Ok let's start a Detroit bankruptcy thread....

[Obvious Li]

I have been reading a lot about this the last two days....i want to comment more but i must post this quote from one commentator.....i love it



"It used to take vast airmadas of heavy bombers to turn a city like Dresden into rubble.



Now it just takes Democrats."





please add your comments as i will when time permits

[Obvious Li]

Excerpts from a National Post columnist, and Detroit resident;.



Everyone in Detroit knew that without enormous, radical change, the city was dying. They have known this since at least the early 1980s. But that radical change never came.

Once the very symbol of American industrial might, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy Thursday, its finances ravaged and its neighborhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.



The filing, which had been feared for months, put the city on an uncertain course that could mean laying off municipal employees, selling off assets, raising fees and scaling back basic services such as trash collection and snow plowing, which have already been slashed.



The city's population peaked at almost 2-million in 1950, during the boom times of the post-war era. It then had the highest median income of any city in the United States. These days, it ranks 66th out of the largest 68 cities in the nation. And the population of the city has sunk to just above 700,000.



Yet the city still acts as if it has 2-million residents. Despite drastic cuts since 2000, Detroit is still one of the most overstaffed cities in the United States. As of 2011, it had one city employee for every 55 residents — by far the highest ratio in the United States. Public services remained bloated, and the bureaucracy remained clogged with useless union workers who could not be fired.



From 1961 onward, Detroit became the crucible into which progressives poured every utopian idea imaginable. The city spent more per capita on education, welfare and infrastructure than almost any other urban center in the country during the sixties and seventies. The city passed tough regulations, allowing city leaders to manage which businesses could open in the city, and which could not. Large bureaucratic city service industries bloomed, usually controlled by local labor unions. It was essentially a state-controlled capitalist economy.



The cycle was kept alive because of the boom times in the auto industry. Then the gas crisis of the 1970s put an end to that, as General Motors, Ford, American Motors, and Chrysler all struggled with market changes.



Race issues became politically dominant. Mayor Coleman Young was considered a leading African American progressive when he became leader of Detroit in 1974. But from the start, he was one of the main race-baiters of the Democrat Party, and blamed many of the ills of the city on the rich, white upper class. (Among black leaders at the time, the claim was widespread that whites were conspiring to drown blacks in drugs, and thereby "keep the black man down.")



In his inaugural address, the mayor stated, "I issue a warning to all those pushers, to all rip-off artists, to all muggers: It's time to leave Detroit; hit Eight Mile Road [the traditional demarcation of 'Black' Detroit and the 'white' rich suburbs to the north]. And I don't give a damn if they are black or white, or if they wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road."



Many mark it as the moment at which whites became uneasy in the city of Detroit, a sentiment that further stimulated the "white flight" that had begun with the race riots of 1967. This process ultimately drove much of the city's intellectual and financial capital into the suburbs, and largely segregated the metropolitan area.



    Almost nothing can be done in the city without union oversight



As the city started hemorrhaging money, how did it react? First, it increased local taxes up to the constitutional limit within Michigan: To this day, Detroit has the highest tax rates in the state. It increased union protections to the maximum; almost nothing can be done in the city without union oversight. And, as noted above, it refused to scale back city services, despite a bloated bureaucracy whose size could no longer match the small population.



Detroit is now a largely abandoned city. There are approximately 78,000 vacant structures. Approximately 38,000 are considered dangerous. The population will likely drop below 700,000 in the next census. Large swathes of the city are completely empty. (This has become so much of a problem that the city recently tried to relocate individuals in sparse areas in order to restructure city services in a way that made some fiscal sense. But many of the residents refused to move, even when given new homes.)





I am still an idealist, though: I believe Detroit can survive, and even flourish, given the right leadership and focus. That's because Detroit remains one of the great corridors of trade in the world, providing access for many of the goods traveling between the United States and Canada. Indeed, its close relationship to our northern neighbor is critical for any future progress Detroit can hope for. American auto companies are recovering, and Detroit is benefiting. Other businesses are slowly moving into the city, as it becomes more accepting of entrepreneurs and other investors.



Portions of the city need to be bulldozed, possibly transformed into potential green space or farms. Pension reform is a must, because the city cannot afford the bloated system it currently uses. And a tax system that promotes business and innovation is a necessity for future growth and job creation.



