Detroit Mayor Bing: "More than 100 urban U.S. cities “are having the same problems we’re having"

Confounded Interest ^ | 07/21/2013 | Anthony B. Sanders

[whitedog57]

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ordered on Friday that Detroit’s bankruptcy be withdrawn. Aquilina said the 2012 Michigan law that allowed Gov. Rick Snyder to approve the city’s bankruptcy filing, the largest municipal bankruptcy filing ever in the United States, violates the Michigan Constitution. Specifically, Article IX Section 24, which holds that pension plans and retirement systems “shall not be diminished or impaired.”

Aquilina said that she will ensure that President Barack Obama gets a copy of her order. “It’s also not honoring the president, who took [Detroit’s auto companies] out of bankruptcy.”

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“I know he’s watching this,” the Detroit News quotes Aquilina saying, noting that she predicted that Obama would eventually step in and take action.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Friday appealed a state judge’s declaratory judgment that the bankruptcy petition Detroit’s emergency manager filed in federal court Thursday should be withdrawn. The appeal of ‘s Friday order was made in the Michigan Court of Appeals on behalf of Governor Rick Snyder, according to a statement from Schuette’s office. Additional motions seeking emergency consideration were expected to be filed later on Friday, the statement added.

Detroit is near the statutory limits of its ability to tax. That power has been dragged down by a drop in the city’s population, down 60 per cent from almost 2 million at the peak in the 1950s to just under 700,000. The led to a 40 per cent drop in tax revenues since 2000. The city has had to borrow money to meet its operating budget which has been slashed. With the City retiree pool currently outnumbering active employees by an over-2 to 1 margin and growing, the City must address pension and retiree!healthcare liabilities as part of any comprehensive restructuring.

Translation: protect the pensions and municipal workers at all cost and screw the bondholders. Just like the GM bailout. GM stockholders and bondholders were destroyed, but GM and its workforce survived.

Given the political contributions from related groups (like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), I am not surprised that Judge Rosemarie is waving a warning flag to President Obama. And ActBlue is no slouch on Democrat fundraising either.

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We shall see if the courts allow Governor Snyder and Kevyn Orr to succeed in placing Detroit in bankruptcy. Or if President Obama enters the fracas to protect municipal employee retirees. Or Detroit as a whole.

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Apparently, Judge Rosemary didn’t buy Kevyn Orr’s opening salvo in the bankruptcy appeal: 154747367-Detroit-Creditor-Proposal

“After decades of fiscal mismanagement, plummeting population, employment and revenues, decaying City infrastructure, deteriorating City services and excessive borrowing that provided short term band-aids at the cost of deepening insolvency, the City of Detroit today is a shadow of the thriving metropolis that it once was. The City does not provide basic and essential services to the residents who remain in the City. Crime is endemic. The City is infested with urban blight, which: (a) depresses property values; (b) provides a fertile breeding ground for crime and tinder for fires (with the attendant disproportionate devotion of police and firefighting resources to abandoned lots); and (c) compels the City to devote precious resources to demolition.”

Detroit leads the US in population decline, followed by Chicago.

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In percentage terms, St. Louis leads the US in population decline followed by Detroit. And then two Ohio cities, Youngstown and Cleveland. Followed by Gary Indiana.

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Now, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing on left the door open for a federal bailout after the city’s bankruptcy filing, saying the nation’s response would “set a benchmark” for aiding other struggling cities.

More than 100 urban U.S. cities “are having the same problems we’re having,” Mr. Bing said. “We may be one of the first. We are the largest. But we absolutely will not be the last. And so we have got to set a benchmark in terms how to fix our cities.”

Thanks for the warning, Dave!!

davebing

In fairness to the unions and Judge Rosemary, retirees were promised their pensions. And bondholders did realize that Detroit was a ticking fiscal bomb. Still, does it make sense for government to promise massive pension benefits when they can’t afford to pay them?

Well, we now know what kind of bomb the municipal pension promises were – the exploding kind.

[whitedog57]

Gee Dave, you want Obama to nationalize the cities too? I used to admire you as a basketball player, but you are pure Communist as a mayor.

[gorush]

...and they’re all governed by democrats...are we wrong to infer that that may be the problem?

[Captainpaintball]

Detroit Mayor Bing: "More than 100 urban U.S. cities “are having the same problems we’re having",

And all of them are run by democrats.

[Sirius Lee]

There were “just us for trayvon” gaggles in 100 cities. I’ll bet there’s close to a 100% overlap between the 100 race bate cities and the 100 bankrupt ones.

[oh8eleven]

And what do all those cities have in common?
Over 40 years of failed Liberal policies and populations too dumb/lazy to do much else than farm work.

[American in Israel]

You might just be right there.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

What shape are the “rural U.S. cities in?

[dfwgator]

“Chocolate City” - Funkadelic

Uh, what’s happening CC?
They still call it the White House
But that’s a temporary condition, too.
Can you dig it, CC?

To each his reach
And if I don’t cop, it ain’t mine to have
But I’ll be reachin’ for ya
‘Cause I love ya, CC.
Right on.

