Detroit Files for Bankruptcy

[coldstream]

It sounds contradictory.. but the worst thing Detroit could do is to stop investing in itself. Sports venues have become the cathedrals of the 21st Century.. forming a civic identity. Detroit's problem is NOT spending... it is the collapse of the manufacturing of automobiles in America.. spurred by Free Trade.

 

[Walter]

George has it right.

George F. Will: Detroit’s death by democracy - The Washington Post

 

[gopher]

Many years ago Republican Orange County, California went bankrupt because its upper middle class population refused to pay taxes and made bad investments. Naturally it got bailed out by taxpayers.

But who was responsible for the mess?


Let's say it all at once, boys and girls:


BLAME OBAMA!
BLAME OBAMA!
BLAME OBAMA!

 

[Omicron]

Many years ago Republican Orange County, California went bankrupt because its upper middle class population refused to pay taxes and made bad investments. Naturally it got bailed out by taxpayers.

But who was responsible for the mess?


Let's say it all at once, boys and girls:


BLAME OBAMA!
BLAME OBAMA!
BLAME OBAMA!

Alberta went bankrupt once.

 

[spaminator]

 

[gopher]

Alberta went bankrupt once.

I sure Obama had something to do with it, too.

 

[Locutus]

Detroit Police Chief James Craig on DPD inefficiencies: 'I wish I could make this stuff up'

Detroit Police Chief James Craig came to Detroit as a department outsider and has in his first month tallied an unhealthy number of baffling observations.

"I wish I could make this stuff up," said Craig Thursday after sharing some of those findings with media.

The city received a nearly $400,000 federal grant to purchase a new Special Response Team BearCat, an armored personnel carrier.

"But for whatever reason we decide and let the grant lapse and at the last minute a local law enforcement partner took advantage of it and now has this SRT vehicle," said Craig. "This is only one of many, so we're taking a very critical look at the grants we should have gotten, didn't get because they just lapsed."

Craig continued to rattle off "troubling" issues.

The city had 53 brand new Dodge Chargers sitting in a warehouse collecting dust waiting to be used as police vehicles. Craig says the department has Department of Justice grant funds to equip them, but action has yet to be taken.

"It's bizarre, I know," said Craig.

Furthermore, Craig said, the city continues to maintain lease agreements on patrol vehicles, some well over five years old.

Based on the cost of the leases, Craig said some of the vehicles could have been purchased outright "over and over again."

"When I've asked the question, I've gotten different answers," Craig said. "And some of these lease vehicles that we're paying on have blown engines, so they're not even operational.

"You may detect a little frustration in my voice, but again it goes back to... accountability, status quo, no sense of urgency."

In addition to the idle Dodge Chargers, the department has a helicopter it received via a U.S. Military grant that is awaiting City Council approval to activate for use.


more


Detroit Police Chief James Craig on DPD inefficiencies: 'I wish I could make this stuff up' | MLive.com

 

[hunboldt]

Whatever - Care to postulate on Muslim Tea-Baggers?

Yeah, doesn't support the stereotypical statement, therefore we shan't be expecting any depth of commentary anytime soon




Whatever it takes to help you sleep at night

sure why not...

Everybody's into integration and understanding these days, CM...

 

[DaSleeper]

Yer right spammy nobody uses records any more......go for the CD....

 

[hunboldt]

Yer right spammy nobody uses records any more......go for the CD....

correctional detention?

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

I sure Obama had something to do with it, too.

It's because he's a Kenyan Muslim socialist who wants to destroy Canada.

 

[Locutus]

VIDEO: Looters trash Detroit gas station - YouTube

animals

 

[Highball]

Wait until they are joined by multitudes of US major cities. Oakland, CA., Richmond, CA., Tacoma, WA., Chicago and Cicero, Ill. Many are just getting through with the preliminaries now.

 

[Locutus]

Just because these schools have been dismal failures doesn't mean anything will change, but every student is worth $7,190 so let's see how many can be dragged in.

