The city of Detroit was once the fourth largest city in the United States, but over the past 60 years the population has drop approximately 63 percent.
The city has filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, becoming the largest city in the United States to file for bankruptcy.
Judge Rosemarie Aquiline ruled filing for bankruptcy would be a violation of the Michigan Constitution because it would result in reduced pension payments for retired workers.
Aquiline also said, “It is not honoring the president”, who took Detroit auto companies out of bankruptcy. In 2008 President Barack Obama bailed out the auto industry of over $85 billion.
In the 1950s there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs, but today, there are less than 27,000. Detroit is scrambling around trying to figure something out, because Detroit is in $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities owing each resident $25,000, so filing for bankruptcy would help pay some the residents but not all.
Through the years Detroit always depended on their casinos and didn’t pay attention to their school system because of this 47 percent are functionally illiterate.
Due to these cutbacks most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours and the crime rate (21.60) is five times higher than the national average(3.8).
The city of Detroit is flat out broke and no one can help them out because everyone else is struggling.
Leslie Jemison, who used to live in Detroit, said, “It saddens me that Detroit has gotten to this point. They decreased the police force and those that were remaining focused on the protection of the downtown residents. I believe that Detroit could have avoided this bankruptcy, but I do believe that Detroit is not dead and that it will come back strong from bankruptcy.”
Even a fellow native of Detroit is feeling bad but still has hope.
Calvin Davis, who is a traveling agent who works around Detroit, said, “If Detroit can start building up their city and start putting more money into their school systems and not their casinos they can make something of the future.”
It’s going to be hard for Detroit to recover from filing for bank, but they can do from the help from there sports team (Red wings, Lions, Tigers, and Pistons) if they all start winning and start bringing more people to their games they can help the economy.
