Detroit is Dying - What to Do?

A piece appeared in today's Detroit News that I think accurately describes the bleak situation:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100919/OPINION03/9190309/1008/opinion01/The-three-I-s-of-Detroit-s-decline

I think devolution of power in a modified Buckley-for-NYC-Mayor approach may help rescue this city of 900,000. The issue, while local, may be a blueprint for many of the country's worst urban areas:

1> Remove Detroit from Wayne County and make it the County of Detroit, handing country responsibilities to a new government structure within current City of Detroit boundaries.

2> Carve up Detroit into 30 +/- new towns of 30,000 pop +/- and 5 square miles +/- each. New city limits should be determined logically, maintaining cohesiveness of existing neighborhoods and/or groups of 'hoods.

3> Give schools, police & fire stations to new towns. Start over. Let new elected leaders determine best approach to manage services at this very local level. Existing corruption should effectively be uprooted, new corruption much less likely and far smaller in scale.

4> Get rid of city income tax, which discourages anyone with a good job to live outside of the city. New towns will get funding just as all of the other municipalities do in the state - through property taxes and a cut of sales taxes.

Radical, yes. Anyone have any better ideas?

RB