Detroit's Bankruptcy Case Study

The board game Monopoly is played amongst a group of 2-8 players. Each player roles his or her dice and move around the board landing on properties, railroads, or utilities. The properties typically raise in value the further along a player moves around the board. The thought of Boardwalk’s value depreciating to Mediterranean Avenue is unheard of in the board game of Monopoly. However, in the real life game of Monopoly, a major city in America (Detroit, Michigan) had experienced a catastrophic depreciation in value that ultimately led to the city filing for chapter 9 bankruptcy. This writing assignment will evaluate the components that led to the rise and fall of a major city in America. First, it is important to examine the components that led to the growth and prosperity of Detroit, Michigan.

Detroit, Michigan grew up around the automobile industry. At its peak, Detroit was the fifth-largest city in the United States, becoming the home to over 1.8 million people by 1950 (Davey, Monica 2013). The prolific population was due greatly to the success of the auto industry in the city. At that time, Detroit was flying high, its name coined “The Motor City” (americaslibrary.gov), and automobiles greatly impacted commercialization. From transporting goods to hastening production, to selling parts, to manufacturing and selling new automobiles, the auto industry completely transformed Detroit. Things seemed

Housing and Zoning Crowded, lots of brick and cement; few parks, cars parked very closely together on street. Some areas show severe urban blight.

This paper explores the economic restructuring and revitalization of Detroit Michigan post World War II until today. The purpose of this research paper is to show the history of Detroit’s auto and manufacturing industry, in what ways it has changed in recent years, and how it has helped define the economy of Detroit and damaged it. This paper suggests that the deindustrialization of plants and industries and the depopulation of whites to the Suburbs have triggered the economic downfall of the Motor City. Some social issues such as race discrimination and segregation that might have led to the riots of 1943, and 1967, and the migration of African Americans to Northern States in search of employments will be discussed as well. In

If Detroit is not revitalized and branded it has been said that Michigan as a whole cannot rebrand. Detroit is the city that most people outside of the state look at and determine Michigan’s prominence, domination and future. Rather right or wrong that is simply the way that it is. Michigan over the past few years has attempted to gut the city of what they perceive as the ugliness of Detroit, people in poverty. In this attempt most of the people whom had to leave Detroit because of unemployment after the downturn are the very people that the State needs.

Some people believe that Detroit is comparable to a blank canvas. A place where an opportunity is lurking right around the corner. They imagine it as a deserted place, in which a businessman can create anything they dream of. However, the harsh reality is, Detroit is not a blank canvas. It has been splattered with an era of prominence, scribbled on with the invention of the automobile, and engraved with a history of racism and corruption. Although much of Detroit’s glory has been stripped away, there are still people who exist in the city’s remnants. Actual people, with actual families, actual homes, and actual lives. When outsiders talk about the city’s revival, they are often forgetting about these people, or the actual citizens of

Kwame Kilpatrick was elected Mayor of Detroit at the age of 31 which made him the youngest person holding the position in the history of the city. Kwame was a charismatic, intelligent, savvy and ambitious young man with great potential and future ahead of him. During the inauguration ceremony he was singing on the stage, “Together we stand, divided we fall; let’s build a bridge, tear down the wall” [1]. Instead Kilpatrick tore down the entire city. He stole from the citizens he voted for and used his position to make money illegally. Extortion, fraud, bribery, conspiracy are among the crimes that involve 32 more people besides Kilpatrick himself. [2] In 2008 Kilpatrick resigned and was charged

On July 18, 2013 The City of Detroit became the largest city in United States history to filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in the amount was 20 billion dollars (Bomey,Priddle,Snavely 2013). How does once an productive city fall so far it has resort to filing for bankruptcy? This story of Detroit's bankruptcy starts in the 1950's. The City of Detroit has its highest population to date which is 1.85 million,which includes 290,000 manufacturing jobs (Weber,2013). With the promise of jobs that the City of Detroit offers, this attracts many African Americans from the south to move to the City of Detroit to find work. However many strikes begin to happen because many of their whites counterparts did not want to work with African Americans at that time. Next there is the expansion of the Big 3 (Ford, Chrysler, General Motors) many of these factories were not built in the City of Detroit, they were built in the suburbs of the City of Detroit. This led to many middle class whites to move from the City of Detroit to the suburbs for jobs and to start a new life for their family. Third there is the development of technology, majority of the jobs located in factories are done

July 19, 2013, marked the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history when the city of Detroit, Michigan, filed for bankruptcy protection. Detroit was in such dire fiscal straits that emergency manager Kevyn Orr described it as “the Olympics of restructuring.” This bankruptcy filing can be considered the most high-profile case of the many recent bankruptcy filings across the country, and with such notoriety the Detroit bankruptcy became a highly politicized affair with different political sides typically blaming the other side for Detroit’s problems. Understanding the true causes that forced Detroit to file chapter 9 bankruptcy is critical to preventing future municipalities from enduring the same sort of pain that Detroit faced in

It is interesting to know that workers from Canada are one of the largest resources for the automobile industry in Detroit. When the city as tremendous as Detroit, it takes numerous manpower to support the development. There is also elaborate support system as housing, schools, and restaurants to support the growth of the community. On the other hand, if the companies in the city are expanding or downsizing and moving out from the city. It does not only affect the economy of the city itself; the cities around would b suffered as well. Tax reduction for the businesses and the people who used to lived in the city will because such a major issues. These issues make the city of Detroit because vulnerable and traumatized.

Detroit isn’t a city that went bankrupt in one day; it is a city that slowly and gradually fell into the dumps. According to the author, Amy Padnani, of the article “Anatomy of Detroit’s Decline”, “The financial crisis facing Detroit was decades

In Chapter 1 from Ten Letters written by Eli Saslow, the lawyer that filed Jen and Jays bankruptcy believed that their bankruptcy was a combination of misfortune, reduction of salary and many more. As for me, I agree with this idea where Jay and Jen’s bankruptcy was inevitable and the most unfortunate thing was because they were stuck at the wrong place in a wrong time. All of this situations were due to the Michigan worst economic crisis in 2008 in which had affected not only Jen’s family but entire people in the United States especially Michigan state. In this paper I will explain in details about important factor of Michigan economic crisis and two main efforts that Michigan authority did with the help of President Obama towards Michigan

Population decline initiated the city’s fiscal stress. Once being the largest city in the U.S., Detroit’s population declined from 1.85 million during 1950 to 714,000 in 2010 (Stone et al. 2015, p.91). Similar to the case of D.C., this population decrease is a result of suburbanization. Population decrease resulted in reduced property values and a decline in property tax revenues (Stone et. al. 2015). Parallel to population loss, declining unemployment as a result in crisis in the manufacturing sector also took place. Consequently, the decrease in employment resulted in consistent decline in the city’s income tax receipts, causing revenues to fall approximately by 54 percent (Stone et al.2015). Additionally, the

In 2009 the American auto industry was in a dire economic state. Chrysler was in Chapter 11, GM was on the brink of bankruptcy, and Ford’s future was at best uncertain. The demise of the U.S. auto industry would have a devastating impact on our national economy and specifically the economies of Michigan and Ohio.

Certified that this report is prepared based on the term paper project undertaken by me in GENERAL MOTORS BANRUPTCY under the able guidance of Dr.Richa Raghuvanshi in partial fulfillment of the requirement for award of degree of B.Com(H) from Amity University, Uttar Pradesh.