Thought Experiment: Protecting Our Cultural Assets in Bankruptcy

In a municipal bankruptcy, as I understand it, some preference is given to protecting the filing community, so as not to further undermine its ability to pay its bills. That said, I was thinking about how the city should naturally seek to sell its external assets first, since these arguably have the least impact on city residents.

In this vein, it occurred to me that one of the city's largest assets outside of 8 mile is possibly water pipes. Does the city own the water pipes it has laid north and west of the city? If so, what is the going rate for scrap metal these days, and what might all the pipe weigh? Could we send an army of scrapers to go get them, and at what cost?

If we did this, how much money could we generate, and what kind of incentive could this create for people to relocate into the city proper [[where public water is available)? Also, wouldn't we have to prioritize this kind of strategy over, say, selling a Van Gogh or a Rhino, since those city assets are technically being used by city residents at this time, whereas the water pipes in other places are not?

Its just a thought experiment...

1953

P.S. How does one decide which has to be sold first, a Rhino or a Van Gogh? Could we choose to sell a police car first, if we decide that culture IS indeed the purview of city government [[as has widely be accepted for decades)?