Detroit files for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy

Sevs753

Sevs753

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Can't say I'm surprised. Maybe now we can rebuild the city right.
I can't help but wonder how it will affect me, seeing as I work in the Rencen.

Jalopnik.com said:
The City of Detroit has just filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, the largest municipal insolvency in U.S. history, according to news reports.

Though the move wasn't expected to happen until Friday, news sources in the Motor City confirm it happened moments ago this afternoon.

Today, Kevyn Orr, the city's state-appointed emergency manager asked a federal judge for permission to place the city into Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the AP reports. The filing would allow the city to seek protection from creditors and unions who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and other liabilities.

In June, Orr released a plan that would leave many of these creditors with "far less" than they are owed, reports the Detroit Free Press.
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Sources:
http://jalopnik.com/detroit-just-filed-for-largest-municipal-bankruptcy-in-829461482

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/22878374/detroit-files-for-chapter-9-bankruptcy
 
Leaving the politics out of it for a sec, Detroit's tax base is basically non-existent, their income is commensurate with said tax base, their expenses are ridiculous and it's been that way for years and years, under various leaders from all parties. It's gone on so long that nobody would loan them money or buy their municipal bonds any more. They didn't exactly have a lot of choice.

To put it in perspective - they turned off power to half the streetlights because they couldn't afford to pay the bill for them. But that's okay, because 40% of them were already broken and the city couldn't afford to repair them.
 
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Spectre said:
Leaving the politics out of it for a sec, Detroit's tax base is basically non-existent, their income is commensurate with said tax base, their expenses are ridiculous and it's been that way for years and years, under various leaders from all parties. It's gone on so long that nobody would loan them money or buy their municipal bonds any more. They didn't exactly have a lot of choice.
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The expenses problem is something plagues all of the rust belt. Syracuse's Mayor (my former hometown) makes $118,000 City Overland Park where I moved to with a slightly larger population mayor makes $24,000. Syracuse's city counselors make twice as much as the city counselors here and are given cars. Cities across the north still spend money like they did the the 1930's when their population was booming. Now like you said its not a specific parties fault. The current Mayor of Detroit, a Syracuse University alum, went back on his campaign pledge not to take the $150+ salary which probably was a good idea considering bankruptcy was the only way out. However; I can't think that sometime in the 1980's someone didn't suggest that they tighten the belt a bit and start with good fiscal leadership by cutting the city salaries.

The expense problem for cities is larger than executive pay and there are probably a number of mistakes that have brought them to that point but now its time to pay the piper. Detroit home of the broken boulevard of dreams
 
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Is Omni Consumer Products going to take over?
 
Momentum57 said:
The expenses problem is something plagues all of the rust belt. Syracuse's Mayor (my former hometown) makes $118,000 City Overland Park where I moved to with a slightly larger population mayor makes $24,000. Syracuse's city counselors make twice as much as the city counselors here and are given cars. Cities across the north still spend money like they did the the 1930's when their population was booming. Now like you said its not a specific parties fault. The current Mayor of Detroit, a Syracuse University alum, went back on his campaign pledge not to take the $150+ salary which probably was a good idea considering bankruptcy was the only way out. However; I can't think that sometime in the 1980's someone didn't suggest that they tighten the belt a bit and start with good fiscal leadership by cutting the city salaries.

The expense problem for cities is larger than executive pay and there are probably a number of mistakes that have brought them to that point but now its time to pay the piper. Detroit home of the broken boulevard of dreams
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That hasn't change under the EFM either. I can't be bothered to find it at the moment, but he brought in some friends to fill some positions at rates higher than the former job holders.

EDIT: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130702/METRO01/307020104

Snip:
Detroit ? The controversy over the 60 percent pay raise Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr awarded to new Police Chief James Craig continued Tuesday as the City Council voted against the increase, which would give Detroit?s chief a higher salary than New York?s top cop.

But experts say the proposed $225,000 annual salary isn?t as outrageous as some have claimed, and insist if Craig makes good on his promise to lower the city?s crime rate, it?ll be a bargain.
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ScarFace88 said:
Is Omni Consumer Products going to take over?
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No, but there is going to be a statue of Robocop. Sadly, this is not a joke.

http://apps.detroitnews.com/apps/multimedia/gallery.php?id=16079
 
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GRtak said:
That hasn't change under the EFM either. I can't be bothered to find it at the moment, but he brought in some friends to fill some positions at rates higher than the former job holders.
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Sounds like they are trying to pilfer the remaining funds while there still is time. Go the the day shift homicide sergeant offer him 60K and dinner with the Mayor once a year at Subway. The economic planning of Detroit is atrocious 18.5 Billion dollars in debt but that does not count money they received gradis. How much did your State give the city over the years? How much did Detroit receive from the federal government in the past decade? I know that the auto industry gave them $488 million to the city for redevelopment. Did the political leaders just think that it was Brewster's Millions?
 
I have no clue what they were thinking. The loss of the tax base(about half of the property in the D pays the property taxes), population, and industry, add in some short sighted politicians.......


And the City of Flint is tired of the run around from the city of Detroit and the water department, so Flint and other Genesee/Lapeer county cities are building a new pipeline to Lake Huron. So more lost revenue is coming.
 
I think I remember hearing that the amount of vacant property in Detroit is larger in area than the city of Boston
 
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No federal money, I suppose... no bailout.

Or, as Andy Borowitz said on Facebook: "It would be nice to give Detroit $18 billion but we already gave it to Kabul and Baghdad."

