Detroit becomes largest US city to file for bankruptcy

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

To quote the Mayor of Detroit yesterday:

"What you want,
I ain't got it.
What you need,
I don't have it.

All I'm asking,
Is a little Chapter 9 Protection.
Hey Creditor (just a little bit),
In the legal system (just a little bit).

I'm about to give you,
Very little money.
All I'm askin' for,
In return honey.
Is to give me Chapter 9.
To avoid legal travails (just a, just a, just a, just a)
Yeah baby (just a, just a, just a, just a)
To avoid legal travails (just a little bit)
Yeah (just a little bit)

C-H-A-P-T-E-R
Find out what number 9 means
C-H-A-P-T-E-R
I ain't got yo money"
[Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby]"

Although Respect is Stax not Motown, so it's Memphis rather than Detroit.

vivatifosi

antrobus wrote: »

Although Respect is Stax not Motown, so it's Memphis rather than Detroit.

Aretha was born in Memphis but spent a significant part of her life in Detroit. From her own website:

As is widely known, Aretha, born in Memphis, (reared in Buffalo but a longtime resident of Detroit,)
http://www.arethafranklin.net/us/biography

So not inappropriate, even though the song was written by someone else anyway (Otis Redding?)

antrobus

vivatifosi wrote: »

...So not inappropriate, even though the song was written by someone else anyway (Otis Redding?)

Yes, it was written by Otis Redding. It's on Otis Blue. Probably his best album. Otis was Stax, Aretha was Atlantic, her version of Respect was probably cut with the Muscle Shoals mob. It ain't the Motown sound.

I wouldn't say it was inappropriate, I just think it incongruous that given Motown's massive string of hits, that someone would pick a Stax song to parody given Detroit's predicament.:)

P.S. Come to think of it, reworking the lyrics of 'Ain't too Proud To Beg' might be a place to start.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

IronWolf wrote: »

But I thought high public sector spending was supposed to rejuvenate economics. How come Detroit isnt booming?

I thought cheap land and house prices were supposed to rejuvenate economies.

How come Detroit isn't booming?

Generali

Detroit is going through what Britain's rust belt in places like the towns around Sheffield went through 30 years ago.

The differences are:

- The welfare state in the UK will prop people and places up indefinitely in a state of permanent near-failure.
- Americans tend to have a bit more gumption about following work around than Brits IME.

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

Detroit is going through what Britain's rust belt in places like the towns around Sheffield went through 30 years ago.

The differences are:

- The welfare state in the UK will prop people and places up indefinitely in a state of permanent near-failure.
- Americans tend to have a bit more gumption about following work around than Brits IME.

I think Americans do move around, but a big issue is also that you can abandon whole tracts of land without them having a tangible worth in a way you just can't here. We don't have that much spare land to waste and hence everything has some value in a way that just isn't the case in Detroit. That is in part a factor of rationing, but it's also in part due to our much higher population density.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

I think Americans do move around, but a big issue is also that you can abandon whole tracts of land without them having a tangible worth in a way you just can't here. We don't have that much spare land to waste and hence everything has some value in a way that just isn't the case in Detroit. That is in part a factor of rationing, but it's also in part due to our much higher population density.

At the risk of undermining my own argument, Liverpool is in the process of being abandoned:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool#Population

At the 2011 UK Census the recorded population of Liverpool was 466,400. Liverpool's population peaked in 1930s with 846,101 recorded in the 1931 census. Since then the city has experienced negative population growth every decade, with at its peak over 100,000 people leaving the city between 1971 and 1981.

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

At the risk of undermining my own argument, Liverpool is in the process of being abandoned:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool#Population

Never trust Wikipedia without confirmation from a proper source.:)

At the 2011 UK Census the recorded population of Liverpool was 466,400....

Almost right, it was 466,415.

....Liverpool's population peaked in 1930s with 846,101 recorded in the 1931 census. Since then the city has experienced negative population growth every decade, ....

Wrong. Liverpool's population went from 439,473 in 2001 to 466,415 in 2011, that's a 6.1% increase over the decade. So the abandonment has been, err, abandoned.

http://liverpool.gov.uk/media/128963/Population.pdf

TruckerT

antrobus wrote: »

Never trust Wikipedia without confirmation from a proper source.:)



Almost right, it was 466,415.



Wrong. Liverpool's population went from 439,473 in 2001 to 466,415 in 2011, that's a 6.1% increase over the decade. So the abandonment has been, err, abandoned.

http://liverpool.gov.uk/media/128963/Population.pdf

Can anybody begin to understand the problem I have with 'statistics'?

TruckerT

DKLS

Detroit bankrupt! Wow! Just waiting for OCP to buy the city and introduce ED209 and the RoboCop programme!