Reader Tips - Small Dead Animals

Detroit Public Schools volunteers try to recruit students from nearby neighborhoods

Detroit Public Schools volunteers try to recruit students from nearby neighborhoods | The Detroit News

 

[JLM]

From all the posts I've seen here, one gets the impression that the city is just a wasteland of squalor and poverty. It is very surprising to me in a city of a million people there are no upscale neighbourhoods or prospering industry. Surely these could be achieved by a few people with a little imagination, ambition and resourcefulness. Or are there just a million dead beats?

 

[hunboldt]

From all the posts I've seen here, one gets the impression that the city is just a wasteland of squalor and poverty. It is very surprising to me in a city of a million people there are no upscale neighbourhoods or prospering industry. Surely these could be achieved by a few people with a little imagination, ambition and resourcefulness. Or are there just a million dead beats?

yep.

 

[Locutus]

Thousands of wild dogs roam Detroit. Article includes the adjective "post-apocalyptic"

As many as 50,000 stray dogs roam the streets and vacant homes of bankrupt Detroit, replacing residents, menacing humans who remain and overwhelming the city’s ability to find them homes or peaceful deaths.



Dens of as many as 20 canines have been found in boarded-up homes in the community of about 700,000 that once pulsed with 1.8 million people. One officer in the Police Department's skeleton animal-control unit recalled a pack splashing away in a basement that flooded when thieves ripped out water pipes.


more Resident Evil stuff


Abandoned Dogs Roam Detroit in Packs as Humans Dwindle - Bloomberg

 

[spaminator]

 

[tay]

Bidding on more than 20,000 tax-foreclosed properties in Wayne County will begin this week, the vast majority located in Detroit.


The good news is the foreclosure numbers seem to be leveling off from last year, said the Wayne County Treasurer Chief Deputy David Szymanski. But up to 12,000 of the properties going up for sale, or about 60 percent, are estimated to be occupied, he said.

“There continues to be a huge, huge problem,” said housing advocate Ted Phillips, who works with owners to avoid foreclosure through the nonprofit United Community Housing Coalition. “We are still helping as many as ever.”

State law requires counties to foreclose after three years of unpaid property taxes. So owners are losing their properties over unpaid taxes, interest and fees from 2010.

Wayne County first sells foreclosed properties at auctions in September, when buyers must pay all debts on properties. Properties that don't sell are auctioned again in October, when opening bids start at $500. When sold, the remaining tax debt and delinquent water bills are erased.

Bidding on properties starts Thursday. And registration runs through Sept. 13 at www.wayne.realforeclose.com. Szymanski warned some properties may be withdrawn from the auction at the last minute because his office allows owners to redeem their properties until Sept. 13.

Szymanski said about 1,300 owner-occupied properties avoided the auction this year through the Step Forward program, which pays up to $30,000 in delinquent taxes and interest and is administered by the Michigan Housing Department Authority. Funding comes from the federal Hardest Hit foreclosure relief program, which allotted Michigan $498 million in 2010 to prevent mortgage foreclosure.

“It was enormous help,” Szymanski said.

Phillips’ group still will work with owners who are overwhelmed by tax debt to try to buy their properties back at the October auction. He has office hours from 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 220 Bagley, Room 912, in Detroit.


more

20K Wayne County foreclosures up for bid | The Detroit News

 

[coldstream]

Detroit is now officially bankrupt and in the hands of a Receiver. Pensioners have the expectation of receiving 16 cents on the dollar.. bond holders (including other pensions funds even less).

That means a police officer or fireman who'd worked 30 years on the promise of a $30m annual pension will have in reduced to $5m, well below the poverty level.

It's coming to a jurisdiction near you. Free Trade, Free Market and Monetarism has destroyed the industrial economies of the U.S. and every other Western Country, including Canada. Without the binding element of an integrated and protected industrial economy... everything else will fall apart.. and sooner rather than later.

This, while Wall Street Investment Bankers and Gobal Trading Oligarchs reap bonuses and capital gains in the $10s (or $100s) of millions a piece.. and are taxed at a small fraction of that rate applied to productive labour.