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We have two camps in Detroit. Those who believe the hype about Detroit’s bankruptcy, and those who don’t. Judge Gerald Rosen, Gov. Rick Snyder and Mayor Mike Duggan congratulated one another on a job well done. Conway McKenzie, a consultant in the bankruptcy that netted $17.5 million from the sordid affair, purchased a full-page color ad in the New York Times congratulating, not the citizens of the city, but the governor, mayor and City Council for a swift conclusion to messy financial business, the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy.
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A gleeful Gov. Rick Snyder and Mayor Mike Duggan announce bankruptcy judge Stephen Rhodes' acceptance of EM Orr's Plan of Adjustment at a press conference, Nov. 7.[/caption]
(By the way, Conway McKenzie also hired former State Treasurer Andy Dillon, in what can only be called an ethically questionable move.)
For many Detroiters, coverage of the Detroit bankruptcy borders on the absurd in its insistence on Detroit’s rebirth, improved city services and a bright future at the cost of democracy and the failure to acknowledge the city’s poverty problem or how the city’s retirees were stripped of constitutionally protected pensions.
Imagine the city’s balance sheet after bankruptcy. All the assets are gone, and everyday life hasn’t changed much. Most aren’t feeling optimistic about the city’s possibilities.
Buried in the news last week behind all the handshaking, was news of recently revealed FBI crime stats which make Detroit the nation’s most dangerous city. Although crime in the city fell from last year, it still has an abhorrent murder and violent crime rate.
This month, it was announced Detroit should expect almost 100,000 more foreclosures, this does not include the other hundreds of thousand of families who have already lost homes.
Nearly $200 million in consultant fees (Conway McKenzie is one) will go to bankruptcy consultants including Jones Day and other groups. This is more than $100 million more than originally estimated, and jeopardizes the city’s ongoing pension obligations.
EMT retirees, part of the Police Officers union, voted to support the bankruptcy along with other public workers’ unions but are now discovering in addition to healthcare and other cuts, they also are having to deal with clawbacks from what they thought were a guaranteed interest rate on annuities. Some have now found they may owe as much as $100,000 or more because the interest rates are no longer guaranteed.
Contrast this news with all the talk of reinvention. It’s hard to ignore the starry-eyed narrative that Detroit reporters insist on using when writing or discussing the bankruptcy.
In a sprawling review of the bankruptcy published in the Detroit Free Press that begins with U.S. District Chief Judge Gerald Rosen on a golf vacation in Florida, the writers describe Rosen “doodling” a plan for the city’s art on the back of a legal pad.
Isn’t this the very-thing our founding fathers hoped to avoid by creating processes and checks and balances. No one wants wealthy men in suits, architects of this manufactured bankruptcy determining their future. After all, it was revealed from emails that were made public, that Gov. Rick Snyder and his administration not only planned the bankruptcy, but engineered an emergency manager-led bankruptcy.
An elected official could have taken Detroit through the same process. Local leaders and input should have put Detroit through bankruptcy, not a few powerful men in suits who went to the same schools, hang out at the same clubs and ultimately agree with one another to shape the fate of a city.
A gleeful Gov. Rick Snyder and Mayor Mike Duggan announce bankruptcy judge Stephen Rhodes' acceptance of EM Orr's Plan of Adjustment at a press conference, Nov. 7.[/caption]
(By the way, Conway McKenzie also hired former State Treasurer Andy Dillon, in what can only be called an ethically questionable move.)
For many Detroiters, coverage of the Detroit bankruptcy borders on the absurd in its insistence on Detroit’s rebirth, improved city services and a bright future at the cost of democracy and the failure to acknowledge the city’s poverty problem or how the city’s retirees were stripped of constitutionally protected pensions.
Imagine the city’s balance sheet after bankruptcy. All the assets are gone, and everyday life hasn’t changed much. Most aren’t feeling optimistic about the city’s possibilities.
Buried in the news last week behind all the handshaking, was news of recently revealed FBI crime stats which make Detroit the nation’s most dangerous city. Although crime in the city fell from last year, it still has an abhorrent murder and violent crime rate.
This month, it was announced Detroit should expect almost 100,000 more foreclosures, this does not include the other hundreds of thousand of families who have already lost homes.
Nearly $200 million in consultant fees (Conway McKenzie is one) will go to bankruptcy consultants including Jones Day and other groups. This is more than $100 million more than originally estimated, and jeopardizes the city’s ongoing pension obligations.
EMT retirees, part of the Police Officers union, voted to support the bankruptcy along with other public workers’ unions but are now discovering in addition to healthcare and other cuts, they also are having to deal with clawbacks from what they thought were a guaranteed interest rate on annuities. Some have now found they may owe as much as $100,000 or more because the interest rates are no longer guaranteed.
Contrast this news with all the talk of reinvention. It’s hard to ignore the starry-eyed narrative that Detroit reporters insist on using when writing or discussing the bankruptcy.
In a sprawling review of the bankruptcy published in the Detroit Free Press that begins with U.S. District Chief Judge Gerald Rosen on a golf vacation in Florida, the writers describe Rosen “doodling” a plan for the city’s art on the back of a legal pad.
Isn’t this the very-thing our founding fathers hoped to avoid by creating processes and checks and balances. No one wants wealthy men in suits, architects of this manufactured bankruptcy determining their future. After all, it was revealed from emails that were made public, that Gov. Rick Snyder and his administration not only planned the bankruptcy, but engineered an emergency manager-led bankruptcy.
An elected official could have taken Detroit through the same process. Local leaders and input should have put Detroit through bankruptcy, not a few powerful men in suits who went to the same schools, hang out at the same clubs and ultimately agree with one another to shape the fate of a city.