Detroit
I have always loved to travel. I lived in Hungary for four months, I was in Croatia for three weeks doing an intensive physical therapy camp a few summers ago, and I go up to the great state of Maine several times a year. I have always felt that traveling is necessary because it enables people to have new experiences that generally enrich ones life. However, as of now, if I die without going to the city of Detroit Michigan, I will be a happy man. No offense to the people of Detroit, but that city is in a deplorable place right now. It is currently a deep, dark, hole!
Detroit just had a mayoral election in which Mike Duggan was elected. Mike Duggan is an ex-county prosecutor and former director of Detroit's Medical Center. Even though Mike Duggan will be the Mayor of Detroit beginning in January, he will not have much power because Detroit has hired a turnaround specialist named Kevyn Orr, who will be in charge of Detroit's finances and how its spends its money.
So how does Detroit fix its horrible financial crisis? I have always been of the belief that the best way to make money is to cut superfluous expenses as opposed to raising taxes, which is the favored method of President Obama. So, one suggestion that I have for Detroit is to sell off some of the art collection in its museum of fine arts. I know most of the collection is owned by private donors, but if they could convince them to let Detroit sell their donations that would go a long way towards helping Detroit's economic situation. According to some experts, the art collection could be worth 2 billion dollars.
Another solution that Detroit could do in order to help their economic situation is to sell their sports franchises to the highest bidder. The Detroit Tigers baseball team is estimated to be worth 643 million. The Detroit Red Wings hockey team is worth an estimated 315 Million. The Detroit Pistons basketball team is worth an estimated 360 million. The Detroit Lions football team is worth an estimated 817 million dollars.
I know that Detroit is in a very bad economic situation right now and I also know that my proposed solutions would not fix the problem entirely, but it might help get Detroit headed in the right direction.
I like how you researched and found the potential ways of raising the money to pay off debts. I have to question how effective this would be however. You have to take into account that these sells would be a one shot deal and would not provide an effective precedent for future situations similar to this. You also have to take into account that selling these franchises and arts would hurt the city in the long run because it would be losing tax sources and forms of employment that are already scarce in the area.
ReplyDeleteSo jealous of all your travels, I love to travel as well! I am not sure how I feel about selling sports franchises, and art. I think Sports franchises are apart of an even higher organization. It in a way is like selling the city to save a city. Private owners can manipulate the profits, franchises, etc that belong to the city. With all this being said, I can see where you were coming from. Detroit is in a very interesting situation, and solutions seem scarce.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could share some of the same optimism however, I don't believe the city can be saved. Private should never intersect with public when it comes to public debt. When the debt of a city is brought on by its administrators and not the people while subsequently causing the exodus of all who could pay high taxes, should never be allowed to use donated items for the good of something that failed.
ReplyDeleteDetroit is actually quite lovely. Even the more dilapidated sections of the city have a sort of apocalyptic charm (if I can speak in such terms). I am partial to the rustbelt generally, though, as a result of living in Buffalo, and my relatives live in Detroit, so I'm not really neutral. Nonetheless, there is actually quite a vibrant cultural life still in detroit. Parts of Detroit still floor Greenville even today.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with selling the art is that it is a one shot deal, as Jose notes. They could sell the art and end up back in debt, because the problems are really with the tax base--the lack of funding for the government. The best example of this is that Bankruptcy would likely get rid of the debts without selling the art. But it is still unlikely to fix the city's long term budget problems. Things will be better, but still tight after bankruptcy.
Sports teams are usually owned privately, so unless you are going red on me and proposing expropriation--seizing privately owned wealth--then such sales will have no impact on the city, unfortunately.
I personally have never been to Detroit but I think it is going to be very difficult to fix the problem Detroit if even possible. You are exactly right that in order to fix the debt you have to cut spending. More money needs to come into circulation in the city to help with the problem. Tourism could help but major improvements would need to be made to the city.
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