——正文开始——
JudgeApproves Bankruptcy Exit Plan for Detroit
法官批准底特律破产清退计划
FILE - This July 17, 2013 aerial photo shows the city of Detroit. On Friday, Nov. 7, 2014, federal bankruptcy judge Steven Rhodes is expected to decide whether Detroit's plan to exit bankruptcy is fair and feasible. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
图片为2013年7月17日底特律航拍资料图。2014年11月7日，周五，联邦法官史提芬罗德将对底特律破产计划是否合理、可行做出裁决。
（资料提供：美联社/ Paul Sancya）
A judge cleared Detroit to emerge from bankruptcy Friday, approving a hard-fought turnaround plan with a fervent plea to the people of this one-time industrial powerhouse to "move past your anger" and help fix the Motor City."What happened in Detroit must never happen again," federal Judge Steven Rhodes said in bringing the case to a close a relatively speedy 16 months after Detroit — the cradle of the auto industry — became the biggest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy.The plan calls for cutting the pensions of 12,000 non-public safety retirees by 4.5 percent, erasing $7 billion of debt and spending $1.7 billion to demolish thousands of blighted buildings, make the city safer and improve long-neglected basic services.Rhodes praised decisions that settled the most contentious issues in the case, including a deal to prevent the sale of world-class art at the Detroit Institute of Arts and a consensus that prevented pension cuts from getting even worse. He said the pension deal "borders on the miraculous," though he acknowledged the cuts could still cause severe misfortune for many who have been trying to get by on less than $20,000 a year.Politicians and civic leaders, including Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, hailed Friday's milestone as a fresh start for the city. It was Snyder who agreed with state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr to take the city into Chapter 9, a drastic, last-ditch move that he promoted during his fall re-election campaign.
周五，一名法官对处在破产边缘的底特律作出批复，为帮助这一个时代工业重地的民众“摆脱苦痛”，复兴汽车城，伴随着这种强烈的意愿，批准一项艰难的复苏计划，“底特律的遭遇决不能再现”，联邦法官史提芬罗德表示，案件审理将尽快在16个月左右内结束，之后，汽车工业摇篮——底特律，将成为美国历史上最大规模的破产申请城市。
该计划将削减占4.5%即1万2千名非公共安全退休人员养老金，消除17亿美元债务，并斥资70亿美元拆除数千栋老旧建筑，以此让城市变的更安全并改善长期受忽视的基础服务。
罗德对该决议表示赞赏，（认为）它解决了时下最具争议的难题，包括避免具有世界级艺术水准的底特律艺术学院遭到拍卖，而且还达成了避免更进一步削减养老金的共识。
他表示养老金协议处在“微妙边缘“，尽管他承认，这次削减计划，对于不少挣扎在年收入不足2万美元的人们来说，不吝于雪上加霜。
政治家们和市民领袖，包括共和党州长里克斯奈德在内，赞誉此次决议为星期五里程碑事件，并把它视为该城市一个新的起点。斯奈德在谋求秋季连任竞选时曾呼吁“作最后努力”，同意州任突发事件管理干事凯文奥尔按照（破产法）第九章处理该市破产问题。
Detroit was brought down by a combination of factors, including corruption and mismanagement at City Hall, a long decline in the auto industry, and a flight to the suburbs that caused the population to plummet to 688,000 from 1.2 million in 1980. The exodus has turned entire neighborhoods into desolate, boarded-up landscapes.With more square miles than Manhattan, Boston and San Francisco combined, Detroit didn't have enough tax revenue to cover pensions, retiree health insurance and buckets of debt sold to keep the budget afloat."Detroit's inability to provide adequate municipal services runs deep and has for years. It is inhumane and intolerable, and it must be fixed," the judge said.In signing off on the plan, Rhodes appealed to residents who expressed sorrow and disgust about the city's woes."Move past your anger. Move past it and join in the work that is necessary to fix this city," he said. "Help your city leaders do that. It is your city."With Orr's term over and the city recently returned to the control of elected officials, "It is now time to restore democracy to the people," the judge said.The case concluded in lightning speed by bankruptcy standards. The success was largely due to a series of deals between Detroit and major creditors, especially retirees who agreed to accept smaller pension checks after Rhodes said they had no protection under the Michigan Constitution. Also, bond insurers with more than $1 billion in claims eventually dropped their push to sell off art and settled for much less.
底特律的衰败是由一些综合因素引起的，包括市政府腐败和管理不善，汽车产业长期萎缩，随着人口外流，底特律人口已从1980年的120万人锐减到68.8万人。大批人口外迁使得整个社区变得荒凉，随处都是用木板条封住的房屋.
