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If Detroit Is Dead, Some Things Need to Be Said at the Funeral

ABSTRACT: A growing literature has long proclaimed the city of Detroit to be “dead.” Of course cities, unlike sentient beings, do not actually die even if they dramatically lose industry and population and the local government its ability to meet basic needs. How their continuing crisis is addressed depends on how competing interests are able to tell their story. This essay evaluates the most significant of these competing and complementary stories and evaluates state-appointed Emergency Financial Manager Kevyn Orr’s plan of adjustment that would cut the pensions of city workers and reduce payments to some bondholders by large amounts. What would happen will be settled in the years to come as court challenges are addressed. This essay evaluates explanations and who and what is to blame. It provides an alternative focus to the “Detroit is dead” literature and raises concerns absent from the dominant narratives of what is justified in a just settlement.