If Detroit gets an Emergency Manager, what comes next?

**coracle** · January-12-12, 06:22 PM

Danny, looking back on your earlier posts on this subject it seems you have moved from predicting civil disobedience and dire consequences to this latest result of living happily ever after. I wondered what the tipping point was that produced this great result. I can certainly see the Lions winning the Super Bowl at least once in this time period and Matty Moroun being out of jail by then; but I think that the current depopulation is a long way from it's nadir and when it reverses, to reach your 1M most of the time will be taken up by people moving in and out of the city. What will the crime rate be like in your 2050?

**Novine** · January-12-12, 10:41 PM

"So the Emergency Manager will invalidate the "Blue Flu" as well??Wishful thinking. When professionals arent paid what they feel they deserve.... they walk."

Good luck finding a job out there. Most cities are laying off cops, not hiring.

**Hypestyles** · January-13-12, 01:26 AM

highland park pub. schools is getting one now.. I wonder who is going to get that job, or will it get folded into this "statewide failing district" group that's been talked about for a while now..
...it keeps getting closer for detroit..

**Hypestyles** · January-13-12, 01:29 AM

Originally Posted by Danny

I can't wait to see what happen to Detroit in 2050.

Population 999,876

52% white

29% black

15% Hispanic/Mexican

1.5% Asian

Wow! that's almost a million. It's no longer a 'ghetto city' filled with blights and blunders. I can see Downtown Detroit buildings glowing with L.E.D. lights and businesses signs with people walking all over its streets. New exotic retail that rival Ferndale, Birmingham, Royal Oak and Grosse Pointes combined. New fancy condos and lofts and McMansions all over Midtown to once black neighborhoods. People driving flying cars, New subway and light rail system on Woodward Ave. and other main roads all the way the suburbs and beyond. A new and super Cobo Hall Convention Center and goes on for 2 miles. New Stadium called "Dan Gilbert Arena" for The Detroit Pistons. I can see the Lions winning their first Super Bowl, Detroit Tigers winning the World Series, The Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup, The Pistons winning the NBA World Championship all in one decade. I can see Detroit got the Summer Olympic bid for 2060 and won. Finally Detroit city government and council by district [[wards) is back in power. Detroit has been recovered thanks to a long line Emergency Managers.

40 years... great.. i'll be too old to care.. time to start planning a move...

**Wesley Mouch** · January-13-12, 02:47 AM

Originally Posted by truthseeker

So the Emergency Manager will invalidate the "Blue Flu" as well??Wishful thinking. When professionals arent paid what they feel they deserve.... they walk.

Example please.

**erikd** · January-15-12, 01:45 AM

From the article linked at the beginning of the thread:

No matter what series of events deliver you into the jaws of crisis, Disaster Capitalism's menu remains the same: Mass terminations of public employees, the destruction of collective bargaining, the raiding of pensions, the gutting of health care and elimination of other so-called legacy costs. The stage is then set for the privatization of public services such as police, firefighting, public education and the sale of municipal assets--water systems, sewage systems, city owned buildings and land to private corporations.
In a frenzy of cronyism that would likely embarrass the small time hustle of the former Kilpatrick administration, many of the most valuable public assets of the region that happen to be located in Detroit could be handed over for pennies on the dollar to business interests eager to play ball with the Snyder administration. With an emergency manager in control, there will be no transparency, public input or accountability. It's the law.

The fears of an EFM coming into the city and selling off all the public assets for pennies on the dollar, gutting health care and pensions, and privatizing government services for the benefit of corporations at the expense of taxpayers, is a scary scenario, but it is based on many flawed assertions.

First off, the actual value of the city's assets are much lower than the city's debt obligations. Secondly, the vast majority of the city's assets do not generate profits. In fact, they require millions of dollars, every year, from the city in order to operate.

Are you in the market for a firehouse, a library or even a city hall? It seems that Pontiac is holding the mother of all "Going Out of Business" sales. Everything must go, says Emergency Manager Louis Schimmel.Welcome to Crisis Capitalism. This may be an old game, but Detroit is the first major American city where the new template will be test driven: fiscal crisis, suspension of democracy, followed by the rapid, wholesale dismantling of the public sector and privatization of the commons.

Let's get real. Economically distressed cities like Pontiac and Detroit are filled with empty libraries, schools, and other government-owned buildings that they are already trying to sell for pennies on the dollar. In most cases, they are willing to give them away for free if the new owner just agrees to put it back into use. This is the case with even the most desirable properties in downtown Detroit. If a private developer wanted to build on the Hudson or Statler sites downtown, the city would give them the property for free, give them tax breaks, and most likely give them some cash towards the construction as well. I fail to see how an EFM would create some kind of public-to-private land grab. If anything, an EFM situation would only decrease the ability for the city to give multi-miliion dollar cash incentives to private developers.

As far as the other public assets go, they are mostly taxpayer funded operations that do not exist for the purpose of profit generation, but rather for public service.

What would an EFM sell off that would be detrimental to the city? Other than Belle Isle and the DIA, which both would be difficult to sell outright due to legal restrictions, I can't think of much else that would result in harmful effects for city residents.

The city has been talking about selling the lighting department for years. It is a big money drain, it needs tens, if not hundreds, of millions in upgrades, and it provides terrible service. It seems that all of the local municipalities that simply contract out their public lighting systems have better service at a lower cost. Are we really to believe that privatizing Detroit's public lighting will result in higher costs and decreased service? The model seems to work well in many other places....

I can go on point by point, but I will stop here for now...