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[GK86]

Link. Searched and didn't see it posted.

With $320 million of federal, state and private aid in hand, top White House officials came to Detroit and vowed to help the bankrupt city fight crime, improve mass transport and eradicate blight.

The money is mostly grants from federal or state programs for which the city is qualified, or for which it needed red tape cut to speed access. Some is expected from private businesses and philanthropy groups. President Barack Obama also has appointed Don Graves deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department, to oversee Detroit’s recovery, said Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council.

“We only have one goal, and that is to have all of Detroit working together for one Detroit, with the Obama administration as a key partner,” Sperling said today.

The city, once an auto-manufacturing powerhouse, declared the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history on July 18 after years of decline in which its population fell by more than half, to 700,000 from 1.8 million. The city has more than $18 billion in long-term obligations and is plagued by unreliable buses, broken street lights and long waits for police and ambulances.

Sperling led a delegation that included Attorney General Eric Holder, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. They met for more than two hours privately with about 70 city and state officials, as well as community leaders who included Mayor Dave Bing, a Democrat; emergency manager Kevyn Orr and Republican Governor Rick Snyder, who appointed Orr in March.

Asked at a press conference why it took so long for the federal government to intervene in a city that has declined for decades, Sperling replied, “With bankruptcy, this is an exceptional thing that requires exceptional effort.”

The actions underscore the fine line the administration and state officials must walk, tapping existing programs and unused or underutilized funds, while not asking Congress for federal dollars. Top lawmakers and administration officials have said there is no pathway for a federal bailout of the city.

Donovan said it doesn’t matter whether the aid to Detroit is considered new or redirected money.

“A family living next to a blighted house, they don’t care whether it’s new money or old money they never would have seen,” Donovan said. “It’s money that will make a difference in their view.”

Sperling said another meeting is planned this year to discuss education and job training.

“We don’t expect this to be easy, but we expect this to be successful,” he said

Bing said Detroiters will see positive change in two or three years.

Some city debt rallied today. General-obligation bonds maturing in April 2028 traded at about 94 cents on the dollar, the highest since July 18, when the city filed for bankruptcy. The yield on the securities, backed by Assured Guaranty Corp., is 2.23 percentage points more than top-rated bonds, the smallest gap since July 15.

The White House will commit $150 million for demolition of blighted properties and neighborhood redevelopment, in federal and other funds.

Grants of $65 million and $25.4 million from public and private sources will be used to tear down and refurbish buildings. Detroit has almost 70,000 empty and abandoned homes and 80,000 empty lots, amounting to 20 square miles of vacant land, about the size of Manhattan, according to a Detroit Future City report.

The demolition money is welcome, though with a typical cost of $10,000 to tear down each forsaken structure, much more is needed, said John George, founder of Motor City Blight Busters Inc. His group is working to secure and remove empty structures primarily on the northwest side.

“We’ll take what we can get,” George said in an interview. “Blight is like a cancer: If you don’t nip it in the bud, it spreads and kills everything. You’ve got to start chemotherapy, if you will, especially in the neighborhoods.”

The Obama administration also announced $3 million from the Justice Department for additional police officers, establishing a bike patrol and supporting youth anti-violence programs. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will expedite access to $25 million to hire 150 firefighters and to buy equipment.

Police take an average of 58 minutes to respond to priority calls, compared with a national average of 11 minutes, Orr said in a June report. The department’s roster has shrunk by 40 percent since 2003, he said.

“The only way to rebuild the city is to provide a safe environment for residents and businesses,” said Mark Diaz, president of the Detroit Police Officers Association. “We need a lot of work. It’s going to take more than one gesture, but we’re excited about the recognition by the White House.”

The Obama administration will deploy almost $140 million in transit funding, by ensuring access to more than $100 million in Transportation Department grants, including $24 million for bus repairs and security cameras, according to the announcement. Another $25 million in grants will be made available to help a streetcar project.