Only I think Kabul or Baghdad might be less corrupt :D
 
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MacGuffin said:
No federal money, I suppose... no bailout.

Or, as Andy Borowitz said on Facebook: "It would be nice to give Detroit $18 billion but we already gave it to Kabul and Baghdad."

Only I think Kabul or Baghdad might be less corrupt :D
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Detroit has been bailed out about 15 times in the last 30 years, through various special grants and things. Every time the money disappears down a deep hole and nothing happens. You can't blame the war or even recent foreign policy for this one... At this point everyone else is tired of it and nobody in any party (not just either, but any) is really willing to give them more money to piss away.

Also, the city no longer has enough people to qualify for the general 'larger city remediation' grants and such the Feds hand out to large population centers.

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GRtak said:
Yeah, it is really sad. YOu can get a decent house and the empty lots around it for cheap.



https://www.hudhomestore.com/Listin...LISTPRICE&OrderbyValue=DESC&sLanguage=ENGLISH
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But you'd need a company of mercenaries to help you keep it.

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ScarFace88 said:
Is Omni Consumer Products going to take over?
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The funny part is that that movie was mostly in filmed in Dallas Texas and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania (in 1986). Why? In part because there was no place in Detroit even then that was nice enough to serve as the 'nice' parts of town and the 'bad' areas of Detroit were already so bad as to be both unsafe for the film crews and unbelievable to audiences.

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GRtak said:
That hasn't change under the EFM either. I can't be bothered to find it at the moment, but he brought in some friends to fill some positions at rates higher than the former job holders.

EDIT: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130702/METRO01/307020104
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Should be pointed out that there's a heck of a risk/reward ratio there. If you fail as the NYPD Chief, there's many many other places that will hire you. If you fail as the Detroit PD chief, even for reasons you have no control over, you're never going to work again because nobody will return your calls. You'd have to wave a lot of money at people to get them to even consider the job.

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Momentum57 said:
However; I can't think that sometime in the 1980's someone didn't suggest that they tighten the belt a bit and start with good fiscal leadership by cutting the city salaries.
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From what I recall from the last time I looked into it, Carter was in the White House as a new occupant when some people started suggesting that. And were promptly shouted down by everyone else. Detroit has had its head in the sand for more than 40 years now, playing Pollyanna with their finances and refusing to admit the reality of the situation. (Or, in another frame of reference, they're the Black Knight from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail.)

20 years ago, they might have been able to pull it out on their own; now they've left it to too late.

Here's a good site to show some of how ruined Detroit is: http://www.detroityes.com/fabulous-ruins-of-detroit/home.php Much like Detroit itself, the site's navigation's a bit broken, so go here if you're having problems figuring out where to go next: http://www.detroityes.com/fabulous-ruins-of-detroit/toc.php
 
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This clip is from 1977 - that's how long "Detroit" is a synonym for disaster.

Keep in mind that in order to work as a punchline in a movie, the sorry state of Detroit has to be common knowledge among the audience.
 
Spectre said:
But you'd need a company of mercenaries to help you keep it.
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So my hippie friends are better than mercenaries? Hmm, who would have thought.


Should be pointed out that there's a heck of a risk/reward ratio there. If you fail as the NYPD Chief, there's many many other places that will hire you. If you fail as the Detroit PD chief, even for reasons you have no control over, you're never going to work again because nobody will return your calls. You'd have to wave a lot of money at people to get them to even consider the job.
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I used that as an example of how they are paying new city employees more than the old employees in the same position. That is but one example.



Dr_Grip said:
This clip is from 1977 - that's how long "Detroit" is a synonym for disaster.

Keep in mind that in order to work as a punchline in a movie, the sorry state of Detroit has to be common knowledge among the audience.
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That is a hold over from the 68(?) riots. Things were,.. contentious for a few years after. But I have walked from downtown, past the old Tiger stadium, an area I was assured would have gotten me killed and nobody said a bad word to me.


By the way, the city letting the old Tiger stadium get demolished was one of the larger mistakes the city has made in the last twenty years. It was the oldest surviving major league ball park. It would have made a great tourist destination, and there was already one movie filmed there that served as the backdrop for another old ball park.
 
GRtak said:
That is a hold over from the 68(?) riots.
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The DNC gone horribly wrong?

EDIT: Wait, that was in Chicago. Reading up about the 67 Detroit riots now.
 
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Some old-timers have told me the rot was evident as far back as 1959, so I'm not entirely sure you can start it with the 67 riots...
 
So how can Detroit possibly restructure its debt in a way that it becomes financially stable again? I can only see the reworking of contracts and limiting of pensions as motivations for more people to leave the city and further hurt the tax base. At what point is the entire city put on sale (not that anyone is prepared to buy it)? How can this possibly end well for Detroit?
 
That is a lot of questions that need a small book to answer. In short, part of this is to rip apart the unions. And this won't end well for Detroit, the residents, employees, or Michigan.
 
Here are a few ideas how to solve the debt problem and city issues at the same time: 1)A bake sale 2)sell tickets to the first atmospheric nuclear test over an American City 3)nuclear disaster clean up jobs
 
Momentum57 said:
Here are a few ideas how to solve the debt problem and city issues at the same time: 1)A bake sale 2)sell tickets to the first atmospheric nuclear test over an American City 3)nuclear disaster clean up jobs
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So your plan is to nuke Detroit from orbit?
 
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