{"id":19162,"date":"2013-09-20T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/chart-of-the-week-how-detroit-went-bust\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:44:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:44:41","slug":"chart-of-the-week-how-detroit-went-bust","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/09\/20\/chart-of-the-week-how-detroit-went-bust\/","title":{"rendered":"Chart of the Week: How Detroit went bust"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/09\/detroit.png\"><img data-dominant-color=\"ddddde\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #ddddde;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"785\" height=\"651\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/09\/detroit.png?resize=480,398 480w, https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/09\/detroit.png?resize=782,649 782w, https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/09\/detroit.png?resize=785,651 785w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" class=\"wp-image-29681 not-transparent\" alt=\"detroit\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/09\/detroit.png\" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <em>The Sun Also Rises<\/em>, impoverished Scottish war veteran Mike Campbell is asked how he went bankrupt. &#8220;Two ways,&#8221; he replies. &#8220;Gradually and then suddenly.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That pretty well describes how Detroit became <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/19\/us\/detroit-files-for-bankruptcy.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0\">the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy<\/a> protection this summer.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A stellar <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freep.com\/interactive\/article\/20130915\/NEWS01\/130801004\/Detroit-Bankruptcy-history-1950-debt-pension-revenue?&amp;wpisrc=nl_wonk\">analysis of the city&#8217;s troubled financial history<\/a> by the Detroit Free Press concluded that Detroit&#8217;s bankruptcy was the result of decades of poor decisions by city leaders &#8212; failure to trim payroll in the 1960s and 1970s as the city&#8217;s population and property-tax base began to fall, heavy borrowing to cover operating expenses in recent years, mismanagement of urban redevelopment projects, paying $1 billion in pension bonuses from 1985 to 2008, and much more. The paper distilled five decades&#8217; worth of data into a series of graphics (of which this is just one) and accompanying text that clearly lay out a series of lost opportunities to avoid tumbling into a fiscal black hole.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;There have been periods of economic growth and hope, such as in the 1990s when the population decline slowed, income-tax revenue increased and city leaders balanced the budget,&#8221; the paper states. &#8220;But leaders failed to take advantage of those moments of calm to reform city government, reduce expenses and protect the city and its residents from another downturn.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charts from the Detroit Free Press depict decades of mismanagement, missed opportunities and poor fiscal choices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713064187","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[842],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-19162","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-drew-desilver","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short 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