City Council President Jim Ananich said the idea has been on his radar for years.

The city is getting smaller and should downsize its services accordingly by asking people to leave sparsely populated areas, he said.

“It’s going to happen whether we like it or not,” he said. “We’d have to be creative about it, but it’s something worth looking into. We’re not there yet, but it could definitely happen.”

Flint resident Derrick Young, 39, doesn’t think people in his West Austin Avenue neighborhood would bow too easily to such a request.

“We (are) all family over here,” he said. “We all stick together.”

Even in neighborhoods where more homes are vacant than occupied, Young, who rents, said the city shouldn’t interfere.

“They shouldn’t be so hard on people, just because they live in a bad area,” he said. “They should find more ways to fix it up and rent it out.”

The concept of “shrinking cities” isn’t new to urban areas similar to Flint.

Last year, the city of Youngstown, Ohio, proposed incentives to encourage people to move out of nearly empty blocks and relocate to more populated areas closer to the heart of the city. Some people were offered upward of $50,000, according to news reports.

The idea was to shut down entire streets and bulldoze abandoned properties so the city could discontinue services such as police patrols and street lighting, according to a CNN report.

via Off-the-cuff suggestion prompts discussion on what to do with abandoned neighborhoods in Flint – Flint News – The Latest News, Blogs, Photos & Videos – MLive.com .