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Would You Pay $300,000 to Become a Citizen of This Proposed Free-Market Utopia…in Detroit?

Jan. 28, 2013 5:25pm Jason Howerton

This futuristic rendering of Belle Isle is one where it is a commonwealth separate from the U.S. with a unique governing tax system. (Artist’s rendering)

If you had the opportunity to live in a free-market utopia — complete with its own currency and government — would you do it?

Well, you just may get your chance.

While the city of Detroit continues to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy, one developer is proposing a radical and revolutionary idea to rekindle the American spirit and bring Detroit back into prosperity.

The driving force behind the plan, developer Rodney Lockwood, wants Detroit to sell the city’s Belle Isle Park for $1 billion to private investors who will then transform it into a utopia free of big government and ideally full of job creation and innovation. Belle Isle is an uninhabited 928-acre island in the Detroit River, between the U.S. and Canada.

Under the plan, the island would be developed into a U.S. commonwealth or city-state with around 35,000 people. Citizenship for the “remarkable new nation” would cost $300,000 in most cases. The community would also have its own laws, transportation, customs and currency.

Developer Rodney Lockwood says the economic effects of his plans for Belle Isle, the largest island city park in the United States, could restore Detroit to its glory days (Daily Mail)

The Douglas MacArthur Bridge connects Detroit to Belle Isle, which developers want to buy and turn into a new city-state. (Daily Mail)

The Detroit News has more details on what the Commonwealth of Belle Isle would really look like:

Here’s the scenario for the Commonwealth of Belle Isle that Lockwood and others want to see: Private investors buy the island from a near-bankrupt Detroit for $1 billion. It then would secede from Michigan to become a semi-independent commonwealth like Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Under the plan, it would become an economic and social laboratory where government is limited in scope and taxation is far different than the current U.S. system. There is no personal or corporate income tax. Much of the tax base would be provided by a different property tax — one based on the value of the land and not the value of the property.

It would take $300,000 to become a “Belle Islander,” though 20 percent of citizenships would be open for striving immigrants, starving artists and up-and-coming entrepreneurs who don’t meet the financial requirement.

Among the citizenship requirements are a command of the English language, a good credit rating and no criminal record. Mogk adds that such a scenario would make the island “a drain of talent and resources” at the expense of Detroit.

Though it is still considered a long shot by some, the plan has some influential supporters, including Mackinac Center for Public Policy senior economist David Littmann, retired Chrysler President Hal Sperlick and co-founder of Detroit’s Conerstone Schools Clark Durant. The group, along with Lockwood, presented their plan to city officials last week.

Lockwood first laid out his vision in his novel titled “Belle Isle: Detroit’s Game Changer.”

(Daily Mail)

“I think it could be a model for America to show what efficient, value-based government can do for a community of 35,000 to 50,000,” Lockwood told TheBlaze, adding that the concept could also be used as a model on a much larger scale. “In the book, we offer $1 billion and form this community with free market ideas and an efficient, transparent government. There is no income tax and no tax on investments.”

“You have to put ideas out there — especially now, when so much is up for debate,” he said in a previous interview.

Lockwood told TheBlaze he doesn’t plan to make any formal offer to the city until the idea is thoroughly discussed and considered. He also explained that the island has fallen into disrepair and the city is considering letting the state take over the park and handle the maintenance.

But don’t get your hopes too high. George Jackson, president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., says the plan won’t go anywhere. He said the island will likely be turned into a state-run park.

“Belle Isle will get fixed,” Jackson said. “It won’t be that plan. But it will be fixed.”

Detroit City Council held a public hearing on Monday where residents debated the city’s plan to lease Belle Isle to the state of Michigan, the Detroit Free Press reports.

If it ever comes to fruition, would you consider living in the Commonwealth of Belle Isle?

–

Glenn Beck’s Dream of Building an Entire City-Theme Park Hybrid Called ‘Independence, USA’ Will Blow Your Mind

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (167)

chips1
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:30pm
The Obama regeme would declare a DMZ and issue sanctions against it.

