General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDetroit’s Bankruptcy Reveals Dysfunction Common in Cities
By William Selway - Jul 21, 2013
No city was hit as hard by the recession as Detroit, America’s one-time industrial capital whose decades-long decline cut its population in half and left $18 billion in debt it can’t afford to pay.
Even so, the pressures that pushed Detroit into the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history are playing out on a smaller scale around the nation. Diminished tax revenue and rising labor costs have left four cities insolvent since 2007. Service cuts were made by others such as Detroit, where street lights are dark and police are scarce.
“None of the other cities are as far along, but there are dozens, if not hundreds of cities that have similar issues,” said Alan Mallach, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a public-policy research organization in Washington. “Every other industrial city has problems that could send them down the same path.”
U.S. municipalities have recovered slowly from the 18-month recession that ended four years ago, depressing property-tax revenue and leading to investment losses for pensions that many cities haven’t fully funded for years. Projected pension and health-care obligations for the 61 biggest cities will top assets by about $217 billion, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a Philadelphia-based research and public-policy group.
Not Unique
“Detroit is a very high-profile example of some of the challenges our cities continue to face, but it’s by no means unique,” said Kil Huh, an analyst who tracks local finances for Pew. “Detroit is indicative of governments living beyond their means -- and they are going to eventually have to pay the piper.”
MORE...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-22/detroit-s-bankruptcy-reveals-dysfunction-common-in-cities.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)
Octafish
(55,745 posts)The problem in Detroit is: Jobs that pay enough to live on.
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)The problem is that Detroit didn't take appropriate measures (i.e. cut spending) when the job loss started to impact tax revenues.
Farmbrook
(48 posts)I live just outside of Detroit MI, and used to live in Detroit for almost ten years. I work in downtown Detroit. The Republican administration has their dirty hands all over this situation. They came in with an agenda for jobs and they are yet to put forth a legislation for one. Instead they gave huge tax breaks to corporations, stopped revenue-sharing to cities and municipalities, closed the schools, flooded the city with lax gun-laws and spent millions of dollars going after Kilpartrick because he was the obstacle to their devious plans. Approximately 70% of the corporations in downtown Detroit don't pay taxes including (the stadiums, Compuware Corporation, and Quicken Loans) and yet they continue to use the city services freely. They have been trying to privatize the income-generating facilities like the Water Department and to sell off one of the gems of the City - Belle Isle.
Furthermore, they want to take away the peoples pensions and the only way they can do it is that they declare bankruptcy. In fact five minutes before they did so they promised the pensioners not to worry and that they will work it out with them and the Snyder Administration turned around and ran to another court to file bankruptcy. These people are evil. Thank God the judge saw through them and ruled against them. Snyder used to head Gateway corporation before he ran for governor. In that time he ran Gateway to bankruptcy and then moved most of the jobs overseas. About 60% of the people that work in downtown everyday are non-black and if it was so dangerous they would not be there. SHOCK DOCTRINE! anyone?
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Yet all I hear are stories about Detroit that don't address the flight of capital from Detroit and the 'Rust Belt' which I feel began as a payoff for the Vietnam War, there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the production of autos.
Since then there's been the sale of the Commons of Detroit, destroying the networking that leads to mobility needed to live in a competitive world.
Others act as if it's just a great opportunity for new investment with Free Trade Zones, treating the city like it's a fire sale.
The meantime, the ones making the profits pretend that it's all the fault of the residents of Detroit. I see racism at work there from what I've read.
I've read tBLM is making waves to stop the cutting off of water which makes life unbearable. And the Koch brothers dumped Canadian coal ash and it polluted the air, IIRC.
Do you see improvement since 2013?
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)easy to say when you are making a living off the means of others.
