More and more, it's becoming clear that the "bankruptcy" of Detroit is an experiment in how the investment class might be able to loot a city. Detroit was the ultimate company town, a city so willing to capitulate to the auto industry that it used eminent domain to seize property on behalf of General Motors; but when the industry found it more profitable to move elsewhere, Motown got the shaft.
But it's not enough for the ruling class to abandon the city, not when they can steal some more from it:
On Vultures and Red Wings: Billionaire Gets New Sports Arena in Bankrupt Detroit | The Nation
Yes, the very week Michigan Governor Rick Snyder granted a state-appointed emergency manager’s request to declare the Motor City bankrupt, the Tea Party governor gave a big thumbs-up to a plan for a new $650 million Detroit Red Wings hockey arena. Almost half of that $650 million will be paid with public funds.
This is actually happening. City services are being cut to the bone. Fighting fires, emergency medical care and trash collection are now precarious operations. Retired municipal workers will have their $19,000 in annual pensions dramatically slashed. Even the artwork in the city art museum will be sold off piece by piece....
They don’t have money to keep the art on the walls. They do have $283 million to subsidize a new arena for Red Wings owner and founder of America’s worst pizza-pizza chain, Little Caesar’s, Mike Ilitch, whose family is worth $2.7 billion dollars.