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“Of course, it’s an 85 percent black city,” Mr. Dyson replied. “It’s been perceived as a colony of black people who are ringed by suburban white areas that are now going into the city to plunder it. The perception is that there is a massive takeover of resources and materials and properties, basically being occupied.” “We have to acknowledge that part of this has to be the racial animus that has characterized that city for the last 50-some-odd years,” he continued. “The service industries hemorrhaged jobs in the inner city, depleted that city of its economic infrastructure and left it...

Other cities now on the radar include Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., and Santa Fe, N.M. -- following Moody’s saying in April that they and 11 other municipalities were being reviewed for a possible credit downgrade, the result of a new analysis system that further considers pension liabilities. Though much of the national concerns have focused on pension liabilities, heath care costs for retired municipal employees pose an equally if not larger problem.

<p>What a difference four decades makes. In the mid-’70s, New York City’s threat of bankruptcy was a horror that the state, feds and city ultimately avoided. Last week, Detroit declared bankruptcy because Michigan thought it was the best choice — and Washington stayed silent.</p>

Tuesday, July 23, 2013 So Long Detroit Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog A century ago it was the lure of work that drew people from rural areas and far away countries to American cities. The big cities had jobs. Unlike rural areas, they had such high concentrations of them that if you moved there, then you might be able move from job to job without having to turn hobo and travel to find work. The big city offered workers to employers and employment to workers. That arrangement worked when cities were places where things were made....

Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson on Tuesday introduced a resolution supporting the U.S. Justice Department's investigation into the Florida slaying of Trayvon Martin. Federal investigators are looking into whether or not George Zimmerman violated the teen's civil rights when he followed him in his gated neighborhood out of suspicion, leading to an altercation and the fatal shooting.

OK..I'm not a lawyer...haven't even stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in over a decade, and apologies to all in advance if this a dumb question. But I know there are lots of smart folks, even smart lawyers, here.

Within hours of Detroit filing the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history on July 18, French TV and other media followed up with the reassuring message that, in France at least, such a turn of events would be impossible. Under French law, municipalities are required to balance their budgets, and the national government can — and occasionally does — intervene to force them to comply. But take a closer a look at what’s been happening since the 2007 financial crisis, and a rather more nuanced, and surprising, picture emerges. For more than a dozen sizable towns and districts across France...

Agreeing with fellow MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, Ed Schultz claimed that Detroit had filed for bankruptcy because the city had a government that was just too small. On Saturday, Schultz argued “Republican policies” led Detroit to become a “conservative utopia.” Harris-Perry last week said what is happening in Detroit occurs “when government is small enough to drown in your bathtub.” “Detroit, Michigan, used to be really a symbol of industrial strength and manufacturing in this country. But, thanks to a lot of Republican policies, the city is now filing for bankruptcy,” Schultz said over the weekend.

On Friday, a Michigan Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled Detroit bankruptcy is unconstitutional.   On Friday, a circuit court judge in Ingham County ruled that Detroit's federal bankruptcy filing violated a part of Michigan's constitution that protects union pensions. She ordered it withdrawn, a day after Detroit became the largest U.S. city in history to file for chapter nine bankruptcy.  Judge Rosemary Aquilina also said the filing did not honor President Barack Obama's work for the city, who she said "took [Detroit's auto companies] out of bankruptcy." Aquilina said she would send a copy of her order to Obama.  “It’s cheating, sir,...

It is so sad to watch one of America's greatest cities die a horrible death. Once upon a time, the city of Detroit was a teeming metropolis of 1.8 million people and it had the highest per capita income in the United States. Now it is a rotting, decaying hellhole of about 700,000 people that the rest of the world makes jokes about. On Thursday, we learned that the decision had been made for the city of Detroit to formally file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. It was going to be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United...

Item condition: -- “Highly damaged, missing residents and defective infrastructure.” Time left: 4d 18h (Jul 26, 2013 15:01:35 PDT) Current bid: US $90,100.00 This is your chance to own a piece of America! Known for producing some of America's finest automobiles like the Chevy Vega and Ford Pinto, Detroit was once home to a bustling industrial and manufacturing economy. All it needs now is a little TLC (and approximately 3 trillion dollars). In addition to owning a little slice of Michigan, your purchase of Detroit gets you: •An honorary Detroit Pistons championship ring from 2004 •That cool Chrysler commercial with...

Detroit declared bankruptcy yesterday. Depending on which news source you follow, it’s big news, or it’s not. Many are calling on the federal government to bail out Detroit. After all, the Feds bailed out GM and Chrysler. Why not bail out a city in our fair country? Because then the entire tax base of the US is responsible for the misdeeds of one city. Can’t happen, and the Feds shouldn’t bail out states or private companies either. Chicago has its own pension and spending problems. But it’s not Detroit. Detroit’s economy was based on one industry. It was a one...

Melissa Harris Perry forgets that Detroit has been run by unions and big government Democrats for over 5 decades, and was then bailed out and over-regulated by the current administration…how convenient

The big benefit to moving workers into the state marketplaces is that it shifts the burden of paying for health care from the city to the federal government. That’s a benefit for the city, at least. For the federal government, more cities moving retirees into the marketplaces means a higher price tag for Obamacare, as it subsidizes more individuals’ coverage.

Look at this description of Detroit from today’s Observer: What isn’t dumped is stolen. Factories and homes have largely been stripped of anything of value, so thieves now target cars’ catalytic converters. Illiteracy runs at around 47%; half the adults in some areas are unemployed. In many neighbourhoods, the only sign of activity is a slow trudge to the liquor store. Now have a look at the uncannily prophetic description of Starnesville, a Mid-Western town in Ayn Rand’s dystopian novel, Atlas Shrugged. Starnesville had been home to the great Twentieth Century Motor Company, but declined as a result of socialism:...

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.” bilde “I know he’s watching...

Biggest Bankruptcy in US history. Excerpt:Reason Foundation senior analyst Shikha Dalmia says even bankruptcy can’t save Motown.Detroit had been living on borrowed time and borrowed money for about two decades now with accumulated debt of about 18 times its annual budget, so something had to give so the issue only was detroit needed to restructure through bnkruptcy or an emergency manager.

As a native Detroiter, I was saddened by the city’s decision to declare bankruptcy this week. But I was not surprised. The move was inevitable. Everyone in Detroit knew that without enormous, radical change, the city was dying. They have known this since at least the early 1980s. But that radical change never came. The city’s population peaked at almost 2-million in 1950, during the boom times of the post-war era. It then had the highest median income of any city in the United States. These days, it ranks 66th out of the largest 68 cities in the nation. And...

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.” bilde “I know he’s watching...

We’ve got another one, ya’ll. I thought Melissa Harris-Perry’s utterly illogical talking point about Detroit serving as an example of what “Republicans would impose on us” was bad, but this… Do you think that maybe he actually believes what he’s saying, or that he’s just straight-up lying through his teeth because there is literally no good way to spin Detroit’s fiscal collapse as anything other than the inevitable conclusion of a total progressive utopia without peddling outright falsehoods? Because, according to Mr. Schultz — and stay with him here, because there’s a good chance you might not have realized this...