Tag Archives | Detroit

Selling off of Detroit Institute of Art’s priceless collection “on the table” to address Detroit’s crushing debt

By on May 24, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Managers

If everything good about Detroit is destroyed, is it still Detroit?

This past Wednesday, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr was in Chicago talking to a group of philanthropists, some of whom are likely holding some of Detroit’s debt, and he told them, “We can’t liquidate or sell off Detroit like many of us do when we go into our representations…This isn’t a traditional reorganization for a profit-making enterprise, this is the saving of a great American city.”

This comment is in stark contrast to the news that came out yesterday that Orr has asked for an appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ priceless collection of art.

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Koch Carbon piling up mountains of potentially toxic petroleum coke on banks of the Detroit River

By on May 20, 2013 in Detroit, Global climate change

What could possibly go wrong?

On the banks of the Detroit River, giant three-story tall mountains of black rock have been accumulating, quickly and quietly enough to take a lot of Detroiters and neighboring Canadians by surprise. The piles are petroleum coke or “pet coke”, a by-product of the processing of tar sands oil from Canada. A newly upgraded Marathon Petroleum refinery in Detroit now allows them to process the tar sands oil, producing copious amounts of the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste product.

A recent New York Times article shows that Michiganders and Canadians alike are concerned by the use of land directly on the Detroit River to store the potentially hazardous pet coke.

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Detroit Public Schools face federal civil rights investigation from Dept of Education over use of Emergency Managers

By on March 27, 2013 in Detroit, Education, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers

The country is waking up to what’s happening in Michigan

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a civil rights complaint over the use of Emergency Managers in the Detroit Public Schools. The complaint alleges that black and brown students are being singled out for takeover of their school systems while kids in majority white districts facing similar financial problems aren’t similarly impacted. It also claims that black and brown students face discipline that their white counterparts do not.

More after the jump.


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There are winners in Detroit’s financial crisis: the banks – and they are shielded from any risk by the new Emergency Manager law

By on March 18, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers

It’s good to be the king banker

There’s a story emerging out of Detroit about the role too-big-to-fail banks have played in the creation of Detroit’s fiscal emergency. Last week, Dave Dayen reported at the National Memo that some banks have begun foreclosure proceedings on homeowners and then simply walked away before taking possession of the property. This leaves evicted homeowners on the hook financially for the home they are no longer permitted to live in. What’s worse is that the banks don’t even have to inform the homeowner or the city of Detroit which no longer receives any tax revenue from the property.

Not only that, banks have been reaping huge profits in debt restructuring fees and, as added salt in the wound of a city in crisis, Republicans have ensured that these same banks will be paid in full as Detroit works to get out from under its crushing debt.

Much more after the jump.


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Programming note: Eclectablog on Aljazeera English TV tonight 8:30p ET on Detroit’s financial emergency

By on March 12, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers

The world IS watching

Tonight I will appear with two other guests on Aljazeera English TV‘s flagship discussion program Inside Story Americas. I and two other guests will be discussing Detroit’s financial emergency and the possible imposition of an Emergency Financial Manager to run the city.

It appears that the decision to overrule local democracy by the state government in our state has attracted attention not just nationally but internationally as well.

You can watch it live at 8:30 p.m. Eastern this evening if you get Aljazeera English TV on your cable network. Alternatively, you can stream it live from their website.…


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Michigan can’t seem to shake the Romneys. Romney for Senate? Romney for Emergency Manager?

By on March 11, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Mitt Romney

The Curse of the Living Romneys

Michigan, a state which had a Romney for governor and then endured over a year’s worth of a man who hasn’t lived here in sixty years telling us he is a Michigander, doesn’t seem to be able wash the Romney kids out of its hair.

First, Slate’s Davie Weigel suggested Mitt Romney as a the perfect candidate to be Detroit’s Emergency Financial Manager. And now Mitt’s older brother Scott Romney is considering a run for Carl Levin’s Senate seat.

Why won’t they leave us alone?

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Republicans dangle money in front of Detroit to encourage acceptance of an Emergency Financial Manager

By on March 8, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers

If it walks like a bribe and quacks like a bribe

Michigan Republicans are hoping that the lure of state cash will entice Detroit city officials into accepting an Emergency Financial Manager without a fuss. After stripping $152.2 million in annual revenue sharing from the city, Republicans are pushing a familiar theme: take away funding or increase taxes then give a bit back to make themselves look benevolent.

Details after the jump.


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It’s official: half of Michigan African Americans will go without democratically-elected local government

By on March 1, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law, Emergency Managers, Rick Snyder

How do you build a city up armed only with implements of destruction?

This afternoon, Governor Rick Snyder announced that he will appoint an Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit calling it a “sad day” that he wished “had never happened in the history of Detroit”. As I have already detailed in a post that has been cited by MSNBC and Huffington Post among others, this will result in 49% of the African Americans in Michigan being without a democratically-elected government.

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The Ghosts of Detroit

By on February 20, 2013 in Detroit

My heart is broken

When Anne and I go to Detroit, and we do so regularly for concerts or the art museum and other events, I always see ghosts.

Ghosts of the grand neighborhoods that once were.
Ghosts of parks as they used to be.
Ghosts of stores and shops and streets that once bustled with vibrant energy.
Ghosts of manufacturing plants that once supplied the world with goods made from steel and heart and sweat.

It breaks my heart to see them as they are today, largely forgotten and unappreciated, often treated with shabby disregard that dishonors an honorable history.…


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Detroit is bankrupt and headed for an Emergency Financial Manager. What is next?

By on February 20, 2013 in Detroit, Emergency Financial Managers, Emergency Manager Law

Control-Alt-Delete

An accumulated deficit of $327 million. Unfunded obligations of nearly $15 billion with almost $2 billion due in the next five years. A District Court that is owed almost $280 million and which collects only 7.7% of what they are owed each year. A nearly $1 billion 2012 deficit masked by long-term borrowing with no foreseeable ability to pay it back. The city’s bond, pension and retiree health care liabilities account for 35 to 42 cents of every dollar the city takes in.

These items and more led to yesterday’s formal declaration by a state financial review team that, yes, Detroit is in a state of financial emergency without a plan to solve it. Not a big surprise to anyone paying attention but one that puts the situation into clear focus.

My analysis after the jump.


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