底特律的面积比曼哈顿，波士顿和旧金山合起来还要大，底特律没有足够的税收来源，用来支付养老金，退休医疗保险、中和大量债务。“底特律无法提供足够的市政服务，多年来毫无改变。这是不人道的，无法忍受的，它必须治理，”
该法官说道。在签署的计划里，罗德鼓励市民倾诉出对这座城市所感到的悲伤与厌恶。“抛去你的怒火。化悲痛为动力加入到恢复城市的建设中来”他说。”帮帮你的市领导。这，是你们的城市。”随着奥尔团队执政结束，城市很快就会回到民选官员的掌控下，“现在是时候把民主交换给人们了（还政于民），”法官说。
案件审理以闪电般的速度通过破产程序，(处理)成功在很大程度上取决于底特律和主要债权人之间达成的一系列妥协，尤其是退休人员同意接受较少金额的养老金支票，之后罗德表示，他们没享受到密歇根宪法中的保护政策。同时，索赔超过10亿美元的债券保险公司，最终放弃拍卖博物馆，没有什么结果比这更让人满意的了。
It took more than two years for a smaller city, Stockton, California, to get out of bankruptcy. San Bernardino, a California city even smaller than Stockton, is still operating under Chapter 9 protection more than two years after filing.Rhodes had to accept Detroit's remedy or reject it in full, not pick pieces. His appointed expert, Martha "Marti" Kopacz of Boston, said it was "skinny" but "feasible," and she linked any future success to the skills of the mayor and City Council and a badly needed overhaul of technology at City Hall.The most unusual feature of the plan is an $816 million pot of money funded by the state, foundations, philanthropists and the Detroit Institute of Arts. The money will forestall even deeper pension cuts and avert the sale of city-owned art at the museum — a step the judge warned "would forfeit Detroit's future."Mayor Mike Duggan, in office less than a year, is the fourth mayor since 2008, when Kwame Kilpatrick resigned in a scandal. A dreadful debt deal under Kilpatrick that locked Detroit into a high interest rate when rates were falling during the recession contributed to the bankruptcy.Detroit Regional Chamber President and CEO Sandy K. Baruah declared Detroit to be "on the cusp of a new era and primed to reinvent itself in a way many people did not think possible.""Exiting bankruptcy so effectively and thoughtfully has wiped out decades of mismanagement and created a historic opportunity to move the city without mortgaging its future," Baruah said.
对于加利福尼亚的斯托克顿市这个小城市来说，为了摆脱破产耗去了两年多的时间。圣贝纳迪诺，一座比加利福尼亚、托克顿市还小的城市，在提出（破产）请求之后，仍在（破产法）第九章的保护下维持了近两年多的时间。
罗德要么接受补救底特律的办法，要么完全排斥，没有其他选择。由他委任的波士顿专家，玛莎“马蒂”科帕奇，表示这虽然“抠门”，但“具有操作性，”她将未来的成功同市长和市议会的能力水平联系起来，而且市政厅急需一种改革方法。
该方案最不同寻常的一点是，其中8.16亿美元资金是由国家，基金会组织，一些慈善家和底特律艺术学院共同出资的。这笔钱将防止养老金进一步被削减，避免市属博物馆被拍卖——对于这点法官曾警告过“（如果不采取措施）将断送底特律的未来”。
麦克杜根市长，就任不到一年，是自2008年以来第四位市长，当时（08年）的夸梅基尔帕特里克（市长）因丑闻而辞职。基尔帕特里克离任后留下一堆极其糟糕的债务合同，让底特律陷于高息陷阱中，在经济衰退期高利率直接导致底特律滑向破产边缘。
底特律地区商会主席、首席执行官Sandy K. Baruah宣布，底特律正“站在新时代的前沿，准备做一件史无前例的大事。”
“高效破产清退再加上深思熟虑让十几年间管理上的不作为一扫而空，创造了一个为城市发展而无需透支未来的历史性机遇”,Baruah说道。
——正文结束,评论开始,——
Judy 12 days agoCrooked politicians (mayors), unions, andthis city is almost destroyed. I hope it can rise from the ashes.14
这个城市差不多被那些奸猾的政客（市长），工会毁掉了。我希望底特律能从废墟中站起来。
Browning_Fan Judy 12 days agoIt's done. Citizens of Detroit are onlythere because they can't afford to leave.6
就是这样，可是底特律的百姓只能呆在这里，因为别的地方他们呆不起。
——我是楼层分割线——
Kid Abra Sani Fornus 12 days agoThe money is out there. Where is it going?1
钱影都没看到，钱都哪去了？
jonathan doe Kid Abra 12 days agoon drugs 1
都花在白粉上啦~
Arryandan Sani Fornus 12 days agoDetroit is 1/3 the size it had been. That'swhat is causing it's problems. Unions, wages, and benefits are simply part ofthe Auto Industry. As for Cooked Politicians, there is a fair amount on bothsides. Detroit's BIGGEST problem was when Americans started buying foreigncars.
