Detroit 1991: photo by Camilo Jose Vergara (see Vergara's bleak photo-essay of Detroit: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-incredible-decline-of-detroit-photos-2012-10?op=1)
As someone who was proudly born in Detroit, I have always rooted for the city, its economy, and its sports teams from afar. Yet, its fiscal mismanagement, crime, population decline, economic contraction, and urban decay have made today seem almost cruelly inevitable. One can only hope that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) and Kevyn Orr can carefully guide the city through the worst municipal disaster in American history. The challenge stands before them on how to steer a once great city--indeed, once known as a fulcrum in the "Arsenal of Democracy"--back from the brink of collapse. Yet in a city where nearly 40% of the streetlights do not work and hundreds of thousands of residents have fled to surrounding suburbs, the return to "normalcy" will be anything but easy. If there is such a thing as the American Spirit, it will be needed in droves in old Detroit. And please, no jokes about how Omni Consumer Products, or any of its famed employees, can save the city.
7.23.2013 UPDATE: For an astute analysis of the stakeholders involved in the Detroit Bankruptcy, as well the larger political and market forces at work, please see David Sirota's article here.
Detroit's Monument to Joe Louis, known also as "The Fist," by Robert Graham
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