Back from the Dead - The Economist article on the regeneration of industrial American cities

The October 27th edition of The Economis presents an interesting account of the resurgence of two America's industrial cities, Flint (the birthplace of General Motors) and Cleveland. At least two interesting regeneration schemes can be identified in this news report:

• a land bank that acquires abandoned buildings though foreclosure, then readies them to be sold in the market and returned to the the tax rolls. The bank claims to have increased property values by more than $112m so far;
• a tax-sharing scheme to split taxes from businesses that move within the Cleveland area, thus sharing revenue and rationalising services (Cleveland provides water services to the surrounding towns;

However, as the article puts it, these cities will not recover overnight.

Access the article here.