估计三分之一的底特律人都成了瘾君子，问题的根源在哪里？工会，工资，福利只是才是汽车工业的一部分。至于那帮奸猾的政客，公平只针对他们彼此。当美国人开始买外国车的时才是底特律面临最可怕的问题。
——我是楼层分割线——
（这层层主的话因“不当言论”删掉了，但炸出不少潜水的，有点营养）
Obola 12 days agoDetroit is a museum of progressive polices.2
底特律快成警察博物馆了
frankm1 12 days ago"The plan calls for cutting retireepensions by 4.5 percent, erasing $7 billion of debt and spending $1.7 billionto demolish thousands of blighted buildings, make the city safer and improvelong-neglected basic services"Who is owed 7 Billion?Why is the city unsafe?2
“该计划将削减占4.5%即1万2千名非公共安全退休人员养老金，消除17亿美元债务，并斥资70亿美元拆除数千栋老旧建筑，以此让城市变的更安全并改善长期受忽视的基础服务。”
谁的70亿？
城里为什么这么危险？
rightened frankm1 12 days agoWindows are one basic element-- high-risewindows fall out and kill several people per year in metropolitan cities, andyou know these skyscrapers are pretty well neglected. How many of these windowsare in crumbling wood frames? (Side note: while working in Chicago, mysupervisor saw a woman killed not six feet in front of him by a falling pane ofglass bigger than she was... which missed her little daughter standing next toher by mere inches.)Electricity is another concern. How manybuildings in Detroit still have cloth wiring? Where do the wires run under thestreets…Same thing goes for water. How many fireplugs work? How many homes have steel or lead pipes contaminating the watersupply? How many sewer lines are cracked and in need of repair? What happens inan emergency?Buildings themselves are also unsafe.Structures are crumbling, bricks fall, roofs crumble, floors fall in, andpeople die. Fires can jump from one abandoned building to another.Oh, we could go on and on about the unsafeelements... numerous and repetitive throughout theneglected city.4
窗户就是个危险，市里每年高楼上的窗户掉下来砸死不少人，你可知道这些高楼大厦几乎都没人管。有多少窗户是木框结构的？（注：（我）在芝加哥上班时，我老板看到离他不到6英尺远的一个女士被天上掉下来的玻璃框砸死了…站在她边上的女儿也差一点被砸到。）电又是个问题。底特律的楼房里还能有多少电线？大街上的电线都跑哪去了？…同样的问题还有水。消防栓还有几个能用？有几家水龙头能出水？有多少下水道坏了却没人修？出现紧急情况怎么办？一些楼房本身也不安全。楼房结构破败，砖头瓦块往下掉，屋顶塌陷，掉下来就能把人砸死。破楼房起火后只能一个接一个烧。唉~危险的事说也说不完，这座城市里的很多问题都被忽视了
rightened Ibcingu Too 12 days agoMy grandparents moved to Detroit in 1941,and although I don't know where they lived, I do know that their migratorypattern was almost stereotypical for Michigan people. They went from U.P.farmland to "the big city," Grandpa found work in the auto industryas a mechanic (even worked at the Chrysler tank plant),they made enough to move to the suburbs, and within 12 years of comingdownstate, they bought a plot of land and built their own home on it. (With atwo-car garage, 'cause Americans were entitled to two vehicles per home, don'tya know?) The auto industry built Detroit and then led to its undoing.
我爷爷奶奶是在1941年搬到底特律的，虽然我不知道他们住在哪，我认为他们的搬家方式简直跟典型密歇根人差不多。他们从小农田里搬到“大城市”，爷爷在汽车城找到了一份技工工作（他甚至在克莱斯勒坦克制造厂都干过），在来到州南部的12年里，他们买下了一片土地，自己盖房子自己住（还是个双车库呢。因为一般美国人都有两辆车，（大家）不会不知道吧），汽车城铸就了底特律，让他自生自灭吧.
——我是楼层分割线——
Uncle_Eddy 12 days agoWe went thru the hardest times in thiscountry and now we are rebounding back! #Detroit2
在这个国家里我们正处在最困难时期，现在我们该雄起了，底特律！
Flashbackjack Uncle_Eddy 12 days agoIt's better than Chicago to me.2
对我来说，这比芝加哥强多了。
——我是楼层分割线——
curmudgeon2104 12 days agoThey should sell Detroit for scrap. Like anold Pacer.1
他们应该向底特律卖点旧货。例如给个旧起搏器。
[ 转自铁血社区 http://bbs.tiexue.net/ ]
发表于 2014-11-23 11:48:37
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