situation, no matter what we do. that is clear. they have representation that we asked for, and the city is paying for. we pay for the retiree committee. so there are people there that can support and put forward their interest. but we re going to try to do this in a very measured and thoughtful way. but it has to be done. oh, mr. orr, you re only telling part of the story. roughly 30,000 retired workers are concerned about their pensions being cut. state law doesn t matter anymore. state constitution, hell, that s out the window. that doesn t matter anymore. governor schneider basically is getting absolutely everything he wants. city assets will be privatized and city workers will be taking a huge cut on their pensions. now, this is the systematic destruction of an american city with a great tradition in this country. it s a government coup without the violence. and it is completely unjustified and unnecessary. in the coming days, you re going to hear a lot from folks in the
time. chris: you ve talked about possibly have to sell city assets, including the international airport in detroit, including belle isle park, including the very valuable treasures at the detroit institute of art. is all that on the table? i said at the beginning everything is on the table. there s certainly questions regarding grandmother s fine china and heirloom silver we have to address, or not address. we ll try to rationalize it as best. chris: some bankruptcy experts since you made your filing this week saying you made a mistake. in fact, standard & poor s has dropped detroit s bond rating to its lowest level, that you ll have great difficulty, even if you restructure, going through this pain, in getting investors ever to trust the city if they go out and try to borrow again. uh-huh. chris, i ve heard that in many other contexts.
footprint of 139 miles, you can fit boston manhattan and san francisco into our footprint. it s a colossal piece of real estate. and i think there has been some disdense going back quite a ways in city leadership. the current leadership the mayor, tried to do the yeoman s job of getting his hands around this thing. he reduced government by 20%. chris, it s been well documented, a myopia a lack of focus on this problem for a long time. you ve talked about possibly having to sell city assets including the international airport in detroit including bell isle park, including the very valuable treasures at the detroit institute of art. is all that on the table, mr. orr? i said at the beginning everything s on the table. there are certainly questions regarding some of the grandmother s fine china and heirloom silver we have to address or not address. we re going to try to rationalize assets as best we can. some bankruptcy experts
focus on this problem for a long time. chris: you ve talked about possibly have to sell city assets, including the international airport in detroit, including belle isle park, including the very valuable treasures at the detroit institute of art. is all that on the table? i said at the beginning everything is on the table. there s certainly questions regarding grandmother s fine china and heirloom silver we have to address, or not address. we ll try to rationalize it as best. chris: some bankruptcy experts since you made your filing this week saying you made a mistake. in fact, standard & poor s has dropped detroit s bond rating to its lowest level, that you ll have great difficulty, even if you restructure, going through this pain, in getting investors ever to trust the city if they go out and try to borrow again. uh-huh. chris, i ve heard that in many
it caught us by surprise at the meeting. of course, it s disappointing. this action will likely have consequences, layoffs, selling off city assets, raising fees and scaling back on basic services like trash pickup and snowplowing. if it s going to make the citizens better off, then this is a new start for us. the city officials said it will be business as usual in detroit. the city will be open and bills will be paid. positive talk, but the motor city is facing an uncertain future. karen travers, abc news, washington. as karen said the bills will be paid. but what got them in this mess they haven t been able to pay the bills they have already. a lot of things are happening in detroit and it s not great. it s really tough. the wait to get to a police officer to your house is 58 minutes. the average nationwide it s 11 minutes. they say that something like 40% of the traffic lights are out.