Bankruptcy, as painful and embarrassing as it is, could help bring about those reforms. This is a moment of opportunity for a once great American city. The question is, will its leaders be up to the challenge?



National Post



Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D., M.S. is a physician radiologist, philanthropist and entrepreneur. He blogs at Neoavatara.com/blog, and is a moderator at the Conservative Union. He can be reached at neoavatara@gmail.com.

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[Anonymous]

Firefighters can't use the ladders on their trucks because they haven't been inspected in years. Police take nearly an hour to respond to the most serious emergency calls. People know not to call 911 if they have a heart attack – they'll probably be dead before the ambulance arrives.



Detroit owes an astonishing $3.5-billion on its pension funds, and may only be able to make good on 10 cents on the dollar. The city faces as much as $20-billion in debts and liabilities. Bankruptcy became inevitable after Mr. Obama's administration declined to bail the city out.

[Anonymous]

Yet the city still acts as if it has 2-million residents. Despite drastic cuts since 2000, Detroit is still one of the most overstaffed cities in the United States. As of 2011, it had one city employee for every 55 residents — by far the highest ratio in the United States. Public services remained bloated, and the bureaucracy remained clogged with useless union workers who could not be fired.

Good luck getting rid of superfluous unionized snivel serpents.

[Obvious Li]

Residents are regretful, yes, and wondering what will happen next — there are no blueprints for managing the U.S.'s largest-ever bankruptcy, estimated at US$18-billion and counting.



 It's hard to remember when Detroit was the Motor City, with a population of 1.86 million and good jobs. Glittering towers, like the ironically named Renaissance Center, arose on the banks of the Detroit River, provoking skyscraper envy in neighbouring Windsor.



Now it's a dysfunctional ghost of a place for the 700, 000 remaining inhabitants too poor or too attached to their homes to flee. In March, Michigan governor Rick Snyder appointed Kevyn Orr as the city's emergency manager in the hopes he could work out a plan with its creditors.



Mostly to blame are Detroit's leaders — notably former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, soon to be a guest of the federal penitentiary system — who borrowed recklessly to pay short-term bills. At least $9-billion of the debt is to cover pensions and benefits for the bloated work force.



    [T]he root cause of the nation's largest-ever bankruptcy filing is the legacy of leadership that failed to rise to the city's challenges.



    Detroit's population loss didn't happen overnight; it's been steadily eroding since the 1950s. And yet the city never implemented an effective strategy to stem the loss or shrink its footprint.



    The roughly $18-billion in debt didn't suddenly materialize, either. It was piled up by mayors and councils who found it easier to mortgage the future to pay today's bills than to take the tough steps to match spending to revenue.



    Eighty-thousand houses and commercial buildings weren't emptied in a single disastrous day ... but over the course of a half-century ... Time and again, Detroit's leadership failed to respond to crisis.



Meanwhile, editorial writers at the Detroit Free Press believe Detroit's creditors were wrongheaded in forcing the city into filing for bankruptcy.



    [W]e suspect that residents and creditors who argue that the emergency manager has been exaggerating the severity of Detroit's fiscal plight or poor-mouthing its capacity to satisfy their claims are about to get the rudest possible awakening ...



    [D]elusional creditors with dreams of wringing blood from the brick and mortar of Detroit's devastated infrastructure have postponed that critical pivot [restructuring its long term debt] by forcing the city to seek bankruptcy protection. Their foolishness is regretful, but it's doubtful they will emerge from this unnecessary detour with a settlement significantly more generous than the one Orr has offered them.



At CNN, Laura Ly wonders if the city's vaunted art collection might have to be sold off to help pay its debts.



    Could a wooden marionette help solve Detroit's budgetary woes ... The museum of the Detroit Institute of Arts, home to 60,000 pieces of art, is also home to the original Howdy Doody marionette puppet that was the star of its own 1950s-era children's show ...



    "It is estimated that the marionette could sell at auction for $400,000 to $500,000," said Gary Busk, a puppet collector who was featured on the television program Antiques Road Show.



    That would hardly make a dent in the city's immense $18-billion debt. But, despite an opinion from the state's attorney general that appeared to assure Howdy would stay, legal experts say there's still a risk he could wind up packing his bags and riding into the sunset with many of the museum's other residents.



