(Spirit of Detroit. Photo 2011 Socotra)
I am not in denial. But I am equally not in De Nile, though it feels like an equally big and inexorable river pulling us toward some really big body of water. But hey, we are NOT going to talk about the cliff. I have never seen anything like this in my life, and I have been to the Michigan State Fair at its home on Woodward Avenue. a little short of the Detroit city limits at Eight Mile Road, of song and story.
I was going to look at the coverage of the press conference after the President jetted back from Hawaii and the Speaker drove his RV back from the Buckeye State puffing Marlboros and Majority Leader Reid crawled out from whatever Nevada rock he sleeps under. A friend watched it for me, and reported that no one looked very good.
I got a call text from Lovely Mary, Old Jim’s much better half, indicating it was the monthly special at Willow, and that the crowd was assembled at the Amen Corner to feast. I took a last look at the press conference before heading for the elevator, the garage and the Panzer in that general order.
The white wine was excellent. The companionship superb, and a couple hours frolicking at Willow’s long bar put the minor inconvenience of the commotion downtown on the back burner.
When I crawled out of bed, I had a queasy feeling, and it was not because of the white wine from the night before. It was the nagging thought that this cast of characters is finally actually joining hands. The problem is that it might be in preparation for jumping together into the Abyss. I would say “good riddance,” if there were not clear and stark implications for all the rest of us.
Oh well. I imagine we will just have to pick up the pieces they leave us when the crockery gets broken.
Anyway, to distract myself from the drama here in Neverland, I read a note from a good pal about local politics back in my home state of Michigan. With all the curfluffle here, I quite missed the Detroit sub-text to the ongoing crisis. I wish I had followed the election there with more granularity.
Last time the national media paid any attention to the Wolverine State was the huge commotion caused by passage of the Right To Work legislation by the lame-duck Republican legislature. Governor Rick Snyder quickly signed it and the press was agog that the majority did what majorities do.
(Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan. Photo courtesy those chuckleheads at The Daily Kos)
It passed un-noticed by me that not all the Big Labor initiatives on the ballot last November failed. The most notable of those- along with re-election of Senator Debbie Stabenow- was repeal of the Emergency Manager provision of Michigan law that permits the Governor to appoint a city manager with sweeping powers untrammeled by elected local officials.
This is a big deal in the Wolverine State, since the crown jewel of global industry is just about to complete its majestic downward trajectory from Arsenal of Democracy to ragged and abject alms-seeker.
The Motor City is a proud, if gritty place, and carries the chip on its collective shoulders of all failed experiments in social justice. Anyway, the deal was that time has finally run out, the City Council and embattled Mayor Dave Bing are now just weeks away from default. Repeal of the Emergency Manager laws extended the remaining brief bit of self-government, since the previous 1990 legislation was much weaker.
Snyder’s new bill would preserve some fiscal authority for local officials, but grant Emergency Managers the ability to reject, modify or terminate labor union agreements. Collective bargaining could be suspended for up to five years if the city is in arrears According to the published a couple times a week Detroit News, the EM can act when a municipality or school district “defaults on debt payments, has a six-month-old overdue bill of at least $10,000, fails to make payroll for a week or if requested by the governing body or chief administrative officer.”
So, here we are. The Motor City should have reached that place in Mid-December. An emergency fund controlled by the governor has pushed the noodle slightly to the right, but the fund is dwindling since Detroit’s operating costs exceed tax receipts, and default is at best inevitable by the first quarter of 2013.
So, to avoid thinking too much about what is going to happen to all of us, I thought I would take a look at what is going to happen to Detroit. The motto of the Great State of Michigan is the Latin phrase: “”Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice,” or, in the vernacular, “If you seek a beautiful peninsula, look around you.”
If you want to know what is going to happen, take a look back with me at a slightly smaller but proud city just up the road.
We will take a look at Michael Moore’s hometown of Flint tomorrow.
Could be fun.
(A view of Downtown Detroit from the famous People Mover. Photo Socotra)
Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com