BOSTON — Detroit emerged from bankruptcy poised to rebuild through major infrastructure projects, the city's former emergency manager said Aug. 7.
"It's a renaissance as we rise from the ashes," Kevyn Orr said at the Brandeis municipal finance conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
The new M-1 light-rail line along north-south Woodward Avenue -- which carries Michigan Route 1 -- will include an extensive fiber-optic and high-tech network.
"It's a state of the art system that will include some of the Wayne State properties," Orr said, referencing the public research university that straddles the university about three miles north of downtown and sits amid a cultural district.
Other big projects, said Orr, include new downtown arena to be built by the Illitch family, the owner of the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings and head of the Little Caesars pizza chain, and a new bridge to Canada.
Detroit, which ended a 17-month stay in Chapter 9 last December, has scheduled its first post-bankruptcy bond sale for Aug. 19.
"Suffice it to say, it was a lack of leadership," Orr said of Detroit's fall into insolvency. He cited corruption that included the imprisonment of former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father Bernard.
The elder Kilpatrick committed "felonious stupidity," said Orr, by naming a straw company Maestro Associates. The mere name red-flagged investigators, according to Orr. "Let that be a lesson for those of you going to crime school."
