Omaha Forums

CNN wrote:Detroit filed for bankruptcy Thursday afternoon, becoming the nation's largest public sector bankruptcy. The move could slash pension benefits to city workers and retirees, and leave bond holders with only pennies on the dollar.

The bankruptcy was filed by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and approved by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder said the financial condition of the city left him no choice, and that Detroit could not meet its obligation to either its citizens or its creditors.

OWH wrote:Detroit has filed for bankruptcy to reduce its debts, and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. of Omaha insures about $700 million worth of Detroit's sewer and water bonds.

Axel wrote:So what exactly are some solutions? Split Detroit up?

guitarguy wrote:Believe me there are going to be fireworks throughout this process from the people who are trying any last ditch effort to avoid letting this go through. Amazing how bad Detroit needs this to happen and the people who have robbed the city blind still think they are entitled to their lavish pensions.

Linkin5 wrote:What a piece of |expletive| city.

RNcyanide wrote:It appears that a judge denied Detroit's bankruptcy.

Coyote wrote:

RNcyanide wrote:It appears that a judge denied Detroit's bankruptcy.

Don't see that on the wires yet...

the state constitution prohibits cutting pension and retirement benefits, as has been proposed in the bankruptcy case.

guitarguy wrote:Novak, what's the word around Detroit about the city filing for bankruptcy?

NovakOmaha wrote: Longer answer.  The folks on pensions are scared.  Channel 4 interviewed the widow of a police officer killed in the line.  She & the kids live on $2,ooo a month.  

S33 wrote:You see, the problem with Detroit doesn't start and end with the economy/rust belt decline, and pensions. Because of the decades and decades of corruption, segregation, and disappearing jobs, it has left the inner-city of Detroit morally, socially, educationally, AND fiscally bankrupt.

People have fled that city in droves for years now, and the only people who are left, are left because they have nowhere to go or no means to relocate.

You start putting all those factors together, Detroit proper is not likely to do much else but continue to decay. I know they have and are currently trying to revitalize parts of the city and especially downtown, but in the end, its the people who make the difference, but most in Detroit just want to stand curb-side with their hands out. The "revitalizations" almost never are including the overwhelmingly poor and under-educated Detroit residents.

I'm sure I'll get hammered for saying that, but it's the dang truth.

If they really wanted to revitalize Detroit, they would find away to manufacture their cars in the vast and open voids that have been cleared in the city's center, train and hire locals, and keep GM and Ford's revenues closer to home.

guitarguy wrote:I have no doubt in my mind that if they can solve the financial drag thats on Detroit that there will be a development boom that will make any city in the country jealous. For a city the size of Detroit I wonder when the last time they had significant investment in their Downtown area.

NovakOmaha wrote:Yep.  Moving along nicely.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20 ... evelopment

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2013 ... /306190075

Greg S wrote:More development:

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2013 ... RONTPAGE|s





http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2013 ... RONTPAGE|p

Just a few big cities—notably Omaha, Indianapolis, Nashville, Louisville, and Miami, plus Portland, Oregon—have effective metropolitan-wide governance. If you live in a suburb of the old central city of Indianapolis, or eight miles from downtown Omaha, you still live in the city: You pay for city services and you get them.

But in every other metro area, cities and suburbs exist next to one another, and only collaborate in limited ways. They hire and pay their own employees, issue their own bonds, collect their own taxes, decide their own budgets with their own elected officials, appoint their own police and fire chiefs and planners, as if there were a gap of a hundred miles between Chicago and Evanston, or an ocean rather than a hash-mark between Buffalo and Cheektowaga, or a mountain range rather than a traffic light separating Cleveland and East Cleveland, or no shared border between Detroit and any of its adjacent suburbs.

Politicians of both political parties detest regional government, which is why it is so rare. Black politicians who have waited “their turn” in the racial-ethnic machine hierarchies pledge that they can do better once they’re in charge, and typically acquire and wield power precisely the same way as their predecessor cohorts of Irish, Italians, or Slavic machine pols. But when regions that function as an economic totality are governed such that individual areas within them act separately, great stupidity, inefficiency, cost-shifting, rent-seeking, corruption, and self-destruction ensue.

Advocates of the arena say it's the kind of economic development needed to attract both people and private investment dollars into downtown Detroit. It's an argument that has convinced Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Kevyn Orr, the emergency manager he appointed to oversee the city's finances, to stick with the plan. Orr said Detroit's bankruptcy filing won't halt the arena plans.

Washington Examiner wrote:Chicago
Portland, Ore.

Omaha, Neb.

Maybe city officials can call Warren Buffett for some advice on handling large sums of money. Buffett's hometown has managed to ring up more than $1.4 billion in pension liabilities and it has only enough cash saved to pay about 43 percent of those costs, according to Pew.
But Omaha is not on Moody's list, so a downgrade in the immediate future seems unlikely.

Minneapolis
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Providence, R.I.
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Charleston, W.Va.