# Detroit in Receivership-What Will Happen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009 "2013-03-04T16:37:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/41 "2013-03-07T22:55:11Z")
When “individuals duly elected” for 3-4 decades have only proven themselves to be total fuckups that couldn’t manage their way out of a wet paper sack, maybe it’s time to try something else. Trying the same thing over and over expecting this time you’ll get new results, what’s that called again? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/42 "2013-03-08T03:40:09Z")
> [@Honesty](#): > > Every new building that the University of Michigan builds there have funds matched by the State of Michigan. Same with Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University, which is why many of these campus towns are, well, beautiful. Well, it explains why the _campuses_ are beautiful. Doesn’t explain the rest of the town(s). Especially since the schools don’t pay property tax. > [@Honesty](#): > > Downtown Ann Arbor was revitalized, in part, by funds matched under the Downtown Development Act passed by the State of Michigan. OK, so here’s the [summary of the Downtown Development Authority Act.](http://www.michiganadvantage.org/cm/Files/Fact-Sheets/DowntownDevelopmentAuthority.pdf) Why did Ann Arbor get money and Detroit didn’t? Did other Detroit suburbs get money under the DDA Act? > [@](#): > > To help your fellow countrymen, it’s something America conveniently forgets when blacks are in need of aid (e.g. Hurricane Katrina). :rolleyes: Katrina aid was badly handled at the outset, but the aid did come. > [@](#): > > When I was a kid, I heard fire trucks roaring down the street to put out fires. Where were the fire trucks from Warren and Farmington Hills? Where were the volunteer fire fighters from St. Clair Shores or Clinton Township? Was there a request from Detroit for assistance that was turned down by these other agencies? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/43 "2013-03-08T05:10:14Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > When “individuals duly elected” for 3-4 decades have only proven themselves to be total fuckups that couldn’t manage their way out of a wet paper sack, maybe it’s time to try something else. Trying the same thing over and over expecting this time you’ll get new results, what’s that called again? Emergency managers have been tried over and over again, in multiple Michigan cities, and almost all of them have failed. The only thing they succeed in doing is removing democratically elected officials from (prominently African American populated) cities and replacing them with an individually-appointed person with disturbingly wide-reaching powers. I’ll just add that the anti-Detroit talk in this thread is lazy and unhelpful. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/44 "2013-03-08T05:26:23Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > I think still less then 10k people work downtown, but it has probably doubled in the last 3 years. Just to correct myself, this was something I read recently in an article about Campbell-Ewald moving downtown. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed more ridiculous, so I looked it up. Wiki says 80k which makes much more sense. I’m guessing the 10 k was additions the last 3 years as several companies have moved in. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/45 "2013-03-08T05:32:08Z")
NM. Not in the city. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/46 "2013-03-08T12:19:11Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > When “individuals duly elected” for 3-4 decades have only proven themselves to be total fuckups that couldn’t manage their way out of a wet paper sack, maybe it’s time to try something else. Trying the same thing over and over expecting this time you’ll get new results, what’s that called again? Look what the emergency managers wound up doing in Benton Harbor- they stole the beach from the people of the city (which was donated to them for public use) and turned it into a golf course for millionaires. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/47 "2013-03-08T12:52:53Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I don’t know what you think the surrounding suburbs were obligated to do. I cannot speak for Detroit, but in the case of Philadelphia and the State of PA the answer is: stop mandating things and not paying for them. For example, the state of PA, mostly voted in by initiatives from affluent suburbs, decided to increase the school year by 7 days. OK, said all the school districts in the state, who is going to pay for that?? The state said “we will give all the school districts $X per student to pay for it!” School Districts said “hooray!” Then the state said, but there is a cap of “Y” students Philadelphia School District said “But we have Y+10000 students!” (numbers not exact) State said “you don’t hear the other school districts complaining, do you?” PSD says “None of them have that many students! Not even Pittsburgh!” State says “tough” City of Philadelphia has to raise taxes, suburbs tut-tut and talk about how horrid the city taxes are. This typical of a lot of things in city state relationships. On the bright side, most of Philadelphia’s suburbs got the message in the middle 90’s that if the city goes bankrupt it will not be a happy-fun looting spree for the 'burbs, but would mean their own suburbs would suffer hard. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/48 "2013-03-08T15:11:09Z")
> [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](#): > > Emergency managers have been tried over and over again, in multiple Michigan cities, and almost all of them have failed. The only thing they succeed in doing is removing democratically elected officials from (prominently African American populated) cities and replacing them with an individually-appointed person with disturbingly wide-reaching powers. > > I’ll just add that the anti-Detroit talk in this thread is lazy and unhelpful. How is Benton Harbor doing these days, i wonder how cities get into such a financial mess and have zero to show for it, where does all the money go? Is it good news [benton harbor schools is 16 million in debt and waiting on a 4million emergency loan](http://www.wsbt.com/news/wsbt-optimism-over-benton-harbor-schools-big-debt-20130227,0,5536008.story) yet they remain optimistic about lowering their debt. I do believe that school district has kept local control. what happened there?Can they dig themselves out of it? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009/49 "2013-03-23T00:34:33Z")
> [@Honesty](#): > > STFU. The United States of America is built upon a Representative government. To arbitrarily abolish the powers of individuals duly elected by the people in free and fair elections is tying hands of democracy and silencing the will of the people. It’s disturbingly unAmerican, mainly because this country signed the Declaration of Independence predicated under the belief that taxation without representation is a non-starter. To lay the current fiscal mess of Detroit at the feet of Bing and Kilpatrick shows an excruciating lack of understanding of the political and economic landscape that’s shaped the City since 1974. > > - Honesty no, I won’t shut the fuck up. All I’m hearing out of Detroit city “leadership” is how the rest of the state “owes” Detroit a bunch of shit, and the suburbs are “stealing” all of Detroit’s shit. Nobody owes Detroit shit. Detroit City leadership has had 50 years to prevent the decay that has led to the current state of things. Monica Conyers got on her soap box and whined about everyone stealing Detroit’s “jewels” (and held up Cobo Center as such a “jewel” even though millwrights had to make troughs out of tarps to ensure rainwater didn’t wreck automakers’ displays at NAIAS.) **Honesty,** I don’t know who you are or where you live. But all I can say is this: when I was little, we lived in a flat on Manistique at the corner of Southampton. It actually warms my heart that the house we lived in is still there. Most of the rest of the block is gone. I spent several years working for a company where I had to go to a place on Plymouth Rd. between Greenfield and Schaefer. I regularly go to a deli on Michigan Ave @ Lonyo. Detroit is a decaying shit hole. Dave Bing knows that. Rick Snyder knows that. Detroit City Council tries to act like if the state of Michigan just throws money at them, they’ll fix everything. well, 50 years of history says that they’re full of shit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/detroit-in-receivership-what-will-happen/652009.md?page=2)