWN BEYOND famine, beyond AIDS,
TSUNAMIS AND QUAKES --- CITY COLLAPSE,
SUBURBAN DECAY and the Coming Mega Depression"With enough abandoned lots to fill the city of San Francisco, Motown
(DETROIT) is 138 square miles divided between expanses of decay and
emptiness and tracts of still-functioning communities and commercial
areas. Close to six barren acres of an estimated 17,000 have already
been turned into 500 "mini- farms," demonstrating the lengths to which
planners will go to make land productive.The city, like the automakers, has to shrink to match what's left, said
June Thomas, a professor of urban and regional planning at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "The issue is how," she said.
"There's no vision.""People are moving out of the city, trying to find work," said David
Martin of Wayne State University's Urban Safety Program. Those who stay
"can't afford to move out.""Property abandonment is getting so bad in Flint that some in government
are talking about an extreme measure that was once unthinkable -
shutting down portions of the city, officially abandoning them and
cutting off police and fire service. . [Mayor] Brown said that as more
people abandon homes, eating away at the city's tax base and creating
more blight, the city might need to examine "shutting down quadrants of
the city where we (wouldn't) provide services." He did not define what
that could mean - bulldozing abandoned areas, simply leaving the vacant
homes to rot or some other idea entirely.""Cul-de-sac neighborhoods once filled with the sound of backyard
barbecues and playing children are falling silent. Communities like Elk
Grove, Calif., and Windy Ridge, N.C., are slowly turning into ghost
towns with overgrown lawns, vacant strip malls and squatters camping in
empty homes.""In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is
shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging
markets (and only in emerging markets): South Korea (1997), Malaysia
(1998), Russia and Argentina (time and again). . But there's a deeper
and more disturbing similarity: elite business interests-financiers, in
the case of the U.S.-played a central role in creating the crisis,
making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government,
until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their
influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed, and
fast, to pull the economy out of its nosedive. The government seems
helpless, or unwilling, to act against them."If you are able to use a digital camera to make a documentary, get
a team together and do it. This film will sell to news stations, to
cable stations if edited into a cohesive story.SEE: THE VIDEO INDEX PAGE. HOW TO DO DOCS AND MAKE MONEY
THE FIX
A NY TIMES article http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/what-will-save-the-suburbs/?scp=1&sq=planning%20big%20box&st=cse
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Find a student's father to narrate the script over the final film.
Read; HOW TO DO A DIGITAL VIDEO. Read how to do
a DOCUMENTARY