Bottom line after Detroit bankruptcy: 200 more police officers, 100 new firefighters. Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, lead Detroit bankruptcy mediator on adjustment plan Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, the lead bankruptcy mediator, thanks a large group of people who worked on Detroit's bankruptcy deal and sacrificed for the greater good during a press conference after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhode's confirmation of Detroit's plan of adjustment at Theodore Levin United States Courthouse in Detroit, Nov. 7, 2014 (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive Detroit) DETROIT, MI -- The city can now afford to hire more police and firefighters.
That's the bottom line after a 16-month court process that came to a triumphant climax Friday with Detroit being authorized to shed $7 billion of debt. "There are going to be more than 200 additional police officers on the street as a result of the plan," said Mayor Mike Duggan. Implementation of an elaborate, 10-year plan to restore long-broken city services is now possible after U.S. Others complied for fear of deeper cuts.
Social crisis in Detroit: An investigative report. Part 1: The spiraling cost of food By Lawrence Porter and Naomi Spencer 20 June 2008 The following is the first of a three-part series. Part two, "The impact of gas prices," followed on June 21; and part three, "Collapse of an American city," concluded the series on June 23. Over the past month, the World Socialist Web Site has conducted an investigation into the impact of rising food and gasoline prices on working class families in the Detroit metropolitan area. Detroit, historically known as the auto capital of the world, has been transformed into the biggest poor city in America, according to the US Census Bureau, with an official poverty rate of 31.4 percent. Detroit has earned this designation several times over the past 30 years as the auto industry destroyed tens of thousands of decent paying jobs.
This once booming city of 2 million has lost more than half of its population, now standing at 900,000, with the exodus accelerating yearly. Signs of distress are readily apparent. Bibliography. Chan, Erin. "Embracing One Community: Metro Detroit's Latino Population expands, extending beyond Mexico for a rich diversity in culture. " The Detroit Free Press, September 15 2006, B1-2. Chan describes Mexicantown's new diversity combining Argentinian, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Mexican cultures. All of these cultures combine to make up Southwest Detroit's Latino population. From 1990 to the present, the Mexican population in Detroit has more than doubled. Rodriguez, Maria-Elena. Anatomy of Detroit’s Decline - Interactive Feature.
Mayor Coleman A. Young of Detroit at an event in 1980. Richard Sheinwald/Associated Press The financial crisis facing Detroit was decades in the making, caused in part by a trail of missteps, suspected corruption and inaction. Here is a sampling of some city leaders who trimmed too little, too late and, rather than tackling problems head on, hoped that deep-rooted structural problems would turn out to be cyclical downturns. Charles E. Bowles, backed by the Ku Klux Klan, was in office for seven months in 1930 before people demanded his removal. His ascension to the mayor's office was followed by a spike in crime, and he was suspected to be linked to some of Detroit's underworld figures, according to “Detroit: A Biography" by Scott Martelle. Edward Jeffries, who served as mayor from 1940 to 1948, developed the Detroit Plan, which involved razing 100 blighted acres and preparing the land for redevelopment. Coleman A.
Kwame M. Related. Motor City: The Story of Detroit. The Detroit Bankruptcy. The Detroit Bankruptcy The City of Detroit’s bankruptcy was driven by a severe decline in revenues (and, importantly, not an increase in obligations to fund pensions). Depopulation and long-term unemployment caused Detroit’s property and income tax revenues to plummet. The state of Michigan exacerbated the problems by slashing revenue it shared with the city. The city’s overall expenses have declined over the last five years, although its financial expenses have increased. In addition, Wall Street sold risky financial instruments to the city, which now threaten the resolution of this crisis.
To return Detroit to long-term fiscal health, the city must increase revenue and extract itself from the financial transactions that threaten to drain its budget even further. The Shortfall Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, asserts that the city is bankrupt because it has $18 billion in long-term debt. Cash flow crisis. Total outstanding debt. Revenue Tax revenue. State revenue sharing. Expenses. Shouting, reflection mark first year free of bankruptcy. Detroit marks one year of freedom today from the nation's largest bankruptcy, but overflowing passions at an event Wednesday night to discuss the state of the city showed some residents remain angered and disappointed by the outcome.
To be sure, the City of Detroit is financially solvent with thousands of new streetlights and its historic art collection preserved. Pensioners get paid despite cuts and key city services have shown signs of improvement. The city's budget is balanced. There is even an expected surplus. Still, the city is struggling to find new solutions to old problems: endemic blight, vacant land, high crime, struggling schools and a looming pension bill that city leaders are struggling to pay off. "I think the city is on the road to recovery," James Spiotto, one of the nation's leading experts on municipal bankruptcy, said in an interview.
To mark the anniversary, the Detroit Journalism Cooperative and Detroit Public Television invited Duggan, Gov. Detroit's population loss slows; some suburbs see gains. Detroit continues to lose residents, but the population loss appears to be slowing, with about 1% moving out between 2013 and 2014, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. In the tri-county area, the Oakland County suburbs of Lyon and Oakland townships and Sylvan Lake, as well as Macomb and Washington townships in Macomb County grew the fastest, according to the estimates. The census makes the estimates annually based on a review of birth and death records, as well as migration. Demographer Kurt Metzger said Detroit's population loss appears to be easing. "It continues to average about 1% loss per year," said Metzger, now mayor of Pleasant Ridge. "That is significantly less than the 2.5% loss per year last decade. " By the city's estimates, Detroit lost about 1,000 residents per month in 2013; that slowed to 500 in 2014, and the number is even lower in 2015.
