Detroit Emergency Manager

What do think?


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Bardox

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So detroit is set to have an Emergency Manager placed by the state on march 27th. This Manager will have all the authority of the city government. The state is, for all intents and purposes, appointing a king to the largest city in the United States.

Detroit is still suffering financial troubles. They have a $14 billion long term debt with a $327 million deficit. The city is indeed in need of many taxing and spending adjustments. Some see detroit as a microcosm for the country. The Emergency Manager will have absolute power to make any changes he/she sees fit. The people of detroit have no say in what happens.

I ask my fellow LPSG members (especially any in detroit) for your opinion on this move by the state.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2013/03/watch_live_in_appeal_hearing_o.html
 
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Dakota Kid

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Bardox, the emergency manager is the only way anything is going to get done to keep Detroit from going bankrupt. The city council we have here is completely disfunctional and looks at everything with a white vs black agenda :frown1: Just check out the myriad of youtube videos out there. When mayor Dave Bing throws up his hands and welcomes the EM (because he can't get anything done without council approval).....you know things are bad.
 

Bardox

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Bardox, the emergency manager is the only way anything is going to get done to keep Detroit from going bankrupt. The city council we have here is completely disfunctional and looks at everything with a white vs black agenda :frown1: Just check out the myriad of youtube videos out there. When mayor Dave Bing throws up his hands and welcomes the EM (because he can't get anything done without council approval).....you know things are bad.

I've been following the story for a while now. Seen some of the youtube videos and articles from various sources. Everyone seems to have a different view of this. I personally have mixed feeling about it. I agree something has to be done, but putting so much power in a single person who cannot be held accountable to the public just seems wrong to me. I personally think detroit citizens must brace themselves and grit and bear it if the financial problems are going to be addressed.

Thing is, I don't live there nor do I know anyone who does. There is a ton of things that happen that never make it into the news or on youtube. There for... thread...
 

ColoradoGuy

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So detroit is set to have an Emergency Manager placed by the state on march 27th. This Manager will have all the authority of the city government. The state is, for all intents and purposes, appointing a king to the largest city in the United States.

Detroit is still suffering financial troubles. They have a $14 billion long term debt with a $327 million deficit. The city is indeed in need of many taxing and spending adjustments. Some see detroit as a microcosm for the country. The Emergency Manager will have absolute power to make any changes he/she sees fit. The people of detroit have no say in what happens.

I ask my fellow LPSG members (especially any in detroit) for your opinion on this move by the state.

Watch live: In appeal hearing over emergency manager, Detroit City Council looks to ‘set the record straight’ | MLive.com

I don't see much of an alternative, however I'm not sure the "King" analogy is entirely correct. (Maybe I've been watching too much Game of Thrones, though.) This type of emergency oversight has been done before in the US: Harrisburg, PA is under state control and has been since 2011. For a while, Atlantic City was under state control of New Jersey. I think it's the next logical step for any dysfunctional city after all other attempts have failed.

Huffington Post has an entire page of Detroit-related news reports and commentaries here.
 

Dakota Kid

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One other thing about the Emergency Manager here in Michigan. Right now, we're obviously dealing with the City of Detroit. But we've already had 5 other cities that have had EM's appointed- Pontiac, Ecorse, Benton Harbor, Flint, and Allen Park. These date back to 2009. Most folks outside (including many residents here) have no idea that the EM has been used so often, and with decent results, I might add. The only reason this has gone national is the incredibly inept, Detroit city council is fighting it so vigorously.
 

ColoradoGuy

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One other thing about the Emergency Manager here in Michigan. Right now, we're obviously dealing with the City of Detroit. But we've already had 5 other cities that have had EM's appointed- Pontiac, Ecorse, Benton Harbor, Flint, and Allen Park. These date back to 2009. Most folks outside (including many residents here) have no idea that the EM has been used so often, and with decent results, I might add. The only reason this has gone national is the incredibly inept, Detroit city council is fighting it so vigorously.

Entirely correct... it's an issue because they wanted it to be and of course, it was played up by the media.
 

Dakota Kid

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Sell Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to Ontario? Canada seems to be doing relatively well these days and Michigan could use the money.
Hey now.......Canada is already getting the new bridge and it's revenues. Don't get greedy :tongue:
 

Dakota Kid

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Perados

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at the end, should detroid really go bust, the state or federall goverment will have to pay... cause of this, the state has every right to prevent sutch an szenario. and even replace the city gov. by an emergency manager.

just to know, that the mayor could get disempowered by someone, should create new forces to fight the problems
(but as it sounds, they get used to fight the EM)

similar problems, the USA have at the "rust belt", germany has at the "Ruhrarea". Similar industry and similar structural problems. A lot of cities had or have an EM. We started the structural reforms already in the 1990´s. With support of the federall gov., we took the "cultural heritage" of the old industry and use it now for events and cultural happenings... it looks like it works.
 
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ColoradoGuy

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Well, it's official now, the Emergency Manager has been picked. Many around here are saying it may be too late to save Detroit from bankruptcy. Wishing Kevyn Orr the luck he'll certainly need to save our once great city.

Bankruptcy Expert Named Detroit Emergency Manager - ABC News

What 'big' assets does the city have that they can sell to private concerns? (If the highways were in better shape, those could be turned into toll roads.) What else is there?

