Cash strapped Detroit has lost 60 percent of its population since 1950. What's left is a sprawling mass of vacant, worthless homes stripped of copper and anything else worthwhile.



Does it make sense to have streetlight in these areas? What about paving cracked sidewalks? What about other services? Is anything salvageable?



To save money, huge sections of the city will be left to the rats. Then again, 40% of Detroit's streetlights do not work already. By that measure, the city has long ago been left to the rats.



Bloomberg reports Half of Detroit’s Streetlights May Go Out as City Shrinks.



Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights.



As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing’s plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year.



“You have to identify those neighborhoods where you want to concentrate your population,” said Chris Brown, Detroit’s chief operating officer. “We’re not going to light distressed areas like we light other areas.”



Delivering services to a thinly spread population is expensive. Some 20 neighborhoods, each a square mile or more, are only 10 to 15 percent occupied, said John Mogk, a law professor at Wayne State University who specializes in urban law and policy. He said the city can’t force residents to move, and it’s almost impossible under Michigan law for the city to seize properties for development.



As Detroit’s streets go dark, some of those neighborhoods may fade away with the dying light.

Escape from New York