Archives Essay

The Ideology Of Planned Shrinkage



A new game of monopoly during the days of our lives. Planned Shrinkage something that turns heads like “What is it?” A way to kick families out of their own homes and transfer them to other places so that the government makes more money off of them. Is that the way we go about getting things that we want now a days? Roger Starr feels that its ok why not you?
Roger Starr, an outspoken thinker on urban affairs who mixed an integrated a lifetime of rational research with public service and of his New York City public policy for decades. Proposing that the city should consider the limits and the movement of people from these slum neighborhoods to more concentrated areas. Responding to the decrease that troubled many areas in NYC such as The South Bronx and Harlem proposing a policy now known as "planned shrinkage." In the early 1970s, RAND performed a study that displayed how city services relate to population in a large city. They concluded that when services such as police and fire protection were withdrawn, the population in that area would decrease and lower its finances.

 In response to the Rand study addressing the shrinking population in New York City, Starr's policy of planned shrinkage to reduce the wiped out population and better preserve the tax base. Starr gave a speech at the real estate industry lodge suggesting that the city should "accelerate the drainage" calling it the worst parts of the South Bronx through a policy of "planned shrinkage." Closing subway stations, firehouses and schools were part of the proposition on the shrinkage of The South Bronx, the city was in a deep financial crisis and Starr felt these actions were the best way to save money. Starr's arguments soon became frequent in urban planning. The people who lived in the communities where his policies were applied protested, without adequate fire service and police protection they faced waves of crime and fires that left much of the South Bronx and Harlem devastated.
A public policy was made taking away necessary services of the city to keep the community balanced. Police patrols, street repairs, and garbage removal was taken from areas suffering from urban decay so that outside interests offer to start a new development in neighborhoods that have a loss population of white citizens. Causing problems with the health of the public in the communities the AIDS predicament affected african americans directly. President Nixon's Advisor sent a memo to the Administration saying “Benign Neglect” taking the stance of moving money from the inner city to the suburbs using block grants. After the neglect many houses burned down Starr chose those lands vacant until a new use could be made. New York's massive urban renewal programs were set aside as in was made vacant and gave way for highways, and other developments happening on its own the ideas that cities can shrink. Civic leaders felt that urban decline was a natural process in which the population loss would be greatest.
After World War II working for his father which was a barge business transporting an building materials on a large scale. Working with his father someone suggested Starr join the Board of Citizen Housing and Planned Council, starting his career becoming an executive director of council. Although Mr. Starr's beliefs were strong and dedicated to slum clearance, public housing and urban renewal in The South Bronx and Brownsville area Robert Moses has molded. The Bronx had up to 120,000 fires per year, percent up to 40 of the housing in the area was destroyed, a dramatic rise from 60,000 reported fires in 1960 to rates of over 120,000 per year throughout the 1970s. Residents felt the city was doing nothing to stop the fires. With the population decreasing only after two decades the city started to invest in these areas. New developments were built and each of these neighborhoods has come a long way. Bringing the people from the Brooklyn slums to the housing built in Rockaway on vacant land and then when the housing in the brooklyn slum is empty turn it to a vacant land an build better housing to make more money.
“I was one of the few outspoken people other than owners of property who was bitterly opposed to rent control, because rent control was destroying New York City's private housing stock from the middle ranges down to the lowest ranges,...” I think that rent control has a greater quality than planned shrinkage, reason being is that the shrinkage throws people out of homes rather than change up the money process. Starr completely disagrees with the ideology of the controlling of rent which doesn't bring enough trust between the money and the tenants. Seeing this as a solution to the issues, moving people from place to place. Believing those actions were saving the city's budget which was suffering at the time. In the housing business there was so much mythology that problems established on a large scale which the government programs found themselves having to take extreme measures specifically with public housing.
In Conclusion you can see we're losing our lifestyle while the housing comity begs to differ. Roger Starr proposed that limits should be considered within the slums of NYC. As RAND studied how city services relate to population in the large city that services would decrease and lower in finances. Where as the 1970's concentrated areas such as the South Bronx and Harlem were the first areas to discover the means of planned shrinkage. Practiced mostly in New York City withdrawing city services from neighborhoods suffering from poverty so that they may claim an interest for change.