Just wait....

...someone in Houston, somewhere, is going to anoint urban downsizing as Houston's next step toward "world classiness".

(Detroit looks at downsizing to save city, David Runk, AP via The Washington Post, 03/09/10)

Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

What's going to be overlooked by all of the enthusiastic, twenty-something, urban-planners with greenscapes on their minds and fancy maps erupting from their MacBooks is this:

Step One: Destroy your base economy.

I wish Detroit and the other cities luck, but I hope Houston doesn't follow them.