“These are funds that are greatly appreciated,” said Megan Owens, executive director of Transit Riders United, a Detroit-based nonprofit organization. Typically, one of every six buses is off the road for repairs, Owens said.

“It results in extremely overcrowded buses, people left at bus stops,” she said. “In recent months it feels like it’s getting worse.”

It is about time someone stepped in to help out Detroit. The stat about the police taking 58 minutes to respond is insane.

 

[fanboi]

320 million doesn't seem as much when you are aiding a city?

 

[Anticitizen One]

Nobody bailed out Californy so why should other stats get aid??

 

[dog$]

Please try to keep the metro buildings standing.

I hope none of this money finds its way to support the rumored replacement for Joe Lewis Arena.

320 million doesn't seem as much when you are aiding a city?

It's more than zero.

 

[whitehawk]

I guess if you want to visit and take cool picture of abandoned buildings, better head to Detroit soon.

 

[Mushroomer25]

Invest $320 million into development of a RoboCop. The rest of the problems with be solved within hours.

 

[Ripclawe]

Its Detroit, the money will be wasted, lost or stolen. Money for demolition is okay, everything else better be scaled down to a city of 700,000 that is dying.

 

[entremet]

Nobody bailed out Californy so why should other stats get aid??

California never went bankrupt. States cannot declare bankruptcy. Cities can.

 

[diamount]

I thought Detroit was perpetually bankrupted.

 

[GK86]

Nobody bailed out Californy so why should other stats get aid??

Most of the money is coming from programs Detroit already qualifies for. They are just getting it to them faster. The situation in Detroit is a lot worse then it was in Cali.

 

[Escape Goat]

Help within 2 to 3 years? Damn.

 

[nateeasy]

Can't believe he's spending all that money to bankrupt a city. What a dick. Thanks Obama!

 

[thefro]

Invest $320 million into development of a RoboCop. The rest of the problems with be solved within hours.

They're building the statue now

http://vimeo.com/73798023

Although it sounds like it's going to be another year for do the bronzework and casting.

 

[Piecake]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/maga...ends-on-its-cities-not-on-washington-20130828

What also sank Detroit was that its leaders failed to connect with the sprawl around it and turn the suburbs into part of a unified economic base. That is another feature of Minneapolis-St. Paul's success: It established a tax-sharing plan with scores of suburban communities. In the Detroit area, by contrast, the city and suburbs became virtual enemies. A similar dynamic led to other failed cities, such as Newark, N.J., once the haven (and inspiration) of a large Jewish population, including Philip Roth, who fled to the suburbs and never looked back. There was, on one hand, a desperate inner city that led to "white flight," and on the other an affluent, largely Caucasian suburbia that did everything but put up walls against the city that engendered it. In today's world, that is a recipe for ruin.

"Detroit was dealt a fairly bad hand, at least in recent years. The decline of manufacturing and real hourly wages in the United States had made it a tough 40 or 50 years for the demographic that Detroit depends on," says Mark Funkhouser, the former mayor of Kansas City, Mo., and an urban consultant based in Washington. "On the other hand, they played that hand fairly badly. The thing to do in a really harsh economic environment is to enhance competitiveness and compete for a larger tax base. Detroit did the opposite. Under Coleman Young [Detroit's first black mayor, who served from 1974 to 1994], everything was done for political reasons. Every time another white family left Detroit he lost some opposition votes. So he had no interest in reaching out to suburban communities. He benefited from white flight." Detroit went from being more than 80 percent white in 1950 to more than 80 percent African-American today.
This is also the great negative lesson for cities and regions that want to avoid Detroit's fate, because to a great extent the future belongs to successful cities and, even more, to the metropolitan areas for which they serve as hubs.

