Amid Detroit bankruptcy, residents grapple with poverty and unemployment (2013, unemployment rate)

[NewJerseyMemories]

Very interesting article.

Amid Detroit bankruptcy, residents grapple with poverty and unemployment - The Washington Post

[Cliffie]

I was heartened reading this to see Detroit's unemployment rate has dropped to "only" 16% -- it was close to 30% at the deepest part of the recession trough. Still about 4x too high, but every little bit helps.

In a related story, today on NPR they were interviewing Detroiters about the tax collection problems they have. It was astounding. They painted a picture of people who never get a tax bill even when they CALL AND ASK FOR ONE, and people who have been trying to pay their outstanding taxes but can't get anyone to trouble themselves to accept the payment. They've been driven in some cases to simply leave their payments with other city offices, because the tax office is always closed when they go there. One man pointed out that it's kind of a fool's errand for him to make all this effort, camping out at the building hoping it will open some day so he can get caught up, when there are no city services (police, fire, water, etc.) and haven't been for years. "In Detroit you're on your own," he sighed. This man, I want to add, has been out of work for 4 years and still making an effort to pay his taxes.

I wonder if we would even be talking bankruptcy for the city if there were any meaningful effort to COLLECT REVENUES.

[Retroit]

The article makes it seem like this is a Detroit-only problem.

[zthatzmanz28]

Or that it is something new. This has been an on going problem, not created by a silly bankruptcy..