Motown Collapsing

Detroit becomes largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy 

The city of Detroit, a metonym for the American automobile industry, has become the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy, with debts of up to $20bn.

Since January 2010, at least eight cities, towns and counties have filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in a federal court. The list includes Boise County (Idaho), Stockton, Mammoth Lake and San Bernardino (California), Jefferson County (Alabama), Harrisburg (Pennsylvania), Central Falls (Rhode Island) and Detroit (Michigan).

“The fiscal realities confronting Detroit have been ignored for too long. I’m making this tough decision so the people of Detroit will have the basic services they deserve and so we can start to put Detroit on a solid financial footing that will allow it to grow and prosper in the future,” said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. “This is a difficult step, but the only viable option to address a problem that has been six decades in the making.”

“It is clear that the financial emergency in Detroit cannot be successfully addressed outside of such a filing, and it is the only reasonable alternative that is available,” Snyder said in the letter authorizing Detroit’s emergency manager to seek federal bankruptcy protection for the City. “In other words, the City’s financial emergency cannot be satisfactorily rectified in a reasonable period of time absent this filing.”

Detroit population has shrunk from over 2 million in the 1950s to about 713,000 in 2011. The city reported  the highest violent crime rate among all major US cities, with more than 15,000 reported crimes in 2011.

The public services are in a state of near collapse. About 80,000 properties are abandoned or condemned, with only 53% of owners paying their 2011 property taxes.

After 60 years of decline, large parts of the City can only improve by being razed to the ground.

Related Links

• San Bernardino. The city of San Bernardino became the third California city in two weeks to file bankruptcy protection in the face of a $45-million budget shortfall, reports said.
• Atwater. The small Central California city of Atwater (Pop: ~28,000) has declared A fiscal emergency, which could translate to the state’s fourth municipal bankruptcy this year, said a report.
• North Las Vegas, Nevada. The Nevada city of North Las Vegas, described as “ground zero for foreclosures” was officially declared as a disaster area on June 23.

• Court Rules Stockton, Calif., to Enter Bankruptcy April 2, 2013
• Dissolving Detroit! December 1, 2012

• Detroit’s long-term liabilities exceed $14 billion February 21, 2013
• Lawmakers consider dissolving Detroit as bankruptcy looms December 1, 2012
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Dissolving Detroit!

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,197 Days Left 

[December 1, 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,197 Days Left to the most Fateful Day in Human History
• Symbolic countdown to the ‘worst day’ in human history began on May 15, 2011 ...

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Global Disasters/ Significant Events

Lawmakers consider dissolving Detroit as bankruptcy looms

With the city of 700,000 residents set to go bankrupt by mid-December, several lawmakers have suggested dissolving Michigan’s largest city and merge it with neighboring Wayne County, said a report.

• “If we have to, that is one idea we have to look at,” State Senator Rick Jones has told a CBS News affiliate. “We really have to look at everything that is on the table. Again, if this goes to federal bankruptcy, every employee down there will suffer, the city will suffer and the vultures will come in and take the jewels of Detroit and they will be gone.”

• Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has said he wouldn’t count any option out.

Great Lakes: Lake Michigan water nearing record low

The ongoing drought has reduced the water level in Lake Michigan to less than two inches of its December record low set about half a century ago [576.18 feet set in 1964,] said a  the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

• “There is a good chance of setting record lows. We’ve been falling below average for over a decade due to lean winter snowfalls.”  Chief Hydrologist for the Corps said.
  • “The water level of Lake Michigan‐Huron is forecasted to be near December’s record low water level of 576.2 feet, set in 1964, and then set new record lows for the months of January through March,” said a report by the Corps.

• “Water levels naturally fluctuate and have been at low levels for 10 years. But this year of extreme high water temperatures increased evaporation rapidly and that helped draw down water levels,” said a researcher at NOAA.

• Great Lakes, the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, comprise a collection of 5 freshwater lakes—Michigan, Huron, Erie, Superior and Ontario—contain 23% of the world’s surface fresh water and 84 percent of the supply in North America. [Great lakes have a total volume of  about 22,700 km³  of water with a combined surface area of about 244,100 km^{2  measured at low-water datum}.]

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

GLOBAL WARNING

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun