This week, the battle begins over Detroit’s recovery plan.
One man will decide the outcome – Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes.
After reviewing the case for the pensioners; the faceless financial creditors Syncora and FGIC that want to sell everything in the Detroit Institute of Arts for a reputed $8.1 billion; and the police and fire departments, it seems everyone involved has thought of it all.
But they haven’t. Here’s the question they’re missing.
If Detroit’s creditors win and the DIA is gutted, city services are not returned to normal, pensioners get a bad deal and Detroit’s police and fire departments aren’t made whole again, then who’s going to want to live in Detroit?
Right now, Detroit is enjoying a rebirth of sorts, in pockets here and there: Corktown, Eastern Market, riverfront housing, Midtown, Indian Village, Campus Martius, and Lafayette Park, to name a few. Young people are leading the charge.
It’s cool to go downtown again for dinner, concerts, a Tigers game and clubbing. But there’s a flipside to all this.
A lot of the folks who are taking up residence downtown are coming here from other cities in other states, where buses run on time and their local evening news isn’t filled with body counts, shootings and assaults.
When Judge Rhodes reviews all of the evidence to be placed before him between now and Oct. 17, the scheduled end-date of the hearing, let’s hope he is a forward thinking man with a vision of what Detroit can become.
The DIA is the city’s gem and shouldn’t be touched. The pensioners shouldn’t have the money owed them cut. Police and fire departments have to get the staffing they need to keep Detroit safe.
If police and fire departments don’t do it, then who will?
If the judge gets mired down in the past, then Detroit’s a goner. It will be like it was before – people zooming downtown for a sporting event or concert and flying out of town as soon as the event is over – new Ilitch stadium or not.
Would you want to live in the city if the finance guys win?
Nice piece!
ReplyDeleteVery well put
ReplyDeleteLong gone are the days when those with means consider the greater good and the welfare of society as a whole. In my view, gutting the DIA will only result in solvency for the city at a bare minimum and lining the pockets of those who step in to "help" to the greatest extent possible. I wish I were not so cynical.
ReplyDeleteI love the history of this country. Despite our record of maligning native Americans and most non-white ethnic groups and raping the land of natural resources for corporate profits, the robber barons of yester-year funded the arts and created parks and other public goods for use by the white working-class majority. We've corrected some mistakes from our past and those public goods are now available to all but the robber barons of today only think of themselves. It's shameful.