Mobile users click here to search the population database. Read or Share this story: By 2060, a much more multiracial Michigan will emerge. By 2060, the chance that two randomly selected Michiganders will be of different racial or ethnic backgrounds will increase from 39% to 60%, according to a USA Today Diversity Index, which analyzed census data and demographic trends.
In that time, the state's Hispanic population will more than double, its African-American and Asian populations will increase, and six times as many Michiganders will identify themselves as multiracial, according to projections by USA Today. Yet, even as the state becomes more diverse, its population will not grow as fast as populations in many other states, and Michigan's political clout in the U.S. Congress is likely to diminish. Other states, particularly in the South and Southwest, will benefit from larger and faster-growing numbers of Hispanic Americans. After the 1960 census, Michigan had 19 congressional districts. If trends continue, Michigan could lose another congressional seat, dropping from 14 members in the U.S. Diversity trends for Michigan. Industrialism; urban decay; Census; The collapse of Detroit - latimes. Imagine for a moment that every single person living in the city of San Jose, plus another 150,000 or so, just up and left.
Vanished. Poof. Gone. Leaving their homes, business buildings and factories behind. That is, in effect, what has happened to the city of Detroit, according to 2010 U.S. Census data released this week. It's an unprecedented collapse of a major American city. In Detroit, the loss amounts to a staggering 60% of the city's peak population. There are all sorts of implications here, both for Detroit and for the nation. But there are two larger issues that have broader national implications. The second is, what are we going to do about it? Detroit has played a significant role in my life. Racism plays a significant role too. Detroit stands as the reverse image of what we think a modern American city should be.
To tweak the adage about how it takes a village to raise a child, it will take a nation to save a city. Detroit just filed for bankruptcy. Here’s how it got there. By Brad Plumer By Brad Plumer July 18, 2013 On Thursday, the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy — the largest city in the United States ever to do so. (Carlos Osorio/AP) To get a better sense of just how Detroit got into such dire financial straits, it's worth browsing through this May report on the city's finances and this "Proposal for Creditors" from June. Detroit's emergency manager Kevyn Orr laid out all the problems and economic headwinds facing the city. For instance: — Since 2000, Detroit's population has declined 26 percent. . — The official unemployment is now 18.6 percent, and fewer than half of the city's residents over the age of 16 are working. . — Low tax revenue, in turn, means that city services are suffering. . — High crime and blight are driving even more residents out of the city.
. — Detroit is sagging under decades of bad governance. . — Meanwhile, Detroit owes around $18.5 billion to its creditors. Wonkbook newsletter Your daily policy cheat sheet from Wonkblog. How the poor stay that way. Policy-making is the way we send messages about priorities in our system of government. What's important and what's not. Who's first in line for the fruits of democracy and who's last. So if you're poor, and particularly if you're among the working poor, people who earn paychecks too meager to sustain a family, much less get ahead, what message do you imagine you're being sent by the people of Michigan and their representatives these days?
From where I sit, it looks a lot like this: Drop dead. Let's review a few headlines that rolled out over the last few weeks. On Wednesday, the state Senate passed a package of bills that would strip prevailing-wage requirements out of government construction contracts. Meanwhile, a sensible Democratic proposal to revisit Michigan's nearly unique flat income tax in favor of a graduated tax was greeted with virtual laughter by the majority in Lansing — as if any idea that might ask more of upper-income earners is absurd. 40% of state in poverty.
U.S. trade policies proved disastrous for Detroit, Flint. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and I have differences of opinion on many issues. In no area are our differences stronger than trade policy. In 1960, Detroit was the richest city in America and General Motors was our largest private employer paying union workers a living wage with affordable health care and a secure retirement. Today, Wal-Mart is our largest private employer paying nonunion workers starvation wages with little or no benefits and selling products made in China. America’s radical transformation from a GM economy to a Wal-Mart economy has decimated the middle class, turning Detroit into one of the poorest big cities in America and hollowing out communities across the country. No city in America has suffered more than Flint. Unfettered free trade turned this once-prosperous middle-class city, where residents could own a home, raise a family and retire with security, into a place where good jobs are scarce and extreme poverty is high.
Here is the sad truth. U.S. Detroit’s white population rises. Detroit’s white population rose by nearly 8,000 residents last year, the first significant increase since 1950, according to a Detroit News analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. The data, made public Wednesday, mark the first time census numbers have validated the perception that whites are returning to a city that is overwhelmingly black and one where the overall population continues to shrink. Many local leaders contend halting Detroit’s population loss is crucial, and the new census data shows that policies to lure people back to the city may be helping stem the city’s decline.
“It verifies the energy you see in so many parts of Detroit and it’s great to hear,” said Kevin Boyle, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian who studies the intersection of class, race, and politics in 20th-century America. “The last thing I want to do is dampen the good news, but the problem is Detroit is still the poorest city in the U.S. “I think it’s a trend. “It’s not creating an even playing field.”