If there’s an epitome for
failure, it’s summed up in one word – Detroit.
My birthplace’s tragic Chapter 9
bankruptcy filing could likely have
been avoided had its leaders worked to
modernize the city and reversed
its many disturbing trends over the last 50
years.
No matter where you fall on
Detroit’s woes – black or white, rich or
poor, cityemployee or private sector
worker, Republican or
Democrat – you cannot be surprised it hit rock bottom.
It was just a matter of time.
More than 60 years ago, Detroit
boasted a population of nearly 2
million people; today it’s down to just over
700,000, with some
estimates saying the population drop continues.
As the Kresge Foundation reports,
the city’s financial recipe led
it to this harrowing state: Over the years, it cut services and
borrowed
to pay off its previous debts, which are estimated to be about $16
billion
today; meanwhile, it’s tax base, which always consists of people,
fled,
meaning it didn’t have the revenue to cover its costs
or its borrowing
expenses.
But Detroit’s calamities are so
much more.
They also include a former mayor
jailed for a number of crimes,
including racketeering; the ones prior to him
were simply incapable
managers, failing to reverse trends that ultimately put
the city in
the tank.
There are enough abandoned
buildings in Detroit to form three or
four mid-size cities and about 80,000
abandoned homes, the Daily
Beast reports.
While it’s always easy to blame
any city’s leaders for poor
performance, which, in this case, they rightly
deserve, you cannot
blame them alone.
Detroit’s private sector,
especially its automobile companies, which
long called it home, must be
examined too. They give every
impression of having thrown in the towel years ago.
The long-suspected rumors about
the Big Three auto companies never
supporting a commuter rail system for
Detroit and its neighboring
suburbs, which would have helped draw people into
the city, giving
it a chance to grow, are disturbing if true.
But perhaps instead of killing
the idea outright, the Big Three just
stopped putting effort behind the
idea.
The mayor, David Bing, a Hall of
Fame basketball star, is third or
fourth in line when it comes to running
Detroit, behind the emergency
manager charged with putting the city’s books
back in order, the judge
overseeing its bankruptcy, and the creditors, not to
mention U.S.
bankruptcy law, which will loom large as Detroit’s finances are
restored.
Anyone thinking nothing – at
least with the city’s pensions – won’t
change, better think again. There are no sacred cows in bankruptcy.
Everything will be scrutinized.
When I was hawking columns,
comics, puzzles in the
‘90s, I visited
Detroit often, sometimes as much as four or five times a
year.
The crime never hit me personally, but
it was more than apparent
the city was failing.
When editors in Michigan asked
where I was based, I answered
Chicago.
“Oh, Chicago,” they would say, “that’s
what Detroit use to be.”
(Chicago’s current ills are for
another blog post.)
Detroit’s leaders, whether in the
public or private sector, former
or current, should hold their collective heads
in shame.
They ruined a great American
city, once described as “The Arsenal
of Democracy” by the late President
Franklin Roosevelt during
World War II.
FDR’s words offer a stark lesson: We’re a democracy, meaning our
votes and
our actions determine whether our communities, towns,
cities, states and,
ultimately, our country, go forward.
If the people of Michigan and
Detroit are looking for someone to
blame for this tragedy, they need only look
at the first person they
see each morning in the mirror – themselves.
