Reports from the GMU Municipal Sustainability Project, Center for State and Local Leadership

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1920/10008
PROJECT OVERVIEW

With support from the MacArthur Foundation, a team from George Mason University’s Center on State and Local Leadership, led by Frank Shafroth, is in the midst of a multi-year study analyzing the fiscal challenges in the wake of the Great Recession. While considerable effort has been devoted to understanding macroeconomic trends, far less attention has been giving to understanding the recession’s impact at the municipal level. This project directly addresses this critical, and under-appreciated, dimension of fiscal crisis.

The study’s goal is twofold. The first objective is analyzing the complex nature of economic policy, outlining the evolving role of local governments in the federalist system. Building from these findings, the team is creating proactive policy prescriptions, aimed at assisting leaders struggling with similar financial challenges. The final report will provide an in-depth discussion of “best practices” and online resources to share with municipal and state leaders.

The project is structured around six struggling cities: Pittsburg, Providence, Detroit, San Bernardino, Chicago, and Baltimore. The case studies incorporated on-site interviews with local leaders, members of the community, and the media to understand the interaction of policy and economic and sociodemographic factors. Each of the selected cities faced financial challenges over the past decade, and their efforts have met with varying degrees of success. Critical to the study’s methodology, the cases fall into two broad categories: cities located in states with or without a formal intervention program. By contrasting states with systematic intervention programs against those without, the project highlights the numerous ways state governments can exacerbate or alleviate crises within their borders.

For more information on the MacArthur Foundation and their support of Policy Research, visit http://www.macfound.org/programs/policy_research.

Browse

Browsing Reports from the GMU Municipal Sustainability Project, Center for State and Local Leadership by Subject "Detroit"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Detroit Case Study
    (Center for State and Local Government Leadership, George Mason University, 2013-09-01) Shafroth, Frank
    Detroit filed for municipal bankruptcy protection on July 19, 2013. The city is in dire fiscal straits and now in a U.S, bankruptcy court for what the city’s emergency manager termed “the Olympics of restructuring.” The filing is a critical step to ensuring continuity of essential services and critical to rebuilding an economy for the city. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointed an Emergency Manager in March, who in June announced a moratorium on repayment of all unsecured municipal debt. The emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, issued a report and declared the city insolvent. Detroit cannot stay on its current path and survive, and now its fate will be determined in a federal court, where the city’s financing and operations must be completely restructured. After decades of population decline (In 1950, there were 1,849,568 people in Detroit. In 2010, there were 713,777), the city today is home to an estimated 40,000 abandoned lots and structures. Between 1978 and 2007, Detroit lost 67 percent of its business establishments and 80 percent of its manufacturing base. The city has spent $100 million more, on average, than its revenues since 2008. According to the census, 36 percent of its citizens are below the poverty level, and, last year the city reported the highest violent crime rate for any U.S. city with a population over 200,000. Writer Billy Hamilton calls the city “either the ghost of a lost time and place in America, or a resource of enormous potential.”