Save Detroit. Sell It to Canada

How can we save Detroit? Maybe with the mother of all yard sales, suggests John H. Fund in the American Spectator. The Detroit Institute of Arts' collection is worth some $2.5 billion, Belle Isle could be sold to investors as a "mini-Hong Kong" for $1 billion, and even a breeding giraffe at the Detroit Zoo could fetch up to $80,000. Who's buying? How about Canada, suggests Fund, which "lies just across the river," and "has a 21st-century government, with lower unemployment, smaller debt, and even more economic freedom than the United States."

A tongue-in-cheek poll by Canadian news agency Global News on whether our northern neighbor should buy the bankrupt city had 36% voting "yes"—closely followed by "Only if we're able to get rid of the guns" at 29%. But in all seriousness, the Canadian city of Windsor has already expressed interest in buying Detroit's half of a tunnel connecting the two—that could be another $100 million right there. "At this point, selling assets to Canada or even private investors is politically untenable," writes Fund. "But wait a few months, until the crushing burden of Detroit’s debt makes it clear that radical solutions are in order." Click for his full column. (More Detroit stories.)