"How Detroit Went Broke"

[iheartthed]

...and also proved that an austerity regime is not a magic bullet. I mean, glowing praise from Bob Berg aside [[isnt that a little like asking Ari Fleischer his opinions of the Bush administration?) that "fiscal responsibility" came with a giant tax increase and a slashing of services. Which just lead to further exodus and further decline in property values, and further decline in services. It also gave us Poletown type corporate giveaways. THEN when none of that worked, the beginning of massive borrowing.

Does CAY deserve ALL the blame? no. However, he was mayor FOR TWENTY FUCKING YEARS. I don't think it's in anyway unfair to lay quite a bit of it at his feet.

Eh, he balanced the books. That was his job. Did he fail at some other things [[like public safety)? Sure. But lack of fiscal discipline seems to be a misplaced criticism. It's like criticizing Bush for having no minority cabinet appointees...

What struck me last night while I was reading this is that Detroit's revenues have been relatively stable, inflation adjusted, since the city was at peak population. That is something I certainly did not expect to see.

[Hermod]

What struck me last night while I was reading this is that Detroit's revenues have been relatively stable, inflation adjusted, since the city was at peak population. That is something I certainly did not expect to see.

Yes, but if you spend the city money on friends and family instead of workers and doers, you get the current non-functional gummint.