There’s a lot of chocolate cities, around
We’ve got Newark, we’ve got Gary
Somebody told me we got L.A.
And we’re working on Atlanta
But you’re the capital, CC

Gainin’ on ya!
Get down
Gainin’ on ya!
Movin’ in and on ya
Gainin’ on ya!
Can’t you feel my breath, heh
Gainin’ on ya!
All up around your neck, heh heh

Hey, CC!
They say your jivin’ game, it can’t be changed
But on the positive side,
You’re my piece of the rock
And I love you, CC.
Can you dig it?

Hey, uh, we didn’t get our forty acres and a mule
But we did get you, CC, heh, yeah
Gainin’ on ya
Movin’ in and around ya
God bless CC and its vanilla suburbs

Gainin’ on ya!
Gainin’ on ya!
Gainin’ on ya! (heh!)
Gainin’ on ya!
Gainin’ on ya!
What’s happening, blood?
Gainin’ on ya!
Gainin’ on ya!
Gainin’ on ya!

Yeah!
What’s happening, black?
Brother black, blood even
Yeah-ahh, just funnin’

Gettin’ down

Ah, blood to blood
Ah, players to ladies
The last percentage count was eighty
You don’t need the bullet when you got the ballot
Are you up for the downstroke, CC?
Chocolate city
Are you with me out there?

And when they come to march on ya
Tell ‘em to make sure they got their James Brown pass
And don’t be surprised if Ali is in the White House
Reverend Ike, Secretary of the Treasure
Richard Pryor, Minister of Education
Stevie Wonder, Secretary of FINE arts
And Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady
Are you out there, CC?
A chocolate city is no dream
It’s my piece of the rock and I dig you, CC
God bless Chocolate City and its (gainin’ on ya!) vanilla suburbs
Can y’all get to that?
Gainin’ on ya!
Gainin’ on ya!
Easin’ in
Gainin’ on ya!
In yo’ stuff
Gainin’ on ya!
Huh, can’t get enough
Gainin’ on ya!
Gainin’ on ya!
Be mo’ funk, be mo’ funk
Gainin’ on ya!
Can we funk you too
Gainin’ on ya!
Right on, chocolate city!

Yeah, get deep
Real deep
Heh
Be mo’ funk
Mmmph, heh
Get deep
Bad
Unh, heh
Just got New York, I’m told

[tbw2]

Agreed. Majority minority and run by Democrats.

[kabumpo]

The word “urban” is Latin for city - a ridiculous redundancy to speak of “urban cities.”

[arthurus]

More than 100 urban U.S. cities

But the rural cities are doing much better.

[umgud]

After bankruptcy, Detroit will try to rebuild, but sadly with the same cast of characters that drove it into the ground.

[Cheerio]

Yup, all laws need to be reinterpreted by the Courts to see if Lord Obama is being properly honored.

[Fee]

SCOTUS will need to rule on this one. MI constitution says pensions must be honored one way or the other, while Fed Law says CH9 Bankruptcy is allowed and pension/contracts can be modified. Only Congress can approve a bailout. This one will pit cities vs rest of America. Wall Street will be in the background wanting a Fed Bailout so their bond losses will be dump on the taxpayer. Problem for the cities is the American taxpayer is sick of bailouts and being stuck with the bill. Unfortunately the very poor and the rich and powerful will unite on this one and try to make the bailout happen.

[MHGinTN]

Isn’t the Detroit septic tank in John Conyers’ congressional fen? ... And we wonder why the city is a wasteland of liberal democrip results?

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

And the other 100 cities are run by communist black or otherwise.

[Lancey Howard]

"More than 100 urban U.S. cities “are having the same problems we’re having"

Yeah well, duh.
America's concentrated Democrat parasite nests ("cities") are run, after all, by... Democrats.

[Bigg Red]

Urban cities? Are there rural cities now?

[ConservativeInPA]

More than 100 urban U.S. cities “are having the same problems we’re having,” Mr. Bing said. “We may be one of the first. We are the largest. But we absolutely will not be the last. And so we have got to set a benchmark in terms how to fix our cities.”

Mr. Bing, you and your people need to look in the mirror and examine the content of your characters. The same thing needs to be done in the more than 100 urban U.S. cities with the same problem. When less than 50% of your kids graduate high school, and most that do graduate are still illiterates, then you will have problems competing. While immigrants (legal or not) may not always be well educated, they are willing to work their butts off. Mr. Bing, your people are lazy. Combine that with ignorance and an entitlement mentality and no one wants to be around you and your people. Throw in your gangs of thugs, drugs, crime and violence then you have even more people that do not want to be around you and your people. That is why people have left Detroit and are leaving 100's of urban cities. Keep you hands off my wallet and may you learn your lesson by wallowing in your own filth.

[pa_dweller]

Aquilina said that she will ensure that President Barack Obama gets a copy of her order. “It’s also not honoring the president, who took [Detroit’s auto companies] out of bankruptcy.”

They don't want a president, they want a king.