|
Ex-Detroit
emergency
manager
Kevyn
Orr:
Bankruptcy
process
start,
not end,
of
city's
recovery
Associated
Press
News
DETROIT
- The
city's
successful
exit
from the
largest
municipal
bankruptcy
in U.S.
history
doesn't
mean
Detroit's
troubles
are
over,
its
former
fiscal
overseer
told
area
business
leaders
Tuesday.
Mayor
Mike
Duggan
and the
City
Council
have
resources,
but the
work of
moving
Detroit
forward
continues,
Kevyn
Orr said
at a
Detroit
Economic
Club
event.
"People
think
bankruptcy
is the
end," he
added.
"It's
not the
end,
it's the
start."
Orr, who
stepped
down as
Detroit's
manager
in
December,
was
named
this
month by
New
Jersey
Gov.
Chris
Christie
as
special
counsel
to
Atlantic
City's
emergency
manager.
He had
been
hired by
Michigan
Gov.
Rick
Snyder
in March
2013 and
filed
Detroit's
bankruptcy
petition
that
July as
an
effort
to
overcome
decades
of
population
loss, a
chronic
loss of
tax
revenue
and
piles of
debt.
Detroit
emerged
from
bankruptcy
in
December
and is
currently
is
operating
under
his plan
to shed
or
restructure
about $7
billion
in debt.
While
reinvestment
continues
downtown
and in
Detroit's
Midtown
neighborhood,
many
other
parts of
the city
are
still
struggling.
"Downton
is going
to look
really,
really
nice,"
Orr
said.
"But
you've
got
another
130
miles of
city ...
neighborhoods.
It's not
changed.
That's a
long-term
process
and we
can't
forget
there's
another
city out
there."
Duggan —
using
mostly
federal
funds —
has
started
an
ambitious
blight
removal
program
that
includes
the mass
demolition
of
vacant
houses.
The city
also is
auctioning
off
salvageable
homes
through
its land
bank.
Noting
that
Atlantic
City is
smaller
than
Detroit,
Orr said
that
city's
problems
"are
manageable." |