Detroit should have gone "cold turkey"

[iheartthed]

I think the article was a little simplistic. Detroit is not nearly the only city with obstinate public employee unions. And Detroit's population loss was exacerbated by a lack of first-generation immigrants; I read a study that showed that 19 of the 20 largest cities in the United States would have lost population would it have not been for an influx of first generation immigrants.

I think the financial stability board will do more to help Detroit than people think. New York [[which is a heavily-union town as well) relied on it to keep spending in check. One of the biggest changes will be that Detroit can no longer accelerate revenue, defer expenses or rely on capital sales to balance its budget. If revenue is down, expenses will have to follow. How Duggan handles that will be the most interesting issue in Detroit over the next 10 years.

I agree with most of this comment. Particularly, if Detroit doesn't start to attract blood from outside the region then it does not have much hope for revival.