What happens after?
So Detroit is either going to go bankrupt or get a bailout and that will take care of it's debts. We know the banks and the hedge fund folk will get paid but what happens after that for the 700,000 people still living in the city?
As of 2010, nearly one third of all Detroiters and over one half of those under 18 live at or below the poverty line. Over 16% of the population is unemployed according to official statistics while the real rate is believed to be much higher. Most astoundingly, over 75% of Detroit's children never receive a high school diploma! What happens after for them?
Through all this talk of bankruptcy and bailouts we don't hear much about how to turn around the future prospects for an impoverished and undereducated populace. Sure, there's lip service given to improving 'services' but never any discussion on what services they mean and how they plan to improve them.
If Detroit is to survive, it must bring its people with it. I don't give a Damn about having a pretty place to watch the Tigers, Redwings and Lions if the lady serving my gourmet hot dog at Comerica Park is living in poverty a few hundred yards from the stadium.
So when all these politicians and pundits talk about Detroit future, I have to ask what comes after for the people who have made Detroit home? Without them, Detroit is nothing.
