Planned Shrinkage

The idea that urban decline was inevitable came about during the 1970’s by a group of wealthy men. In New York City, a public policy was made to take away city services that were necessary to keep the community stable. Services such as police patrols, street repairs, fire services, and garbage removal was withdrawn from areas suffering from urban decay. The plan was that the neighborhoods that were riddled with crime and poverty would eventually be claimed by outside interests. The new development would occur after the city would “shrink” because of population loss among mainly non-white inhabitants. The term was first used in New York City during the 70’s. Roger Starr, the Housing Commissioner of New York City in 1976 said that to react to urban decay a new policy called “Planned Shrinkage” should be proposed. Some of the areas included the South Bronx and Harlem that were “plagued” with decay. During a speech, Starr suggested closing firehouses and schools. He felt that these areas were devastated by finical problems and the best option to save money was get rid of certain programs in the inner city. But without police and fire services it left the cities with huge waves of crime and fire. By the mid 70’s the Bronx had 120,000 fires per day. Around 40 percent of the housing in the area was completely destroyed. The policy of planned shrinkage also caused problems with public health in the communities. The pattern of AIDS was affected by the program of planned shrinkage. It directly affected the African American and Hispanic communities. The constant denial of municipal services caused population density and instability for the communities. Even President Nixon's advisor on urban and social policy sent a memo stating "Benign Neglect". The Nixon Administration took this stance by shifting money from the inner city to the suburbs by using block grants. He also took apart Model Cities programs to assure "Benign Neglect". After many houses burned down, they were not rebuilt because Starr claimed that the land should lie vacant until a new use could rise. The new was industry. The fact that this hands off policy is just reacting to something that is inevitable it is seen that no one is responsible. This type of poverty is planned, and an extermination of the poor. People have the idea that lower-income individuals want their homes to look run-down and disgusting. But in reality, they do not have the money to fix up their houses. A few years ago, the walls in my room needed to be fixed. They were slanted and cracked, so my dad just put a new dry wall. It was that simple We're a middle class, suburban family. If something needs to be fixed, my dad can usually afford it. He even struggles, so to imagine a person who makes less than $30,000 a year, with more than 3 people in their home needing to fix the walls is almost unimaginable. The walls around them fall and there is not much they can do because of a system put in place by rich white men.