Top 5 Stories in Detroit for 2007

The year 2007 proved to be a mixed bag for Detroit. The mortgage crisis hit the city especially hard as thousands of residents faced the threat of foreclosure. Save a brief strike, the UAW negotiations went well as the Big Three continue to adjust to soaring legacy costs amidst increased competition from foreign automakers. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick made big news by helping Quicken Loans relocate its headquarters to to Downtown Detroit from Livonia, attracting 4,000 jobs. This news, however, was clouded by Kilpatrick’s loss in a whistle-blower lawsuit in which he settled the case that cost taxpayers $8 million dollars.

Below are the year’s top five stories in Detroit, in no particular order.

Mortgage crisis
The mortgage crisis that swept the country hit Michigan hard and Detroit bore the brunt of the fallout as residents were unable to adapt to higher interest rates on their adjustable-rate mortgages. Even after President Bush’s plan to help the homeowners on the brink of losing their homes, the Detroit News reports, “Most predictions are that a substantial majority of the thousands of at-risk borrowers in Detroit will be out on the street within 30 months, leaving behind vacant homes that drive down neighborhood housing values and invite vandalism and crime.” To help Michigan residents avoid foreclosure, Attorney General Mike Cox hosted a forum in December at Cobo Hall where “participants were able to interact directly with their lenders, talk to independent loan counselors and the Federal National Mortgage Association, and attend 45-minute classes on topics like options to avoid foreclosure, dealing with property taxes and what to do when you are in foreclosure.”

Continued -Quicken Loans moves to Detroit
Dan Gilbert’s decision to relocate his mortgage lending firm Quicken Loans to downtown Detroit was groundbreaking on several levels. One on hand, the infusion of nearly 4,000 jobs is good news as the city strives to regain its prominence as a thriving economic hub for Southeast Michigan. The other big part of this story is the further development of Downtown Detroit. Quicken Loans will have the choice of developing its new headquarters on the site of the old Hudson’s department store on Woodward and the site of the old Statler Hotel on Grand Circus Park. Ideally, city leaders hope this move by Quicken Loans will encourage other companies to set up shop in Detroit.

Census undercount in Detroit
In November, the Kilpatrick administration received an early Christmas gift when the  “U.S. Census revised Detroit’s 2006 population estimates upwards to 918,849, which is 47,728 more than the 2006 estimate.” This official revision comes on the heels of the “Detroit Neighborhood Drilldown” study conducted by Social Compact, a Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit that seeks to catalyze business investment in inner-city neighborhoods. The report by Social Compact estimated that official census estimates were roughly 62,000 short. Aside from census estimates, the Detroit Neighborhood Drilldown report focused on a market analysis of Detroit’s hidden buying power that could be used to bolster retail attraction strategies.

UAW and Big Three sign contract after short strikes
The following piece is an excerpt from an article by Kevin Shopshire: The United Auto Workers signed a historic four-year contract with the Big Three automakers in the fall that called for moving unfunded retiree health care costs into an independent trust administered by the UAW. The contract did not come easy, and in September the UAW launched a nationwide strike against General Motors as 73,000 UAW members walked off the job and hit the picket lines at the nation’s largest automaker. Luckily, the strike only lasted two days before an agreement was reached. In October, the UAW reached an agreement with Chrysler after a strike that only lasted a few hours. The contract Ford and the UAW signed in December was reached without a strike.

Detroit taxpayers foot the bill for Kilpatrick’s blunder
In August, former Detroit Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown and ex-mayoral bodyguard Harold Nelthrope finally had their day in court regarding their whistle-blower lawsuit accusing Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of unjustified retaliation for investigating charges of misconduct by people close to the mayor. During the trial, Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, took the stand. Kilpatrick was forced to deny allegations of extramarital relations. He lost the case, claiming the inability to get a fair trial due to the jury pool being selected from Wayne County and not the city of Detroit. Soon after the case was decided, Kilpatrick said he would appeal the decision but then doubled back and offered to settle the case for $8 million.

Be sure to catch the rest of Michigan Messenger’s roundup of 2007.