Re calling the partial meltdown of a nearby nuclear power plant a decade earlier, and a book that revealed the extent of the crisis, Gil Scott Heron sang in 1977 , "We Almost Lost Detroit."
The city survived, and remains home to 700,000 Americans and the symbolic center of the nation's auto industry. But after decades of neglect by federal and state officials, and a meltdown of American manufacturing, Detroit is facing exceptionally hard economic times.
Detroit is up against plenty of threats. But the most pressing political threat over the past several months has come from a Republican governor who seeks to impose his will on a city that did not choose him or his austerity agenda.
On Thursday afternoon, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder made his move.
And the notion that the people who live in America's great cities must govern their own affairs took a huge hit.
Snyder, the Republican who led the charge for Michigan's enactment of an anti-labor "right-to-work" law last year, announced that he had approved legal steps to steer the state's largest city toward bankruptcy. He made no bones about who was in charge, declaring in a statement attached to the bankruptcy filing that "I'm making this tough decision..."
Earlier this year, the governor engineered a state-driven takeover of Detroit that disempowered the elected mayor and city council and gave authority over decisions about the city's finances, service delivery and direction to an appointed "emergency manager."
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On Thursday afternoon, Snyder signed off on the filing of paperwork seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. If the court accepts the argument presented by Snyder and his emergency manager, Detroit will become the largest American city to enter bankruptcy. It will, as well, be the largest American city in the recent history of the republic to take such a dramatic step without following the basic practices and procedures of democratic governance.
To be sure, Detroit faces serious financial challenges. It has huge debts, high unemployment and tough prospects as a historic industrial city in an age of deindustrialization. It suffers from the broad neglect of urban America by federal officials who are so disengaged that, on Thursday, Congressman Dan Kildee, D-Michigan, complained in a stinging letter to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, "For too long, lawmakers and regulators have stood aside as cities grapple with budget deficits, unfunded pensions and crumbling infrastructure."
Detroit's economic challenges are not unique.
What is distinct about Detroit is the denial of democracy.
No matter how tough things get, most American cities face their challenges under the direction of local officials who take their cues from voters. When officials fail to act, or act inappropriately, they are replaced by the ballot. Sometimes, in emergency situations, they are recalled and removed from office in order to make way for necessary changes.
But the voters still call the shots.
That's how it is supposed to be in America.
There is an understanding at the federal level of American governance that the people who make essential decisions about federal policy should be elected.
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