Detroit’s 60-Year Decline into Bankruptcy Hell.docx

Detroit’s 60-Year Decline into Bankruptcy HellThe “Motor City” has been singing the blues for decades.By?ERIC PIANIN, The Fiscal TimesJuly 21, 2013Some time back in the early 1990s, I returned to my hometown of Detroit and took a ride on the “People Mover,” an elevated train that looped through the Motor City. The federally funded project was supposed to help revive a downtown in need of a jumpstart, but instead it showcased the plight of a once-great city caught in a downward spiral.?My brief trip around Detroit that one Friday afternoon revealed a shocking and troubling insight: My sister and I were practically the only passengers on the train. And at virtually each of the 13 stops along the way, we were greeted with boarded up or dilapidated buildings.?J.L. Hudson Co., which once loomed as the city’s premier department store, was abandoned and ghostly. The People Mover was supposed to be the feather in the cap of Detroit’s long-time mayor, Coleman Young, but it became a cash suck for a city destined for financial ruin.RELATED:? SEE IMAGES OF DETROITS ABANDONED HOMES???I couldn’t help but recall that fateful trip late last week after Detroit—having piled up as much as $20 billion in debt—had filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. Once the nation’s fourth largest city, it now faces prolonged legal challenges that likely will force major cutbacks to already pathetic levels of policing, education, and social services. Municipal workers who have soldiered through the blight will likely face cuts to their retirement, health, and pension benefits.“These are problems of Detroit’s own making,” Kevyn Orr, the emergency financial officer put in charge of the city by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder,? told MSNBC on Friday, in dismissing talk about a possible government bailout. “We’ve dug this hole of our own making. We need to dig our way out of it.”AN EXPENSIVE BANDAID ON A BLEEDING ARTERY?Detroit’s People Mover in a small way epitomized much of what has led to the biggest mu