I do think it's a matter of restructuring and taking control of the City Council. Unfortunately, any restructuring eventually visits the pensions and benefits of current and retired employees. This is a big budget issue that many localities and states have yet to address. In 2011, the Washington Post reported that these are underfunded by as much as $1.5 trillion across the US.
 

Dakota Kid

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What 'big' assets does the city have that they can sell to private concerns? (If the highways were in better shape, those could be turned into toll roads.) What else is there?
Assets would be Joe Louis Arena, Belle Isle(a city park island in the Detroit river that is basically a drug den), and the biggest being the Detroit Water Sewer Department. The DWSD services water to all of Detroit and the neighboring burbs....guessing 4 mil people total. It's the only thing that's been keeping them afloat the last few years.

This statement from Tom Barrow came out today and really surprised me. I use to enjoy his radio talk show many years ago on a local station. Not that I agreed with him all that much, but he was someone I respected and enjoyed hearing his opinion on the current events.
VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought | Local, national and world news from a people's perspective

If not an EM, it's certain bankruptcy for Detroit along with the probable loss of the city worker pensions. At least this way, they may be able to dig out of the sinkhole they are in by restructuring contracts and priortizing needs. Kevyn Orr certainly has his hands full.
 

ColoradoGuy

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Assets would be Joe Louis Arena, Belle Isle(a city park island in the Detroit river that is basically a drug den), and the biggest being the Detroit Water Sewer Department. The DWSD services water to all of Detroit and the neighboring burbs....guessing 4 mil people total. It's the only thing that's been keeping them afloat the last few years.

This statement from Tom Barrow came out today and really surprised me. I use to enjoy his radio talk show many years ago on a local station. Not that I agreed with him all that much, but he was someone I respected and enjoyed hearing his opinion on the current events.
VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought | Local, national and world news from a peopl
e's perspective

If not an EM, it's certain bankruptcy for Detroit along with the probable loss of the city worker pensions. At least this way, they may be able to dig out of the sinkhole they are in by restructuring contracts and priortizing needs. Kevyn Orr certainly has his hands full.

That's why Orr is making the big bucks. :wink:

I'm shocked Barrow would say that -- everybody knows that the city was going nowhere under the current leadership structure. Although I don't have any knowledge of the ballot issue he referenced (I moved from Ann Arbor years ago), the tenor of his introduction is not constructive.

Sad.
 

danjs584

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I remember seeing something on this a few weeks ago on The Rachel Maddow Show about how most of these cities under emergency managers are worse off now and some of the managers have been mixed up with corruption. Here's a link to the video:

Rachel Maddow Show

The first half of the video mainly goes over the emergency manager law; the second half goes more over the specifics of each city and the alleged embezzlement charged against one emergency manager, and a for-profit company that took over one school system and hired unlicensed teachers.

Yes, I know Rachel Maddow is very left of center, but I happen to agree with her.
 

ColoradoGuy

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I remember seeing something on this a few weeks ago on The Rachel Maddow Show about how most of these cities under emergency managers are worse off now and some of the managers have been mixed up with corruption. Here's a link to the video:

Rachel Maddow Show

The first half of the video mainly goes over the emergency manager law; the second half goes more over the specifics of each city and the alleged embezzlement charged against one emergency manager, and a for-profit company that took over one school system and hired unlicensed teachers.

Yes, I know Rachel Maddow is very left of center, but I happen to agree with her.

I appreciate the share because I don't watch MSNBC much. I have to say, this lends some credibility to that statement from Tom Barrow that Dakota Kid mentioned earlier.

I would hope that an Emergency Manager would weigh consequences of any decision they would make in lieu of elected officials. I can't speak to the embezzlement issue, but then, Kwame Kirkpatrick was elected and corrupt.

I appreciated that Rachel mentioned one success for an EM (about 4:30 in the video), however Rachel didn't mention an alternative... do we let these cities and school districts just go broke? Do we abandon them? It seems that if the local elected officials are failing, the state has to do something.

Michigan has been in the spotlight a lot -- last fall there was Gov. Rick Snyder's attack on unions. I used to have a home there... maybe I got out at the right time?
 

ColoradoGuy

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Good news for Detroit today in the news: Transformers 4 is going to be filmed there and the economic activity is expected to be significant... $90M.

Michigan has agreed to provide $20M in incentives, but I've always wondered if taxpayers get good value for these types of investments.
 

Dakota Kid

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Good news for Detroit today in the news: Transformers 4 is going to be filmed there and the economic activity is expected to be significant... $90M.

Michigan has agreed to provide $20M in incentives, but I've always wondered if taxpayers get good value for these types of investments.
The jury is still out on the benefits of the movie incentives here in Michigan. And calling them incentives is a bit misleading. When I think of incentives, tax breaks come to mind. But these are actually payments from the state that pay for a % of the production crew. They have been reduced drastically since Snyder took office. As I recall, when it was initially established under Granholm, the incentives paid for 40% of the production crews. It was no wonder we had a flood of movies made here :rolleyes:
I never understood why Granholm started them in the first place. Went totally against the liberal mantra of paying your fair share. Here we are bribing the millionaire and billionaire movie makers to come here to make their movies :eek:

Now back to the topic of the Detroit EM. Here's a good interview from last week of Gov Snyder and EM Kevyn Orr by Frank Beckman on Detroit's WJR radio station.
News/Talk 760 WJR - Play Now