Funkhouser says officials such as Bell have it right. "When I was mayor, I told my officials that the Kansas City region competes against the Denver region—but also the Shanghai region. That's really the way the economy works now. If you are a fragmented dysfunctional region, if the center city doesn't get along with the suburbs, then you lose the critical mass you need." Detroit, once again, provides a doleful counterexample where growth was ungoverned and not underpinned by effective mass transit or infrastructure. "The level of job sprawl in Detroit is staggering," says Bruce Katz, an urban expert at the Brookings Institution. "About 80 percent of the jobs are located more than 10 miles away from the central business district. The average for the country is about 40 percent."

Brooks says the obstacles holding back growth can sometimes be as simple as getting the city charter right. "The Detroit city charter is very different from other charters. It's very specific about what is required by the city government and what can't be done," he says. "For example, it's very difficult to contract out its services. The charter doesn't allow that. That constrained the flexibility of the city government. Governments have to be nimble."

http://www.nationaljournal.com/maga...ends-on-its-cities-not-on-washington-20130828

Pretty interesting read on what makes a successful City and why Detriot failed besides the obvious manufacturing and corruption angle

 

[WorldStar]

Its Detroit, the money will be wasted, lost or stolen.

yup

 

[Valnen]

Nobody bailed out Californy so why should other stats get aid??

Because California isn't in literal ruins.

 

[Tookay]

But I thought he already saved Detroit...

 

[Zoramon089]

Nobody bailed out Californy so why should other stats get aid??

Can't tell if this is sarcasm or if you literally read nothing

 

[NinjaFridge]

I do not envy the people who are in charge of the Detroit situation. It seems like such an insurmountable problem that you would question if it was even possible or even worth trying.

 

[ClassyPenguin]

Well, San Bernardino, CA is currently in bankruptcy.
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/04/5704787/san-bernardino-bankruptcy-ruling.html

Detroit is much bigger though and is due to decades of population decline, lost property values and tax revenue. You really need a federal level of commitment to turn that city around.

 

[B-Dubs]

I do not envy the people who are in charge of the Detroit situation. It seems like such an insurmountable problem that you would question if it was even possible or even worth trying.

NYC was in a bad position in the 70's and managed to make it back, it wasn't quite as bad as Detroit though. It's possible and it's always worth it.

 

[rudieboy77]

I can just hear Fox bitching already. When they inevitably do they should be reminded of the billions that vanished in Iraq and has never been found.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Better wear a vest when you deliver it.

 

[Norns]

Detroit is fucking crazy. If any of you ever get the chance, put on a bullet proof vest and go take some pictures there. It's mind blowing how post apocalyptic it is.

 

[Orbis]

Detroit is fucking crazy. If any of you ever get the chance, put on a bullet proof vest and go take some pictures there. It's mind blowing how post apocalyptic it is.

Damn, is it really as bad as people have been saying? I mean, sometimes people post photos but it's hard to get an idea of what the place must be like as a whole.

 

[Norns]

Damn, is it really as bad as people have been saying? I mean, sometimes people post photos but it's hard to get an idea of what the place must be like as a whole.

Yes, it's really that bad.

 

[dog$]

Detroit is fucking crazy. If any of you ever get the chance, put on a bullet proof vest and go take some pictures there. It's mind blowing how post apocalyptic it is.

This past August, I stood in the Cass Corridor to take pictures of the Masonic Temple.

My wife, her friend, and I went to a baseball game and walked from there, at 11PM, to the hotel without incident, as did several other people. I went to the nearby 24 hour convenience store at midnight to get some ice cream after we decided against room service.

I woke up at 7AM to take more pictures of downtown. On the way out we swung by the Packard Plant to get more pictures before returning home.

No vest, no shootings, no craziness.

On the subject of my wife's friend, who is Australian and whose trip to Detroit was part of her first time in being in North America, scroll to the bottom of this post to see what she had to say about it. Or read this if you're too lazy:

I don’t think any of my descriptions of Detroit could do it justice- it is so different and worn and proudly beautiful- I took gigs worth of photos as we drove around, from second hand bookshops to abandoned railway kingdoms, the city is stubborn and static and full of momentum and contradictions and stunning architecture.

