Detroit – the birthplace of the US auto industry – has filed for bankruptcy.
Known universally as ‘Motor City’, Detroit has fallen on hard times in recent years, as the influence of the auto industry wanes in the city.
Ironically, Detroit’s bankruptcy application comes as the giant US car makers – Ford and GM – surge ahead after recovering from the GFC.
Detroit may no longer be ‘Motor City’ but it has became the largest city in US history to go bankrupt – filing for Chapter 9 protection.
A number of factors – most notably steep population and tax base falls – have been blamed on Detroit’s tumble toward insolvency.
Detroit lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. A population that in the 1950s reached 1.8 million is struggling to stay above 700,000.
Much of the middle-class, and scores of businesses, also have fled Detroit, taking their tax dollars with them.
Henry Ford would turn in his grave.
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