Quote Originally Posted by BankruptcyGuy View Post
I try to limit the schadenfreude, but so many people I know in Chicago basically considered Detroit's BK as a confirmation of how bad the City was. Management? Yes. People? No. So forgive me if I don't feel the sympathy for the average Chicagoan who would be impacted.
#snort

Chicagoans were, let's call it what it was, gloating about Detroit's woes? Chicago is the textbook example of government corruption and bungling taken out to the logical extreme. Corrupt and venal New York City politicians used to look at Chicago with envy. Chicago is the city where Alphonse Capone was considered by the masses to be a great civic benefactor and philanthropist, and folks seemed perfectly happy to turn a blind eye to where the money to support the philanthropy [[which was, admittedly, a real thing) came from, or how much blood was running into the storm drains of Chicago to protect Mr. Capone's business interests. And at least he was an honest crook!

Detroit is simpler and less about greed or avarice than about stupor. Detroit waxed fat and happy as a one-industry town for the better part of a century. Think North Carolina with textiles or central upstate New York with consumer electronics, but as even a greater share of the overall economy and lasting longer. When the one industry could no longer sustain the jobs and economy it had long done, for several reasons and nobody in particular to blame, Detroit simply did not have the political or cultural infrastructure to pivot, and this is still part of the overall problem with southeast Michigan in general. Add to that the inanity of home rule and the existence of about as many suburban cities and towns as there are countries in the United Nations, and you have all the ingredients you need for a big, heaping bowl of disaster soup.

So, BK, I have just about as much empathy for the good people of northeastern Illinois as you do, and maybe even just a wee bit less