Detroit has become the largest city in American history to file for bankruptcy.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/...-in-us-history/

I posted this in the "News" section but will repost here:


I don't think anyone is really shocked by this, but Detroit, which was once such a neat city, has filed chapter 9 bankruptcy.

As a kid we would go visit cousins every summer (one time I believe we took the train there). Whether we went for visits, weddings, anniversaries, funerals It was always a big deal going to the Detroit.


Makes me sad.


http://www.freep.com/

TIS

I thought you were from Detroit, Tis?

No I was born/raised in Grand Rapids. My mom lived in Detroit for a while as a young girl and much of my mom's side of the family in Detroit (now in the suburbs or outside area). I used to love visiting there. Tho G.R is the 2nd largest city (Lilo can correct me if that's no longer the case), it never had that same look as the Motor City.

Btw, let's not forget Michigan's pride: Motown Baby!!! I'm proud to have been in THAT generation when it hit the scene. So cool!!

TIS

You're not old enough to remember Motown, Tis .

PB I like you!!! You're saying just the right things. LOL

(check's in the mail)


TIS

This isn't a shocker. That city is rotten to the core.

It's a sad state of affairs. High crime led to vacant properties which led to more crime which led to more vacant properties. Horrible cycle. They said on the local news this morning that the population has shrunk from 2 million to 700,000, that only 40% of the street lights work in the city. They also gave numbers on vacant properties but I can't remember them and don't want to misquote.

Yes, it sure is and in a great country like America.

But lets us look at this closer...

Who can we blame for this? How do you think people will twist things so the blame falls on someone else.... rather then the real reason this happen....

I know lets blame.....

Lets blame all the people who bought imported cars.

Sure How about NIXON!

DT, unfortunately, that's what happens when you put all your eggs in one economic basket. Ask the people of Ulster County, NY. At one time, they had the lowest unemployment and the highest salaries in the country. Then IBM left over a decade ago. The area still hasn't fully recovered.

New York City was probably headed in a similar direction in the 1980s. It was a tourism hell, and was one of the most frightening places on the planet. However, they got Giuliani. Say what you will about him, but he helped turn it into one of the safest large cities in the world. He got rid of the squeegee men, which nobody, including me, thought he could accomplish. Times Square was turned around under his administration.

It was accomplished very quickly, too. He subscribed to a then relatively unknown theory that came out of Harvard (May be wrong on Harvard, but I think it was) called The Broken Window Theory. The theory is that if you go after so-called Quality of Life crimes, like jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk, loitering, graffiti, etc., you will eventually stop other crime.

The theory is that if you have a vacant house and one person throws a rock and breaks one of the windows, it somehow gives permission for other crimes to be committed there. Other people break windows. Then someone graffitis on the outside walls. The next thing you know, it's a crack house. One small crime leads to the proliferation of other, more serious crimes.

I tried to make sense of this article and after re reading twice i still couldnt, maybe someone else might be able to understand it(it might help you find some1 to blame)

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2569481

some people let other things cloud their judgement

the citizens of Detroit didn't have shit to do with detroits economy crash

It was the corrupt politicians and the fact that Detroit had one industry they relied on for way too long a time

The citizens of detriot were directly responsible for the fiscal situation. Nobody forced them to elect the progressive democrats, year after year after year, that destroyed the city's balance sheet with public sector union pensions and big-ticket development scams. To fund these unsustainable pensions they repeatedly raised taxes and made detriot extremely business hostile. This is really the turn of events now being seen in CA too- although perhaps little less "blue collar" like corruption that was going on in Detroit public office.

The other less mentioned for PC reasons for collapse was the rise of racial politics in the city of Detroit- as chronicaled in the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/d...4871_story.html



I expect other cities like LA to be next on the list. The unfunded pension liabilities in many CA cities are insane. This is the end game when economic realities finally hit the la-la land of political public sector union corruption and Keynesian Economics of "debts don't matter because we owe them to ourselves". Lot of good that did detriot.

As for the judge ruling this bankruptcy "unconstitutional" according to the Detroit Free Press, “the Michigan Constitution prohibits actions that will lessen the pension benefits of public employees.” Which means that, in Michigan, reality is unconstitutional. The creditors are hosed- whether or not bankruptcy is announced or not doesn't matter, nobody is left to make good on these promises.

Little Nicky, you hit it out of the park. Couldn't agree more

The article states thst retirees and pensioners filed a motion in state court to prevent the city and state from filing for bankruptcy. Their argument is that it violates the state constitution, which holds thqat the state or city can not diminish or stop earned pensions. Although the city filed for bankruptcy in federal court, the state court issued a preliminary order blocking the city's bankruptcy request.