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- pavepaws
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:35pm
  Lockwood got ahold of some bad dope.
  
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- aproudinfidel
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:43pm
  I wouldn’t pay that for the whole city of Detroit.
  
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- TH30PH1LUS
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 7:12pm
  BHO will only allow Communist China to purchase American land for “special economic zones” http://www.policymic.com/articles/8603/china-to-build-cities-and-economic-zones-in-michigan-and-idaho
  
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- Shasta
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 7:17pm
  OBungler will redistribute it’s wealth to Detroit proper.
  
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- A_CALL_TO_CONSCIENCE
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 7:21pm
  We need more voluntary cities. A great book to read is “The Voluntary City.”
  
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- scarydave
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 12:05am
  This developer is NUTS.
  
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- poorrichard09
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 8:41am
  Only if the shorelines were protected by naval batteries(artillery), and the bridge was a drawbridge-all to defend against the barbaric hordes in Detroit. see story about great-grandma attacked in Detroit.
  
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- JQuentinEvermann
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 8:48am
  It sucks that it would be so near Detroit. It would be overrun by crime within months. The “inner city” types would storm the gates, swim across, do anything they could to rape and murder the “rich” people that have too much.
  
  Instead of this, just build a fence around Detroit and wait for about 5 years…then you would just have to clean out the cannibals and restart from scratch.
  
  I just got back from Detroit and had to tell my family up there, “Oh, it’s not nearly as bad as the news makes it out to be.” But it was as bad, or worse; that city is like something out of Thunder Dome.
  
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- TAXEVERYONE
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 9:45am
  Great idea!
  Wrong location.
  
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- Dismayed Veteran
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 11:15am
  I know what Belle Isle is surrounded by. No thanks.
  
  Report this comment
- CatB
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 12:26pm
  @DISMAYED ..
  
  I agree .. would need to put up a big wall all around .. take down that bridge … make one place where boats can come in with gun towers .. put in a helicopter pad and make it impenetrable. Not going to happen those thugs would find a way . .
  
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- mtcountrygrl
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 11:00pm
  Who is John Galt?
  
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progressiveslayer
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:22pm
The collectivist regime won’t allow it,they’ll never allow any entity to escape their oppression because it would mean they give up power and control over humans and they can’t have that.

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- Chuck Stein
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 7:06pm
  Plus, the underlying concept is unconstitutional:
  Citizenship for the “remarkable new nation” would cost $300,000 in most cases.
  
  If it actually were a U.S. commonwealth, it would not ba a “new nation” — and you couldn’t restrict people fron becoming residents based upon a sort of membership fee. Could they have some sort of zoning that would limits the “spots” available for residents? Maybe. Then, of course, there would be some serious “big government” to enforce that.
  
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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 7:21pm
  Okay this is the angle you use to escape the collectivist pigs,you use an Indian tribe to start off then everybody else could be deemed an Indian just like that nut job senator Warren and voila you have a new nation seperate and apart from the collectivists.
  
  Report this comment
LevAronson
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:21pm
I would pay the $300,000. If we truly have our own laws, currency, customs and are separate from the United States, I would do it in a heart beat.

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- Athinker
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 7:37pm
  Well then how would you be able to receive the distribution of items that we now know to go to the grocery store to purchase..i.e., toilet paper, paper towels, food items….just a thought about how all of this would work for those who can’t “afford” to pay the $300,000 “entry fee”…
  
  May need a little more thought????
  
  Report this comment
- Matrix22
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 8:17am
  Athinker,
  
  Not that I’m ready to jump on board with idea, but I didn’t see anywhere in the story that the island would be isolated from free trade with the outside world? I assume they would buy whatever goods that they need from the best source they could find. If that means trading their currency for some goods from the US, then they will do so. The only problem is that the island better produce enough goods and services to make their currency valuable to other nations (including the US).
  
