No one mentions New York City got bailed out in 1975.

[Octafish]

Shoot, a measley $2.3 billion (about $10 billion in today's dollars) probably seems like chump change to chiselers like Donald Trump.

http://www.propublica.org/special/government-bailouts

I understand NYC paid back its loan, unlike The Donald.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

1. That came after the infamous NY Daily News headline,

where it showed a pic of Ford on the cover, and said "Ford to City: Drop Dead". He refused to do anything first time around, but after that he saw the light, as it were.
Ah, the good old days.
No chance of anything happening today, not with the bunch we now have in Congress. Detroit, unfortunately, is on its own.

[Octafish]

2. Columbia gets more federal aid than Motown.

Judy Lynn posted on LBN that Uncle Sam sent $323 million vs $108 million respectively last year:

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/International/2013/Aug-01/225834-bankrupt-detroit-receives-less-us-aid-than-colombia.ashx#ixzz2af918dlg

[leftstreet]

3. Chump change! BOA got $142billion in 2009

Citigroup = $280billion 2009
AIG= $180billion 2008

I wonder how much Detroit would need compared to the Bankster monies

[liberal_at_heart]

11. I remember how mad I was about all the hell they were raising over giving the auto industry

a fraction of what they gave the banks. The banks get billions but as far as many are concerned the auto industry, cities, and anything else that helps the people can fail. It's disgusting.

[Octafish]

13. Tim Geithner used America's homeowners to ''foam the runway'' for the bankster landing.

Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has published a new book, “Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street.” It presents a damning indictment of the Obama administration’s execution of the TARP program generally, and of HAMP in particular.
…
By delaying millions of foreclosures, HAMP gave bailed-out banks more time to absorb housing-related losses while other parts of Obama’s bailout plan repaired holes in the banks’ balance sheets. According to Barofsky, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner even had a term for it. HAMP borrowers would “foam the runway” for the distressed banks looking for a safe landing. It is nice to know what Geithner really thinks of those Americans who were busy losing their homes in hard times.

CONTINUED w VIDEO and links and more letters...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/video-geithner-sacrificed-homeowners-to-foam-the-runway-for-the-banks/article/2502982

People in Detroit have foamed the runway for centuries, from volunteering to fight in the Civil War to striking for fair working conditions to busting their chops as the Arsenal of Democracy to showing the world people of all races, religions and creeds could live and work together.

[ellenfl]

4. yeah, but that was when repubs still had souls! eom

[countmyvote4real]

9. Yes, those quaint times when bipartisan meant something and compromise was acceptable & meaningful.

Way back before Teabag terrorists and obstructionism.

[Octafish]

16. Today's GOP are largely criminal, supporting tyrants and banksters.

...at home and overseas. Shocked to see so many Democrats rushed to join them.

Gov. Don Siegelman remains falsely imprisoned, thanks largely on Holder and Kagan's recommendation.

NSA must have something on everybody.

[NCarolinawoman]

5. I had forgotten about that!

[zeemike]

6. Yes but that is different.

NYC is where the elite live and play...you can't expect them to do without services can you?
Detroit is full of little people and you know what they say about feeding stray cats don't you?

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. Correction ...

Detriot is full of little negro people and union retirees ... big difference!

[bigwillq]

8. I believe it was mentioned here on DU

when Detroit filed for bankruptcy a few weeks ago.

[Octafish]

15. DU's great that way.

Corporate McPravda, not so much.

[RudynJack]

10. Trump has never come

close to seeing 10 billion. He's skated on the (high) edge his whole life.

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. Ripping off his partners and declaring bankruptcy over and over.

TV money is how he finally made it.

[Heywood J]

12. Mitt Romney: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html?_r=0

[Spider Jerusalem]

17. NYC is a major business, cultural, and financial centre, a major shipping port, and a transit hub.

Detroit is in a death spiral; the major industries have mostly left and gone elsewhere, the ones that are left employ a fraction of the workers they formerly did, and the population has declined by over 60%. The infrastructure is crumbling because, with the population exodus, there's too much city for the reduced tax base to support. More people will probably leave. Detroit shouldn't be left to go under, but at the same time there are questions about how it may be made viable. The demolition and relocation plans that have gotten underway are a good start on reducing the size of the physical city to one more commensurate with its population (and thus better able to have infrastructure and crtical services funded by the existing tax base); whether that will work remains to be seen.

The population of NYC declined by nine hundred thousand people between the 1970 and 1980 census, by the way; the largest single population shift in an American city's population over a decade, in absolute numbers, even with the bailout.

[hack89]

18. That bailout also heralded an age of austerity in NYC

with massive budget cuts and a severe erosion of social programs and public services. It also ushered in a generation of pro-business leaders. Remember Ed Koch, who described himself as a "liberal with sanity"? His first act when elected in 1978 was to cut spending and taxes in addition to cutting 7,000 from the city payroll.

NY made some very hard choices to reduce their budget. I don't see where Detroit even attempted to make those decisions.

I have no problem bailing out Detroit - I am just not under any illusions that it won't be painful to the city and its residents. A bail out is a life ring, nothing more. Without fundamental changes the city will never recover.