Largest American City Under A State Emergency Manager

[Brandon]

Detroit emergency manager to curtail power of mayor, City Council

Gov. Rick Snyder said Friday he is prepared to sideline Detroit's elected officials and bring in an emergency manager to handle the city's affairs in an unprecedented effort to stave off financial collapse.

The move, which the city has 10 days to appeal, would make Detroit the largest American city ever to operate under state control and could effectively leave the mayor and nine City Council members out of a job.

The City has until March 11 to appeal the decision.  After that, the Governor will choose the Emergency Manager.

The review team found Detroit's cash flow deficit is nearly $100 million. That's on top of an accumulated deficit of $327 million. The city also has $14.9 billion worth of unfunded pension and employment retirement liabilities, according to the review team report. In five years, it needs $1.9 billion to begin making payments on the debt.

[cpzilliacus]

The District of Columbia was under something similar in the mid-1990's, when a Control Board, appointed jointly by the President and Congress, effectively took control of the city during the final term of former D.C. Mayor-for-Life Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. in office.

[mgk920]

It will be interesting to see how the Detroit situation plays out, with hard lessons to be learned throughout the rest of the USA as well as in many places elsewhere in the World.  There are many signs of a renaissance in and around the downtown area, but much of the rest of the city is inexorably continuing its death spiral.

I'm also kind of wondering if one of the ultimate solutions would be drastic changes in the city's geography, perhaps as far as a forced metro-wide municipal amalgamation.

Mike

[AsphaltPlanet]

I'm also kind of wondering if one of the ultimate solutions would be drastic changes in the city's geography, perhaps as far as a forced metro-wide municipal amalgamation.

I think there is some merit to that solution.  There are plenty of areas in the Detroit Metro that are affluent with good job prospects.  The idea that people can continue to leave Wayne County for greener pastures surrounding it leaving a smaller and smaller group of people to deal with the increasingly complex social and economic issues is obviously not a viable solution.

[InterstateNG]

I'm also kind of wondering if one of the ultimate solutions would be drastic changes in the city's geography, perhaps as far as a forced metro-wide municipal amalgamation.

I think there is some merit to that solution.  There are plenty of areas in the Detroit Metro that are affluent with good job prospects.  The idea that people can continue to leave Wayne County for greener pastures surrounding it leaving a smaller and smaller group of people to deal with the increasingly complex social and economic issues is obviously not a viable solution.

Will.  Never.  Happen.  For a whole host of reasons.

[Stephane Dumas]

Between that or bankruptcy, I guess the "clowncil" (the municipal council of Detroit is often referred as "clowncil" by posters on the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News) had to guess which one is the less evil.

It's interesting to read various comments elsewhere....
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?15737-EFM-Snyder-to-name-Detroit-emergency-financial-manager
http://www.freep.com/comments/article/20130301/COL06/303010151/Tom-Walsh-Time-has-come-for-Snyder-to-step-in

[InterstateNG]

Much like we've noticed with newspaper stories about new roads or road construction, internet/newspaper commentary should be immediately dismissed.  Many of those people writing in are part of the problem.

[Landshark]

I'm also kind of wondering if one of the ultimate solutions would be drastic changes in the city's geography, perhaps as far as a forced metro-wide municipal amalgamation.

I think there is some merit to that solution.  There are plenty of areas in the Detroit Metro that are affluent with good job prospects.  The idea that people can continue to leave Wayne County for greener pastures surrounding it leaving a smaller and smaller group of people to deal with the increasingly complex social and economic issues is obviously not a viable solution.

Instead of fixing Detroit, expand its borders to mess up even more people/land?  That's nuts.  Detroit is a mess because of Coleman A. Young and his corrupt Democratic machine that has ravaged Detroit for decades.   Detroit can't be trusted to run its own business, so now some adults have to step in to clean up the mess.   I wish them luck, but the corrupt Detroit machine (Democrats, unions) will fight the necessary reforms every step of the way.

[mgk920]

I'm also kind of wondering if one of the ultimate solutions would be drastic changes in the city's geography, perhaps as far as a forced metro-wide municipal amalgamation.

I think there is some merit to that solution.  There are plenty of areas in the Detroit Metro that are affluent with good job prospects.  The idea that people can continue to leave Wayne County for greener pastures surrounding it leaving a smaller and smaller group of people to deal with the increasingly complex social and economic issues is obviously not a viable solution.

Instead of fixing Detroit, expand its borders to mess up even more people/land?  That's nuts.  Detroit is a mess because of Coleman A. Young and his corrupt Democratic machine that has ravaged Detroit for decades.   Detroit can't be trusted to run its own business, so now some adults have to step in to clean up the mess.   I wish them luck, but the corrupt Detroit machine (Democrats, unions) will fight the necessary reforms every step of the way.

And that's precisely why I'm musing that - in the vast majority of the metro area, where the intelligent people live, they have no say in the city's governance because they cannot vote in mayor or city council elections.  And yet the city's current situation reflects badly on them, too.  Amalgamate the metro area, now they have a say and a stake in the game - and the city's 'politic' will be much, much different.

(Anonymous suburbanite) "That city is so screwed up...."
(Me) "Did you vote in the last city council election?"
(Suburbanite) "No"
(Me) "Why not?"
(Suburbanite) "Because I don't live in that city!"
(Me) "Then what are you complaining about?"

What's your solution (besides fleeing to a farther-out suburb)?

Mike

[Scott5114]

A reminder to all to adhere to the forum rules on political discussion...

[Brandon]

Mike, many of those in the outer areas either left the city, or have never been part of the city and really don't care much about the city.  They are where they are, for whatever reason, becaue they do not want to be a part of the city.

[mgk920]

Mike, many of those in the outer areas either left the city, or have never been part of the city and really don't care much about the city.  They are where they are, for whatever reason, becaue they do not want to be a part of the city.

I realize all of that (I do have a degree in urban planning), but unless much more of the metro area is made to have a stake in the game, there will be no long-term solution to that mess.  And like many other metros in the Great Lakes region, metro Detroit is severely 'balkanized', which I firmly believe is one of the main root causes of their problems.  I would be very surprised if more than 15% of the metro's current population, depending on how the metro is geographically defined, now lives inside of the city limits (and thus has a say on how the city is governed).

Mike

[Stephane Dumas]

There a map showing the MSA and CSA of Detroit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DetroitMSA.png  and it goes to include as far as Flint in the north, Ann Arbour to the west, the Ohio border to the south. That don't include the Canadian part with Windsor, ONT where a combined Detroit-Windsor metro include Essex, Lambton, Kent, and Middlesex counties in Ontario.

[empirestate]

Mike, many of those in the outer areas either left the city, or have never been part of the city and really don't care much about the city.  They are where they are, for whatever reason, becaue they do not want to be a part of the city.

The problem, as always, is that city limits are misleading. Those who live in outer areas are part of the city, if not directly within its political borders, then as a product of its central role to the growth and development of the whole region. They may disavow any interest in the city, but it's unlikely they'd disavow interest in the vitality of their own community, and that isn't something that exists independently of municipal boundaries.

I don't have a position on whether consolidation is the right idea or not; there is already a county government encompassing Detroit along with many suburbs, and the decline of Detroit is certainly detrimental to the whole of Wayne County. But it may well be that dividing Detroit into smaller municipalities would work as well as, or better than (or worse than) consolidating the smaller governments or merging them with the county.

What's undeniable, however, is that concern for one's home community can't be limited to the one municipality at the exclusion of the core city, any more than concern for one's physical health can be limited to the fingers at the exclusion of the heart.