Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back

by Nathan Bomey Narrated by Jonathan Yen

Overview

From thriving Motor City to the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history, Detroit has become the nation's cautionary tale. But what led to the fateful day of the filing, and how did the city survive this crisis?



Journalist Nathan Bomey delivers the inside story of Detroit's decline and the people who fought to save it against impossible odds: governor Rick Snyder, a self-proclaimed nerd; emergency manager Kevyn Orr, a lawyer with singular dedication; judge Steven Rhodes, the city's conscience; and retirees who fought to ensure that Detroit kept its promises. In a tightly reported narrative, Bomey reveals the tricky path to the Grand Bargain that would determine the fate of pensioners, city services, and the world-class Detroit Institute of Arts, which faced the threat of liquidation. Detroit Resurrected offers a sweeping account of financial ruin, backroom intrigue, and political rebirth in the struggle to reinvent one of America's great cities.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Stephen Eide

Nathan Bomey's Detroit Resurrected is the most thoroughly reported account of the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. It also stands as a valuable work of urban policy.

Publishers Weekly

02/15/2016
The Motor City’s recent fiscal implosion sparks an unlikely outbreak of civic-mindedness in this stirring saga of municipal finance. Bomey, a former Detroit Free Press reporter, recounts Detroit’s 2013 Chapter 9 filing—the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history—after decades of plummeting population, dwindling tax revenue, and criminal mismanagement of public finances. The city’s staggering $9.2 billion debt crowded out funding for police, fire protection, and other basic services. The story begins as a dogfight in bankruptcy court, where Detroit’s appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, is pitted against retirees whose pensions could be slashed and Wall Street creditors whose city bonds are worth pennies on the dollar. Soon, everyone starts eyeing the magnificent city-owned art museum as a piggy bank of priceless works to be auctioned off. That looming travesty prompts philanthropic foundations and Michigan’s governor to join a “grand bargain” to save the collection, partially protect pensioners, stabilize Detroit’s budget, and restore public services. Bomey deftly elucidates the intricacies of law and finance that shaped the case while painting colorful profiles of the principals and their sharp-tongued, profane wrangling (and occasional fits of conscience). Scrupulously fair to all parties and their grievances, Bomey reveals that behind the crass bean counting stood a fractious community pulling together to value and rescue a long-neglected city. Agent: Karen Gantz, Karen Gantz Zahler Literary Management. (May)

Urban Renewal - The New York Times Book Review - Stephen Eide

"Nathan Bomey's Detroit Resurrected is the most thoroughly reported account of the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. It also stands as a valuable work of urban policy. The overarching theme of the book is how Detroit turned to bankruptcy to restore the social contract."

Stephen Henderson

"No one covered Detroit’s historic municipal bankruptcy more closely than former Detroit Free Press reporter Nathan Bomey. And his unpacking of it here is superlative—not only the sordid history and mechanics of how and why Detroit went broke, but also how it got through court-supervised restructuring and emerged in a position to do better by its residents. With deep reporting and incisive insights, Bomey takes readers inside the process in a way only he could. If you care about cities—past, present, or future—Detroit Resurrected is a must-read."

The Rise and Fall of the Donald Trump of Detroit - The Millions - Bill Morris

"Bomey does a superb job of laying out the origins and depths of Detroit’s fiscal and political woes. He has done prodigious research into archives and court documents, interviewed all the players, and woven a tangled mass of facts into a narrative that reads like a thriller."

Booklist

"As other cities flirt with a similar financial fate, Bomey’s intricate saga of how Detroit walked back from the brink of destruction provides an unrivaled glimpse into what went wrong and an unflinching evaluation of what it takes to overcome detrimental political shenanigans and dubious financial practices. ... Bomey’s insider account ... entertains with its fly-on-the-wall intimacy and keen observations."

Thomas J. Sugrue

"One of our most talented young reporters, Nathan Bomey goes behind the scenes to offer a dramatic account of the debates, deliberation, and deal-making that brought Detroit out of its unprecedented bankruptcy. Bomey brings a human eye to the cold realities of municipal finance and urban politics, through well-drawn portraits of the investors, pensioners, union leaders, politicians, philanthropists, lawyers, and judges at the heart of the case."

From the Publisher

"An engaging reconstruction of Detroit's financial crisis and the broader implications of its comeback for other American cities." ---Kirkus

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"An engaging reconstruction of Detroit's financial crisis and the broader implications of its comeback for other American cities." —Kirkus

FEBRUARY 2017 - AudioFile

Narrator Jonathan Yen’s deep, authoritative voice matches the factual tone of this audiobook, but he also varies his pitch to make it an interesting listen. He moves through the material deliberately, so we can digest the myriad acts, actions, bills, and legal contretemps that accompanied the city’s long, but ultimately quick, slide into fiscal decline. There’s nothing very notable about Yen’s delivery, but he does what the author requires of him—he respectfully tells an interesting story about a town that fell on hard times while emphasizing the key facts and ideas that led to its current attempt at a renaissance. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2016-01-05
A chronicle of the infamous bankruptcy of the Motor City, from financial mismanagement to rebirth. In retrospect, the headline-stealing bankruptcy of Detroit, the largest municipality to file in American history, seems both tragically inevitable and necessary. For decades, the automotive industry that defined the city had been shrinking and consolidating, putting pressure on the city's finances to deal with growing expenses and a shortage of tax income. But that's only a single example identified by USA Today journalist Bomey in a lengthy list of reasons that gets at the complexity and systemic nature of Detroit's problems, including an overextension and overcommitment to debt service, pension payments, and retiree health care costs. The author, who was the lead reporter for the Detroit Free Press on the city's bankruptcy, hints at the chain of events that led to Detroit's ruin, but his focus is on the elected officials, bureaucrats, and financiers tasked with trying to rescue the city. Among them are the appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr and former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose embarrassing corruption scandal led to his conviction on racketeering charges following the end of his term in 2008, an event that can be read as the symbolic death knell of the city. As Bomey breaks down the numbers behind the city's default, he provides eye-popping statistics that perfectly capture the near-apocalyptic level of duress. For instance, adjusted for inflation, the total value of private property in Detroit fell from $45.2 billion in 1958 to $9.6 billion in 2012. Though the book is well-paced and highly readable, the collapse of Detroit is not an undocumented subject, and there is little in this narrative that has not already been dissected at length. But it's an important subject, since the tale of Detroit's financial woes can serve as a case study on how other cities can deal with economic transition. An engaging reconstruction of Detroit's financial crisis and the broader implications of its comeback for other American cities.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171246907
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	04/25/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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