The argument of the pensioners is that by filing for bankruptcy, the city is necessarily reducing, if not eliminating their rights to their pensions. The city would argue that they are not attacking the pensions, but taking a broader step to address 60 years of financial problems, and they can n ot say whether or not the pensions will be affected as a collateral consequence.

While the constitutionality issue may be argued on appeal in the state system, it is believed that the federal bankruptcy court, applying state law, can make a decisive ruling on the issue.

Look for the bankruptcy to proceed.

Its Trayvon Martin's fault.

so the citizens of Detroit all got together and planned to ruin their city?

Good god you are simplistic. Read the article. Detroit's inhabitants elected corrupt politicians that destroyed their checkbooks, pension plans and development. You know why no one's getting benefits anymore? Ask all the corrupt individuals in Detroit who ran scam after scam and robbed the people. In addition like Little Nicky said, higher taxes to fund these precious pension plans made it a less attractable place to do business. Combine that with the collapse of the auto industry, the white flight and the rise of crime you have a living hell of a city. The nationwide average of a cop arrival after a 911 call is 11 minutes. You know what it is in Detroit? 58 minutes. People set houses on fire for fun! Nature is reclaiming old abandoned parts of the city. Something has to be done and it has to be drastic and personally I think Rick Snyder, whom I admire, is up to the task.

Little nicky hit it on the head. When are democrats going to realize the inherent corruption that practically comes with your democratic party registration. Look at all the states run by the Republian party. Texas, best economy in the county, very low unemployment; no state income tax. Florida, see texas. Tennessee; see texas.
Now; California, ridiculously high taxes, high unemployment, unfunded public sector union pensions through the roof.
Michigan; see california.
Illinois; see california.


You can truly tell what a political party is like when it is left to its own devices...

See Texas, Florida and Tennessee for some of the worst public education in the country. Of course they have no taxes. They pay their teachers next to nothing, and they get what they pay for. They also tax the hell out of tourists (at least Florida does), plus Florida has a huge population of taxpayers that don't utilize any of the services, aka snowbirds. And there's low unemployment? Where do they all work? At The Gap? Or The Cheesecake Factory? Places like Florida, Arizona and Nevada were the first states to start the housing debacle, and they still haven't recovered.

I'll pay my high taxes in NY and at least I'll know that my kids will get a decent education and my house isn't going to fall into a sinkhole.

Wow, so ALL minorities just work the system and don't contribute? That's nice. Nope, no racists here.

Sicilian babe. What you just said; proving my point. LIbearls are more concerned with makign people pay their fair share than having a good economy. They don't seem to realize the two are interrelated.
I dont think you understand that high taxes disincentivize investment. Yeah, its easy for New York to tax people becasue everyone want to live there. But for states that dont' have that luxury, they need to incentivise investment, and the best way to do that is lessening the regulatory and tax burdens on entrepeneurs.
Me and nicky grew up in Indiana, and guess what, its not exactly a hot spot for tourism. So to strengthen the economy, Indiana made it more business friendly.

YOu want a good education? Send your kid to private school.

What you said, spoken like a true liberal who has no idea about economics or finance. You probably studied poly sci or philosophy.

Enough with claiming everyone is racist when they say non-racist things. It's getting old.

And by the way. New York City was in its best economic shape when Rudy G was running it. He lowered the taxes. Im sure you forgot about that.

Gee, Vinny, that just shows how little you know. I was a business major in college and spent 14 years in economic development, 6 of them as Vice President of my local agency. I worked closely with the Pataki administration during NY's economic heyday and my county had the lowest unemployment numbers in the country. And when I left there, I spent 9 very successful years working in commercial real estate in the sale and leasing of industrial and office space. So, don't ever assume that I don't know about business and economics. I know more than most people.

Yes, incentives work to a point. However, without the infrastructure and demographics to make a business successful, all the incentives in the world aren't going to make a bit of difference. In other words, you can throw all the money you want at a biochemical company, but if you have don't have a highly educated workforce to offer, or excellent infrastructure with no power interruptions, or excellent schools to offer the families of the workers, then you're not going be able to attract high tech business. And that's where the real money is.

Perhaps you can attract WalMart with low taxes and crappy public education. Maybe you can get a job as a greeter.

And if you look at my post in the Detroit thread, you will see how much I admire Mayor Giuliani and all he did for the city of NY.

The original post was edited to remove the remarks about ALL MINORITIES voting Democrat so that they can work the system and freeload. If that's not a racist statement, then I don't know what is. Obviously, the original poster thought better of it and took it out of their post, so don't think I'm making this shit up. It was a racist statement, and they obviously realized it and deleted it from their post.