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During the 1970’s, in New York City, Roger Starr made a proposal called “planned shrinkage.”  This proposal was a public policy.  Roger Starr was a housing administrator in the Bronx and Brownsville, in which many neighborhoods were suffering from urban decay and poverty.  At that time there were many problems and the main problem was the “planned shrinkage”, and many people lost their jobs from this decision.  Starr proposed “planned shrinkage” to decrease the population and better preserve the tax base.  He proposed this idea because a lot of fires were occurring in neighborhoods caused by arson.  Also he thought that the “planned shrinkage” would have been a way to move people out of slums to an empty area and build communities. 

His propose was to rebuild urban societies in many areas of New York City.  South Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem were suffering from urban decay, crime and poverty.  In an interview with Roger Fitch on September 09, 1993 Roger Starr talks about the reason around the “planned shrinkage” and he makes statement “The problem is to fill the housing with tenants who are not destructive and who will pay their rent, and who we want to keep there forever because they are good tenants” with this statement we understand that he had problems with all the crimes and the poverty in the neighborhoods of New York and the people who lived there.  From all the neighborhoods were removed all the police patrols, garbage removal, streets repairs and fire services.  In an interview with Roger Starr conducted by Roger Fitch and Starr started talk about his worry about the city.  He started discuss about public housing and he thought that the house rent was the problem.   In early 1970s RAND concluded that police services and fire protection were withdrawn and the population of the area would decrease.  By the mid-1970s, Bronx had 120,000 fires per year, 40 percent of the housing in that area was destroyed. The population could not keep up with all these fires at that time. The population in South Bronx and Harlem plummeted.  The moving caused many problems to people finding new jobs and begins new life.  In the 1970s, when “planned shrinkage” was reality, a lot of areas affected by cutbacks to public services began to see a decline.  According to an article from the Daily News March 1, 1976 “Starr under fire for plan to shrink slum services” was a percentage of the areas were most affected by it.  The city was losing almost about 1% of the population every year and 400,000 people lost since the 1970s.  Most of the empty building became expensive empty land witch held higher development value in the South Bronx.  Also Roger Starr thought Roger star thought that he could have the city’s responsibilities shrink by having private people from the outside do it.  According to the article 6 councilmen asked Starr quit HAD post, the writer said “The goal of such a plan would be a spur population movement out of such deteriorating areas and conserve public services during the budget crises.”  This wasn’t the focus but just to decrease the services in the slums and left the people to provide by them selves.  Also the healthcare affected by the “planned shrinkage.”  Many African American and Hispanic communities increased in the AIDS epidemic.

Roger Starr philosophy about human nature, particular population and housing we could say was bad and negative one.  Roger said that not all the people were good and decent.  Also he believed that had to worry about the quality, the politeness and about the character; people were cable to be part of the American wholesome family but he knew that wasn’t the case.  Roger believed that I “all people are alike and that all people are about fundamentally good decent and that you don’t have to worry about character or qualities of a person”, and I agree with his belief about everybody is different, but with his move that he did I think he acted wrong.  Fitch wanted to decrease services and as a result would be recycled as privatization.  Roger said back that he didn’t relocated nobody but people were leaving their houses.  Roger Starr made two arguments by saying he didn’t understand clearly there wasn’t about immigration and he also said about job shrinkage.  In 1977 there were a lot of job opportunities comparing today.  The only thing that has superior was the economy after 5 years. Although his voice was heard over a span of issues and years, Mr. Starr is most vividly remembered for his 1976 proposal for ''planned shrinkage.'' Citing New York's declining population, lost jobs, social
problems, high taxes and stressed services, he urged the city to abandon depressed areas like the South Bronx for future redevelopment.  Mayor Abraham D. Beame was serving as Housing and Development administrator, disavowed the idea.  City Council members called it “inhuman, racist and genocidal.”  Protesters disrupted his public appearances.  Also Roger said ''Although my phrase ''planned shrinkage'' will run a poor second to ''benign neglect'' in the unappreciated phrases derby,'' he wrote, ''it will remain the most prominent label in the file of my government service.''

In conclusion I think his proposal about “planned shrinkage” was in good    purpose.  He wanted the economy to increase.  Roger Starr believed that his “planned Shrinkage” would keep happening.  People would keep losing their jobs.  In one of his interview Robert Fitch said “stocks don’t just go up.”  In an article they wrote “Instead of stopping or shrinking, the city bounced back with unplanned growth, revitalizing even the South Bronx. But its revival stemmed at least in part to progress on Mr. Starr's issues: reduced crime and welfare and the imported work ethic of new immigrants.”