Detroit's worse than I thought

[Capt Worley PE]

^I loved Roger and Me. Only good film Moore ever made.

 

[EM_PS]

Our homicide rate is 1.5 per year...with many years seeing 0.

Wait! That doesn't seem to jive with Longmire ...

 

[knight1fox3]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/10/ex-detroit-mayor-sentenced-to-28-years-in-prison-for-corruption/

 

[Supe]

Gee, what a shame.

 

[mudpuppy]

Flint recently elected to their city council two felons, including one who was in prison for 19 years for murder, and two people with bankruptcies. I'm sure they'll run the city well.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2013/11/flint_voters_elect_two_convict.html

 

[Capt Worley PE]

For some reason, I didn't think felons could hold elected office.

 

[mudpuppy]

Apparently they can on the Flint City Council, lol. Maybe not in Congress though (surprisingly, since they're all crooks).

 

[Capt Worley PE]

^You crystaliized my thoughts perfectly on congress.

 

[ALBin517]

For some reason, I didn't think felons could hold elected office.

Michigan recently passed the Kwame law, that says folks who commit felonious acts while in office can't run again. But these folks became felons before running for office, so they're cool.

 

[ALBin517]

Also in the news today is a story about Detroit's botched new jail project.

Detroit and Wayne County started construction but it's already so far over budget that they can't afford to finish it.

They started looking at different options.

State of Michigan offered to GIVE them a recently-abandoned state prison, located in the city.

Detroit and Wayne County say no, the state will have to do better than free.

I don't know what leverage the city and county think they have in the situation.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Detroit and Wayne County started construction but it's already so far over budget that they can't afford to finish it.

I worked in a prison where they built a new cell block, but couldn't afford to staff it. It was basically a pigeon roost the whole time I worked there.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/03/news/economy/detroit-bankruptcy-ruling/index.html?iid=Lead

A federal judge has given a green light for Detroit to proceed with its bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy in history.
The ruling opens the door for the city to cut billions of dollars in payments that are owed to city employees, retirees, investors and other creditors.

Unions and pension funds had argued that the city should not be eligible to use bankruptcy court protections. They said that regardless of the Detroit's financial troubles, city and state officials did not negotiate with creditors in good faith in an effort to reach a deal on its liabilities.​

In his ruling, Judge Steven Rhodes found the city did not meet that threshold, yet he ruled that such negotiations were impractical because of the huge number of creditors, which total more than 100,000. So, ultimately, he concluded that the city filed its petition properly.

One major union, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, has already said it plans to appeal the decision.

Nice pic:

 

[ALBin517]

Retirees were out picketing, when Detroit first filed for bankruptcy. The picketer photographed on the front page of the Freep Press was a city retiree, trying to defend his full pension. Dude was 45 years old.

So as a municipal employee, I feel bad for Detroit retirees. But the city has been spending too much for decades. Seems like those employees would have looked at the city's finances and thought maybe their pensions were not 100% secure.

 

[ALBin517]

This bankruptcy situation is being watched closely by lots of cash-strapped cities. Many municipal leaders have looked short-term and avoided employee raises while agreeing to absurd pensions.

Those same cities - and their new managers - are now sitting back and watching Detroit, seeing if they can get out of their pension burden by simply declaring bankruptcy.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

This bankruptcy situation is being watched closely by lots of cash-strapped cities. Many municipal leaders have looked short-term and avoided employee raises while agreeing to absurd pensions.

I don't think it'll be too long before state start declaring bankruptcy to rid themselves of pensions.

 

[EM_PS]

Long (but interesting IMO) read on D's spiral into bankruptcy.

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

 

[knight1fox3]

This bankruptcy situation is being watched closely by lots of cash-strapped cities. Many municipal leaders have looked short-term and avoided employee raises while agreeing to absurd pensions.

I don't think it'll be too long before state start declaring bankruptcy to rid themselves of pensions.

That's an interesting thought...

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I'm not too worried about my state going bankrupt anytime soon. Absolute zero, possibly.

 

[EM_PS]

State (MI) did away w/ pensions in the mid-90's, its all 401 'junk' now. Detroit could have done same, but opted not to.

 

[CbusPaul]

It's interesting that the signs say "The Banks Owe Us" and "Make the Banks Pay". That boogeyman must have played better than saying, "Taxpayers owe us." I'm at a loss for exactly what the banks could possibly owe them.