Don’t Save Detroit — Sell It

[Geee]

American Spectator:

 

IN THE 1983 movie Dr. Detroit, the flamboyant lead character goes on a rampage warning of trouble to come. “I am talking about scorched earth, no survival, wholesale destruction…body-bags and fire!” he yells. That’s pretty much what has happened to Detroit over the last three decades.

Its population has shrunk by half to below 700,000. The wait for police response is five times the national average, and only 8 percent of crimes are solved. Roughly a third of the city’s 140 square miles is either unoccupied or dilapidated. About 40 percent of its tax revenue is directed to retirement or debt, and the city hasn’t been in the black since 2004. Bankruptcy should have been declared years ago. The best experts say there is no way the city can ever crawl out of its predicament using conventional means.

[Valin]

LeDuff: Bing's demolition contractors may be doing business illegally

DETROIT (WJBK) -

Seeing blight come down in our city is great, but we're being told the city department that deals with demolitions is a mess, including everything from whistle blower lawsuits to federal investigations.

As Fox 2's Charlie LeDuff reports, no one seems to be getting anything right.

[Valin]

Euro Vultures Circle over Detroit

10/3/13

 

Not much meat is left on the bones of Detroits carcass, but leave it to finance to pick at whats left. * The WSJ reports that a handful of banks from Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg that own $1 billion of bankrupt Detroit bonds will hold out in Michigan court to boost the price of their bonds and, eventually, their payouts:

 

 

Depfa Bank PLC, Dexia SA and a unit of Commerzbank AG have hired lawyers to protect their stake rather than immediately selling the debtprimarily bonds issued to help fund the citys pensions. The move is unusual for banks, which typically dont want to be mired in long bankruptcy-court fights, and it has frustrated a number of hedge funds that want to buy some of Detroits most battered bonds from the banks at deeply discounted prices.

Investors interested in distressed debt have figured out that blue cities, not just failing corporations, are ripe for the picking:

 

(Snip

 

* behind Paywall