Detroit Hits Bankruptcy

Detroit, a city which was the United States’ fourth-largest in the 1950s with nearly 2 million inhabitants, has seen its population plummet to 700,000, losing around a quarter-million residents in the past decade and their tax dollars with them. As a result, the city is currently home to nearly 80,000 abandoned and blighted structures and income tax collections are down by more than a third over the past five years, despite some of the highest tax rates in the state.

This week the city filed for Bankruptcy under the weight of a deficit that has hit $18 billion – making it the largest US city to file for bankruptcy – yet more cities are feared to be on the brink.

Source: Washington Post

Read It: Here

How to Build a New Detroit: Here

See a Time Magazine photo essay: Here