>>>>The juxtaposition of those two articles has me wondering one question: why is avoiding a municipal bankruptcy such a high priority?

There are some substantial differences to municipal bankruptcy that are different than Chapter 11 [[especially a Chapter 11 where the Federal Government and the Judges involved were able to bend the rules a little for the greater good)......

1) In Michigan, the state must give permission for a municipality to file Chapter 9, the bankruptcy for municipalities- normally other things such a receiver must be tried first [[or the legislature would have to change the law for Detroit)
2) Chapter 9 bankruptcy is uncommon and not well defined in case law. Vallejo California [[which filed chapter 9 last year is yielding some interesting appeals and judgments, but these would not be binding in the 6th circuit generally and could both delay the process [[increasing costs) and be of high risk [[neither side knows what the outcome of many unsettled issues would be)
3) Also, the interplay between the Michigan Constitution [[and other law) and the power of chapter 9 to tear up contracts would become a huge battle. Pensions [[but not benefits) of governmental employees are protected fully under the Michigan Constitution. The intial rulings in Vallejo [[being appealed in Vallejo and, again not binding in Michigan and likely to be relitigated) gave public sector employees less protection than the private sector in certain aspects of contractual protection. Fighting this out would be a battle royale. I am not sure the state and federal governments are ready to give "backup" to Mayor Bing on this at this point.......