(Official) Detroit Will File For Bankruptcy As Early As 7/19/13 (Coleman: crime, neighborhoods)

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by mintgum84

Crazy times. How does a city of c. 1m people amass 18.6 bn dollars in debt!

Will this open the flood gates is the real question. I mean will we see cities country wide now filing for bankruptcy?

Probably not. Most cities have taken steps in recent years to cut costs. Detroit has been putting this off because they didn't want to offend anyone who has been making money off of Detroit.

Also, few cities have lost as many residents as Detroit. So they still have an adequate tax base.

[citylove101]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Probably not. Most cities have taken steps in recent years to cut costs. Detroit has been putting this off because they didn't want to offend anyone who has been making money off of Detroit.

Also, few cities have lost as many residents as Detroit. So they still have an adequate tax base.

^^This. If enough people say it enough times, maybe the point will get through: Bankruptcy is rare and cities choose it only as a very last resort when nothing else works. In most places something works.

[313Weather]

So apparently, an emergency hearing was scheduled today at 4:00 PM today to grant the pensioners' request to place a temporary restraining order on a bankruptcy filing.

Essentially, Snyder's attorney asked everyone to delay the start of the case for 5 minutes, and everyone agreed. Within that 5 minutes, the bankruptcy petition was filed. The judge, who was also surprised, proceeded to inform the parties in the courtroom that the petition was filed at 4:06 PM.

http://www.freep.com/article/2013071...pension-ingham

[zthatzmanz28]

Originally Posted by City Guy997S

There are plenty of US cities that will be forced to do this as well. The rising costs of pensions/healthcare and dwindling cashflow (city taxes/property taxes) are giving them less to work with. You can't pay a guy a great wage for 20 years then pay his pension (based on that 20 year career/inflated wages) for the next 30 years.....it is bad math and will never work out.

More likely the $75K paid to each council member + the $40K to hire aides + $25K for misc + CAR + CREDIT CARD + trips to HAWAII / EUROPE / ASIA + reimbursed misc....It seems to be the elected officals pocketing more money than LABOR.

All the millions Kilpatrick was able to walk away with. Then there's family, friends and partners.

Isn't it time we looked beyond labor and pointed out the people who really control the purse strings>?

[leroythelion]

Originally Posted by BennyBucks

And S&P is at all time highs. What a joke.

I am confused about what this has to do with the corruption and ineptitude of Detroit's leaders. FWIW, both Ford and General Motors are in the S&P 100.

[animatedmartian]

I think truthfully what did Detroit in was the housing bubble of 2008. Prior to the 2010 census, Detroit's population looked like it was leveling out. There were even lots of plans for redevelopment all across the city. That no doubt would have increased the tax base and perhaps would have given the city a chance to avoid bankruptcy.

But idk, there's other key points in the city's history that are coulda, woulda, shoulda. At this point, I just want the city to improve so I don't have to move to Chicago for decent bus service.

[zach_33]

I hope bankruptcy fixes Detroit's emergency response issues. I know there are other issues to contend with, but this whole thing about people being shot in the head and needing to wait 90 minutes for an ambulance - that is messed up and completely unacceptable, in my opinion. Perhaps the federal government (i.e., the people of the United States) should kick down $20 billion and put the city in a position to restore services, restore home values, and make it a decent place to live again. In my mind this would be money better spent than the $700 billion approved by GW for banks in the TARP program, or the $1 trillion+ spent on the wars fighting nations with their scary WOMD.

[LeavingDetroit]

Originally Posted by alle

My heart cries for my hometown

While my first inclination was sadness too, I'm re-thinking that position. GM and Chrysler seem to be in a lot better shape financially than they were pre-bankruptcy.

Like GM, bankruptcy can only help Detroit

If Detroit could talk, I think she would say "Don't Cry for Me"

Whitney:

Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You - YouTube

Hometown girl Madonna (well Rochester):


Evita Soundtrack - 11. Don't Cry For Me Argentina - YouTube

[LeavingDetroit]

Now this thought does make me cry..

http://fox59.com/2013/07/18/detroit-...#axzz2ZSR1Tx50

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by citylove101

No they're not plenty of cities ready to declare bankruptcy. Not even close. Its an extremely, extremely rare occurence, which is why it's all over the papers and TV. Cities have been mismanaged, corrupt, crime-filled, and poor for decades all over the country and hardly any of them declare bankruptcy.

Detroit is unique in that it had only one major employer (the car industry) which shrank and then collpased, and the size of its middle-class exodus over the past 60 years which cut its population by more than half.

Trying to maintain the same civic services and infrastructure you had when you had 1.8 million people now that you have 700,000 or so -- with many of them too poor to contribute to the local economy -- is impossible. Detroit, for all the reasons people commonly cite, could never made the adjustment. Other cities did.

To repeat: Filing for bankruptcy is extremely rare. Some smaller cities like Central Falls RI and Stockton CA have done so recently, but I bet if you toted up the muni bankruptices in the entire US in the past year you woildn't need two hands.

Detroit is the 4th city to declare bankruptcy in the last 2 years. As revenue falls and costs rise there will be more. Stigma is gone, more cities will do it in the future.

Debt market will get spooked and not refinance cities out of their debt so it will cause a rise due to lack of bond financing. COUNTRIES are going broke (Greece, Portugal, Spain) so cities will certainly do it.