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- Americanius
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 11:14am
  Athinker, there you go introducing the Marxist concept of “fairness”. The whole idea is that if everyone has skin in the game then they will be willing to work for the success of the project. Freeloaders and parasites need not apply.
  
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- drbage
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 12:06pm
  For $300,000 a person, I betcha those borders would be secure.
  
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DougHuffman
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:20pm
What’s inadequate about Fairhope, Alabama. Fairhope was founded in November, 1894 as a single tax colony by the “Fairhope Industrial Association”: a group of 28 followers of economist Henry George. Their corporate constitution explained their purpose in founding a new colony: “to establish and conduct a model community or colony, free from all forms of private monopoly, and to secure to its members therein equality of opportunity, the full reward of individual efforts, and the benefits of co-operation in matters of general concern.”[

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LevAronson
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:19pm
If this “utopia” had it’s own constitution, set of laws, customs and currency, then I would definitely pay the $300,000 to live here. I would not hesitate at all.

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JasonGoldtrap
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:16pm
Great idea but the demographic of Detroit is one of dependence. This is a seed. The tree will spring in Cora, Wyoming on July 8, 2052. I discuss the movement and its glorification in my novel “Teen Girl From Mars.”

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Minnaloushe
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:05pm
The waste-of-life libs would loot it as soon as it succeeded.

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- Lt_Scrounge
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:17pm
  Ever see the movie “Resident Evil: Apocalypse”? I can see the developers putting a “Raven Gate’s Bridge” type gate on that bridge to keep out the undesirables. I’d man the guns on the gate if the need someone. I’m a pretty good shot.
  
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DougHuffman
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:03pm
No. Nor BoorTZ’ Honduran paradise nor GBeck’s nor SLimbaugh’s.

I’m in place across Death’s Door, armed, shriven, resistant and waiting. MOLON LABE Lord of Flies

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lel2007
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:02pm
If the new common wealth hired Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. I’d consider it.

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PK_SEA
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:01pm
Sounds like a US version of Luxembourg. It’ll just end up being a huge tax shelter for corporations. Personally, they should make it into a free-for-all prison for violent criminals, a la Escape from New York.

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- deltaecho
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:05pm
  It is already as you describe – except most of the prisoners return to the burn-outs and board-ups along Jefferson and Grand Ave at night.
  
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Gargent_Furball
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:59pm
This has been tried before. It was called communism. with a twist ?

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- Clownzilla
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:16pm
  Communism is better because it’s free to join and you don’t have to pay 300k to be part of it*
  
  *sarcasm
  
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possom
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:58pm
I wonder if that’s one of the park’s used for collateral when king barry took out the chinese loan?

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- GlennaBeckski
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:54pm
  I’m thinking the whole concept is a stratagem .. somehow the muslim brotherhood will end up with it and it will become the headquarters for Dearbornistan.
  
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LETSBEABOUTIT
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:46pm
I remember that move! ROBOCOP, right?

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:58pm
  Yeah, and the guy with the gun holding hostages wants a good car like the new 6000 SUX. LOL
  
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- adept316
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:55pm
  LMAO OCP. here we come. Or was “Dead or alive you’re coming with me.”
  
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moretea
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:45pm
This isnt going to happen because of tribal issues that will come up. Of course there is plenty of corruption there.

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IVillageIdiot
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:44pm
GREAT IDEA: I would augment it by saying that, INSTEAD OF TAXES… use interest, earnings, and dividends. If you have a bridge for example, create a Trust Fund that maintains a principal large enough to satiate the maintenance of the bridge, PLUS 25%50% more so that the “more” portion allows for the growth of the fund. THEN… you recycle that capital to grow the fund larger. For EACH item of infrastructure, do the same. For each “governmental” like function do the same. For each Company that make THIS their home, offer the same legal construct. For each individual that makes this their home, offer them the same. When you’ve built your company on a “Bedrock” of Capital, INSTEAD of hopes, dream, and desires, IT… WILL…. WORK….

