Makes sense to me.

A fair part I think of Detroits decay is in more rural areas where the abandoned houses could be turned into those farms with minimal land improvement/ie clearing costs. Converting those to rental areas or the like did not look viable to me.

And converting those kinds of areas to farms or parks may be easier to deal with than big building urban decay that plagues places like the Bronx, for example.

I suppose it may in part turn on whether those lots are going for cheap enough to make farm conversions viable economically in places. The cost of leveling some of the old abandoned homes I saw on the videos shouldnt be prohibitive, and they are safety hazards anyway. Another thing is that youth programs and low cost summer jobs programs might help do some of the work.

No reason a city has to be all urbanized, and Detroit started on farming so the land should be good for it.

As for the building areas that they can reclaim somehow for things like housing and businesses what you say makes sense to me. Hopefully they will work with the landowners and builders and let the latter come up with some solutions, being flexible as you say.

If the economy does start turning there, what looks like abandoned old brick buildings could someday make units. Hey, its been done for a century, from Michigan to Upstate New York. I rented a nice brownstone apartment in Brooklyn when I worked in NYC and it was one of the best areas to live in, yet at one point it could have been rotted out. Eventually the area ended up nice garden neighborhoods with high rentals.

Just did some research on rentals and the viability of converting some of those Florida and other area big condo projects, since some are going for $.50 on the dollar. Makes sense to me. We have a rental bubble in the States, the average residential rental has topped a whopping $1000 a month recently. How the heck someone who works in the local grocery store or the like could ever afford one of those and still eat is beyond me. Plus I read they project shortages. That to me indicates that a viable, and maybe the only viable way, to fill some of that RE they fear is flooding the markets will be converting it to rentals.

Of course, they need jobs and Detroit has problems that arent so easy, but so did many areas of NYC and like you say Pittsburgh at times.

Wish you luck.