Bankrupt Detroit

The City of Detroit declared bankruptcy yesterday, the largest municipality in United States history to do so.

Here is a tiny subset of issues that precipitated the filing:

• Detroit has 100,000 creditors
• Detroit has at least 18 billion dollars in accrued obligations
• Detroit experienced a 63% decline from a peak of 1.8 million residents to the current 706,585. To put this in perspective, Detroit has a smaller population than Columbus, Ohio or Austin, Texas.
• Detroit hosts 78,000 abandoned structures.
• More than half of Detroit’s 305,000 properties did not pay their tax bills (2011 statistic)

On the city services level, which directly affects people, Detroiters experience:

• an average police response time of 58 minutes compared to a national average of 11 minutes.
• 8.7% of crimes are solved in Detroit compared to 35.5% statewide. Commit a crime in Detroit and there’s a 91.3% chance you won’t get caught. CRIME PAYS IN DETROIT.
• 40% of Detroit’s street lights don’t work.
• 33% of city ambulances are functional. That’s one out of three.

On the brighter side, the small core of downtown Detroit, emanating from the Renaissance Center is beginning to thrive. Buildings are being purchased, restored and populated with automotive, medical and financial white collar workers. This has little to do with the average citizen of Detroit, with 36% of the population at or below the poverty line and with a 47% literacy rate.

The citizens of Detroit need and deserve the most basic of civil services, those being adequate and reliable:

• police protection and response time
• fire protection and response time
• street lighting
• garbage collection

With the bankruptcy filing these much needed resources can be prioritized and improved. Detroit can move forward from there. As for me, I want to visit the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts) before the 60,000 paintings, sculptures and other works of art potentially sold off (the Emergency Financial Manager ordered them appraised). More on this later.