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- IVillageIdiot
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:11pm
  A similar idea, would be ships at sea, outside the coastal waters, operating in International waters. For Example, “Hospital Ships” that would NOT need to conform to Obamacare (socialized “medicine”). You would use the new kind of hulls, SWATH Hulls with Helo decks like… LCS-2, USS Independence. SHE… is an awesome machine… and S…M….Oooooo….T…H……. perfect for operations an procedures, designed for coastal waters.
  
  THAT… is a Hospital ship that could be used in conjunction with such a city as described above. A city that is immune to GVT (maybe…) providing a bastion of wealth, communications, and (essentially) a life ring of survival that would then be the operation center for many ships plying the coastal waters of the former United States in an effort to extract the remnants of talent and brains until such time as the final collapse comes and what is left, can be recaptured and assimilated into the new model.
  
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- Fubared
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:24pm
  Me thinks you are no idiot.
  
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bigbear_awake
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:43pm
lay wouldn’t have built it anyway

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BlackCrow
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:43pm
They believe for a second that the City of Detroit, The State of Michigan and the federal government would leave them alone? BBBBAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! That is the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.

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capitalismrocks
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:43pm
Would like to see more concrete plans of costs, maintenance, upkeep, and conditions. What would be the allowed amount of land/property, what would the taxing structure be? What commerce would/wouldn’t be allowed. How will power, water, sewer be handled and maintained. Since it would have its own currency, how would exchange work and dealing with the outside world? So citizens living on Belle would no longer be held to paying the IRS? What is to stop the EPA and other hostile Fed entities from choking off and killing the ability for Belle for operate and function in its own way and capacity? So there are a tremendous amount of initial questions to be asked before considering going “John Galt”

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GoodStuff
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:42pm
Good idea, but it needs to be in a place that has better weather and is not within smelling distance of Detroit, the armpit of America.

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Old Truckers
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:42pm
Mankind has tried every form of government imaginable for some six-thousand years. Has any of them proved to be the successful answer to their quest for self rule?

Didn’t Adam and Eve start the idea of self governing, and we see nothing but failure, century after century. All of them have failed.

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- chips1
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:06pm
  They have all failed, but Detroit can do it in record time.
  
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- Clownzilla
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:19pm
  Nothing represents efficiency like the city of Detroit…….
  
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cassandra
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:42pm
I knew they were going to pull something like this years ago Why else would they allow that beauitful park go to hell like they have, when common sense propositions were to charge a fee to get on the island, keep the mounted police on the island and close the park down at 10 just couldn’t be had, their long time (progressive ) plan was VERY TRANSPARENT the democrates that run Detroit have done nothing to protect this once Detroit treasure, they allowed gangs to roam and destroy every fountian,exhibit,picnic table and building on it. It is a disgusting lost for Detroit but makes perfect sense for the way the liberals have run that city down for years

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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:41pm
Great idea but Obama will crush it faster than anything as it threatens his state-run madness.

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:33pm
Dang, I hope boatloads of liberals do, and take even more freeloaders with them as dependents.

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- chips1
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 6:17pm
  Every few years they can have amnesty for the illegals.
  
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blackfeather
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:32pm
no.

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- gyro
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:54pm
  this
  
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Cavallo
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:31pm
Why pick a place that has such crappy weather? If they are successful their efforts will be seized by the government.

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- IVillageIdiot
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 5:54pm
  Because it is Defensible. It has a very formidable natural “Moat” surrounding it and could be defended against raids, tunneling, and grappling. If YOU are the last bastion of wealth, law, and order in the middle of a sinking cess pit… you can bet your last gold coin, it will be raided by bands or armed thugs trying to get into it… you don’t want sewer lines that ALL have to be plugged, you dan’t want towers (other tall building) all around you that look down into your compound. You don’t want to have to clear block after block of building to make fields of fire and lanes of fire. YOU WANT AN ISLAND THAT YOU CAN DEFEND AND THAT IS VERY HARD TO PENETRATE EVEN IN WINTER.
  
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