I wrote a blog post for the Detroit News about the Detroit emergency manager situation

[LuckyTheDog]

With Governor’s Snyder’s announcement that an emergency manager is on the way, the time for navel-gazing and re-litigating the past is over. It’s time to finally take strong, even radical, action to fix Detroit.

So, what to do now?

I do not pretend to have a magic formula. But I think a new mindset is needed — one that starts with accepting where the city is and a willingness to confront its problems without fear or preconditions. Here are some ideas for where to start:
- First of all, we need to all agree that apocalyptic predictions of ever-worsening doom are not helpful. Of course Detroit’s problems are solvable. It might be hard to solve them. Solving them might require a lot more courage and innovative thinking than we have mustered so far. But Detroit’s predicament was brought about by human beings and can be solved by them.

- See more at: http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2013/03/01/what-detroit-needs-now/#sthash.qSAjuueF.dpuf

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

1. Good job!

As an ex-Detroiter (born at Mount Carmel, grew up on the west side (Henry Ford High) it pains me to read of the troubles the city has now. And really, the problems of Detroit affect all those suburbs around it. So you are correct, this is an 'everyone' problem......

[LuckyTheDog]

2. What I am worried about...

... is that the most of the state will think Detroit can be saved by cutting city government and that alone. I am 100% sure that's what the Republicans in Lansing believe.

[FarCenter]

3. If my math is right, the Detroit budget is more than $3000 per person

That is a roughly $2.5 billion budget and 750,000 population?

The budget includes water and sewer, but not education, which is usually the largest part of local taxes.

$3000 per population seems very high.

http://www.detroitmi.gov/Portals/0/docs/budgetdept/2012-13%20Budget/Executive%20Summary/Budget_2012-13%20OVERVIEW.pdf

[starroute]

4. It is higher than most -- but the question is what it includes

I was just doing a little googling. Some city budgets include payment for services to residents of suburbs that are not within the city limits. Some include utilities and some don't. Public transportation is another variable. So is the poverty level within the city.

To know whether Detroit is overpaying compared to other cities would take some fine-grained analysis and not just an apples-to-oranges comparison.

[FarCenter]

5. Another consideration is commuting

Some cities have a very large daytime population due to commuters coming into the city. They and their employers require spending for services.

Detroit has an almost balanced commuting pattern. Commuting into the city balances commuting out to the suburbs.

Note also that median household income is $27,862, compared with $48,669 for Michigan, so the population can't afford to pay much local taxes.

[LuckyTheDog]

6. Detroit's water system provides water for the entire surrounding region (nt)

[Festivito]

7. They want the water department. The city can appeal for10 days.

The news media is making sound done already, even NPR (Now Primarily Republican).

City runs own electric company for street and schools, heats downtown, water for the region, the tunnel to Canada and it runs courts for which the state collects money and gives it back to Detroit (unless they want to install a manager--oops!). Also owns a museum with substantial art collection. I think there's still a hospital or two still in there.

Non-residents working in Detroit pay income taxes.

[LuckyTheDog]

8. It's a lot more than "a hospital or two"

The Detroit Medical Center provides medical services through nine world-class specialty hospitals. The hospitals listed below are part of the DMC family. Together, they combine to be one of the most diversified and capable medical systems in the state, with the shared goal of providing better ways to get better.

http://www.dmc.org/patient-care.html

But none of the hospitals belong to the city -- or ever did.

[Festivito]

9. DMC was given to Dick Cheney's Vanguard investment company a couple years ago.

Of course, just as Obamacare was about to make owning a hospital, especially in an inner city, profitable again.

This was done by Mike Duggan. He was a prosecutor who impounded cars of suspected gays in a park by my house for $900 each. No trial, no hearing. He and his department wrote themselves raises with all the extra money. Finally, it was judged illegal and the city had to repay the victims out of city funds.

Duggan and cohorts got to keep the money they took. The judgment comes out of my Detroit taxes which he doesn't have to pay because he didn't live in the city.

Duggan was then appointed to the DMC and gave the hospital away.

Now Duggan runs for mayor.

EDIT: The 2010 turnover of DMC to Vanguar.
http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/vanguard-deal-detroit-medical-center-complete/2010-12-31

[LuckyTheDog]

10. Well... it was a lot more complicated than that

The sale of the DMC to Vanguard was related to the financial collapse of 2008.

Duggan tried for a few years to finance an upgrade of the DMC campus through bond sales. But that opportunity dried up when the banking system fell apart. Vanguard then courted Duggan, who negotiated a deal that included $800 million in improvements in the Detroit main campus of the DMC.

I was not happy to see the DMC sold to a for-profit entity. But the building boom that came after that has been amazing to see.

Do you still live in Detroit?

[Festivito]

11. Still crazy after all these years. Still here inside city limits.

I also worked inside the DMC occasionally helping to fix small problems. That seemed to dry up after the sale, but I've been on long term assignments instead so I do not know for sure who or if we've been working there.

I'm not happy at all with the idea that we needed to spend 800M$ to compete with high end rooms and hall decor to attract the rich and overly insured, especially after we tear down hospitals because we don't need the rooms.

Again, just at the time when profitability is ready to soar.