The National Review's Kevin D. Williamson argues labour unions must bear some responsibility for the mess. Mercedes is making cars in Alabama rather than Michigan, he argues,



    because nobody wants to live in Detroit except Kwame Kilpatrick, whose most likely next option is a six-by-eight cell, and the gentlemen of the United Automobile Workers union and their associates.



    The UAW, having helped to destroy the automotive industry in and around Detroit, is currently in the middle of its third attempt to unionize Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama and elsewhere in the South, having committed tens of millions of dollars — where will that come from? — to the project. Joining the UAW is like joining the European Union — no matter how many times you vote against it, there's always another vote, until it goes the other way, and then there are no more votes.



compiled by Araminta Wordsworth

[Obvious Li]

INTERESTING FACTOIDS...

 

The Ten Poorest US City's



City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level



1. Detroit , MI 32.5%

2. Buffalo , NY 29..9%

3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8%

4. Cleveland , OH 27.0%

5. Miami , FL 26.9%

5. St. Louis , MO 26.8%

7. El Paso , TX 26.4%

8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%

9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%

10. Newark , NJ 24.2%

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007



Detroit,MI (1st on the list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961.

Buffalo,NY(2nd) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1954.

Cincinnati,OH (3rd) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1984.

Cleveland,OH (4th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1989.

Miami,FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor.

St. Louis, MO (6th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1949.

El Paso,TX, (7th) has never had a Republican mayor.

Milwaukee, WI (8th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1908.

Philadelphia, PA (9th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1952.

Newark, NJ (10th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1907.

[Obvious Li]

the latest offer to the union thug leadership and creditors in general was 8-10 cents on the dollar.....they turned that down and thus the bankruptcy filing......probably end up with 0% once trustee and bankruptcy fees are taken out of the bankruptcy proceeds.

[Anonymous]

INTERESTING FACTOIDS...

 

The Ten Poorest US City's



City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level



1. Detroit , MI 32.5%

2. Buffalo , NY 29..9%

3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8%

4. Cleveland , OH 27.0%

5. Miami , FL 26.9%

5. St. Louis , MO 26.8%

7. El Paso , TX 26.4%

8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%

9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%

10. Newark , NJ 24.2%

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007



Detroit,MI (1st on the list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961.

Buffalo,NY(2nd) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1954.

Cincinnati,OH (3rd) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1984.

Cleveland,OH (4th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1989.

Miami,FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor.

St. Louis, MO (6th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1949.

El Paso,TX, (7th) has never had a Republican mayor.

Milwaukee, WI (8th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1908.

Philadelphia, PA (9th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1952.

Newark, NJ (10th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1907.

     

[Obvious Li]

[attachment=0]hiroshima-detroit_zps98964765.jpg[/attachment]

[Anonymous]

[attachment=0]hiroshima-detroit_zps98964765.jpg[/attachment]

You are on a roll tonight there handsome. That was bloody awesome.

[Anonymous]

I thought American auto makers were doing better?

[Obvious Li]

I thought American auto makers were doing better?

they are...but they haven't taken out all the union trash yet...so they are still vulnerable to greedy workers putting them, back in the red......besides hardly any one who works in the auto industry lives in  black Detroit any more...since the 70's they have moved to the burbs...

[Anonymous]

I thought American auto makers were doing better?

they are...but they haven't taken out all the union trash yet...so they are still vulnerable to greedy workers putting them, back in the red......besides hardly any one who works in the auto industry lives in  black Detroit any more...since the 70's they have moved to the burbs...

How are suburbs around Detroit doing Mr Obvious Li?

[Obvious Li]

I thought American auto makers were doing better?

they are...but they haven't taken out all the union trash yet...so they are still vulnerable to greedy workers putting them, back in the red......besides hardly any one who works in the auto industry lives in  black Detroit any more...since the 70's they have moved to the burbs...

How are suburbs around Detroit doing Mr Obvious Li?

much the same as other upwardly mobile suburbs everywhere.....i will look (or someone else can) for some detroit suburb pictures......

[Anonymous]

they are...but they haven't taken out all the union trash yet...so they are still vulnerable to greedy workers putting them, back in the red......besides hardly any one who works in the auto industry lives in  black Detroit any more...since the 70's they have moved to the burbs...

How are suburbs around Detroit doing Mr Obvious Li?

much the same as other upwardly mobile suburbs everywhere.....i will look (or someone else can) for some detroit suburb pictures......

They are not losing people to other states then?