--

Damn, is it really as bad as people have been saying? I mean, sometimes people post photos but it's hard to get an idea of what the place must be like as a whole.

In my opinion, it isn't; but then again, I don't live in its worst areas and experience it on a daily basis.

 

[User 85168]

An excellent article of how screwed Detroit really is (Hint: It is a long history of financial misbehavior and corruption). I'm not sure how $320 million is going to help that much.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130915/NEWS01/130801004/Detroit-Bankruptcy-history-1950-debt-pension-revenue

 

[Valnen]

Detroit is fucking crazy. If any of you ever get the chance, put on a bullet proof vest and go take some pictures there. It's mind blowing how post apocalyptic it is.

Not even worth it with the vest, they might get a head shot.

What are the chances of Detroit ending up a literal ghost town, I wonder?

 

[smokeandmirrors]

I can just hear Fox bitching already. When they inevitably do they should be reminded of the billions that vanished in Iraq and has never been found.

We apparently can only nation build in other places and ignore every domestic issue.

It just blows my mind. Infrastructure crumbling, cities like Detroit growing desolate, lack of good public transportation, and yet people are fucking okay with building up a country we purposely destroyed without so much as the hint of the idea of "Hey let's fix our own shit up"

 

[tino]

They're building the statue now

http://vimeo.com/73798023

Although it sounds like it's going to be another year for do the bronzework and casting.

The posture is terrible. This robocop is not going to save detorit.

 

[zero_suit]

Damn, is it really as bad as people have been saying? I mean, sometimes people post photos but it's hard to get an idea of what the place must be like as a whole.

No, it isn't.

 

[Piecake]

We apparently can only nation build in other places and ignore every domestic issue.

It just blows my mind. Infrastructure crumbling, cities like Detroit growing desolate, lack of good public transportation, and yet people are fucking okay with building up a country we purposely destroyed without so much as the hint of the idea of "Hey let's fix our own shit up"

Militarized Keynesianism applies in that situation

 

[mackattk]

I hope the aid is strictly documented. Would hate to see a lot of it go to corrupt officials.

 

[Defyler]

State's rights! State's right's! Michigan calling for help is hilarious. Them accepting the desperate need is even funnier. Perhaps their lawmakers and populous will pay attention this coming election.

 

[Complistic]

A waste of money unless they plan on knocking all the buildings over and planting crops.

 

[Erico]

I was just in Detroit last week. It was fascinating to see the abandoned houses and buildings or the urban meadows where neighborhoods once stood.
Got to see the former Michigan Central Station in all its decaying glory, almost like a Roman ruin. You really get this neat existential feel, dwelling upon the transience of civilization and all that.

Then I went and got some Buddy's Detroit Style pizza with a Founders Stout. Delicious.

 

[antonz]

State's rights! State's right's! Michigan calling for help is hilarious. Them accepting the desperate need is even funnier. Perhaps their lawmakers and populous will pay attention this coming election.

One would hope they would pay attention because 50+ years of democrats running Detroit has done fantastic for Detroit.

 

[PhoenixDark]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/maga...ends-on-its-cities-not-on-washington-20130828







http://www.nationaljournal.com/maga...ends-on-its-cities-not-on-washington-20130828

Pretty interesting read on what makes a successful City and why Detriot failed besides the obvious manufacturing and corruption angle

In short, highways and the auto industry killed Detroit. The city generates a lot of money, the problem is that money is being pumped into the suburbs around the city. Outrage over racial integration of unions and the 1967 riots led to many white people moving out of the city, but still working in the city.

In terms of the auto industry...they have systematically destroyed public transportation in the city, because at one time they saw it as a threat to automobiles. Now you have a huge sprawling city with bad transportation options, cutting business off from people.

 

[dreamcastmaster]

Here comes Delta City.