U.S.
The federal government and private organizations are directing about $300 million in combined aid to help Detroit, the largest city ever to declare bankruptcy, clear out blighted neighborhoods, hire more police and firefighters, and improve its transportation systems.
Four high-ranking officials in the Obama administration, including the president's chief economic adviser, Michigan native Gene Sperling, met to discuss federal efforts and the city's options Friday with Gov. Rick Snyder, state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and community and business leaders.
The other White House officials in attendance at the closed-door meeting at Wayne State University were Attorney General Eric Holder, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.
The federal aid being directed to the beleaguered city, mired in debt of at least $18 billion, tallies in at over $100 million and will be augmented with about $200 million in resources from Detroit businesses and foundations, which will include the Ford Foundation, Kresge Foundation and Knight Foundation, the Detroit Free Press reported.
"We knew this was an exceptional circumstance and it deserved an exceptional response," Sperling told reporters after the meeting.
"What you see here is just a more expedited and aggressive effort because we want to help the people of Detroit to prosper," he said. "But we also want the rest of the people in the country to understand ... that Detroit, with the right resources and right partnership, has a great future."
The funding announced by Sperling will include $65 million in community-development block grants for blight eradication, $25 million in a public-private collaboration for commercial-building demolition and nearly $11 million in funds to ensure that working families can live in safe neighborhoods.
Sperling said the administration had scoured the federal budget and found untapped money that "either had not flowed or had not gotten out or not directed to the top priorities for Detroit."
About $24 million in federal money that had been tied up will be used for repairing buses and for installing security cameras, the Detroit Free Press reported. Another $3 million will be used in part to hire new police officers, and some $25 million will be used to hire about 140 firefighters and to buy new gear.
Given Detroit's sizable debt, however, the aid falls far short of the wider bailout some in the city had sought.
"Something is better than nothing," said Bridgette Shephard, a social worker who lives in Detroit. "A bailout would have been better, but if we can sustain some of our needs with grants, that would be a start. Let's take it. Whatever kind of money it is to benefit the city, I'm all for it."
The Obama administration had repeatedly signaled it would not offer a massive federal bailout like the one credited with helping rescue Chrysler and General Motors. But Wayne State Law School professor Peter Henning said the administration is trying to show its support without trying to send any message about a bailout.
"The goal is to strengthen Detroit but only indirectly," Henning told The Associated Press. "This is at best a muted commitment because what Detroit really needs is dollars and not just support that might be beneficial in three to five years. But any hope of that is a pipe dream."
"There is not going to be a bailout," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We have enough problems with the federal deficit. We need to be creative and look at existing programs. There are still some funds there."
Friday afternoon's gathering followed a series of meetings with the White House to plot ways to pull Detroit — which has a poor record of making sure grant money is used properly or even spent at all — from a fiscal pit.
In 2011, Bing fired the director of the city's Human Services Department after an internal investigation revealed that $200,000 intended for poor residents was spent on office furniture for staff members.
The following year, his office had to scramble to use about $20 million in grants that had been left sitting for demolitions of thousands of vacant houses. The city's Police Department also allowed a $400,000 grant for a new armored vehicle to lapse.
Dan Gilbert, chairman of the Detroit-based investment firm Rock Ventures and founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, told The New York Times that "a Marshall Plan for Detroit" is what is necessary.
"We need to remove every single structure and building in this city that is no longer viable," Gilbert told the paper. "Once you remove all of that — and I mean all of it — you start renewing hope."
Al Jazeera and The Associated Press
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