汽車城 底特律正式破產

JudgeApproves Bankruptcy Exit Plan for Detroit

法官批准底特律破產清退計劃

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)

圖片爲2013年7月17日底特律航拍資料圖。2014年11月7日，週五，聯邦法官史提芬羅德將對底特律破產計劃是否合理、可行做出裁決。

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 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 es 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 ticians 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.

週五，一名法官對處在破產邊緣的底特律作出批覆，爲幫助這一個時代工業重地的民衆“擺脫苦痛”，復興汽車城，伴隨着這種強烈的意願，批准一項艱難的復甦計劃，“底特律的遭遇決不能再現”，聯邦法官史提芬羅德表示，案件審理將盡快在16個月左右內結束，之後，汽車工業搖籃——底特律，將成爲美國曆史上最大規模的破產申請城市。該計劃將削減佔4.5%即1萬2千名非公共安全退休人員養老金，消除17億美元債務，並斥資70億美元拆除數千棟老舊建築，以此讓城市變的更安全並改善長期受忽視的基礎服務。羅德對該決議表示讚賞，（認爲）它解決了時下最具爭議的難題，包括避免具有世界級藝術水準的底特律藝術學院遭到拍賣，而且還達成了避免更進一步削減養老金的共識。他表示養老金協議處在“微妙邊緣“，儘管他承認，這次削減計劃，對於不少掙扎在年收入不足2萬美元的人們來說，不吝於雪上加霜。政治家們和市民領袖，包括共和黨州長裏克斯奈德在內，讚譽此次決議爲星期五里程碑事件，並把它視爲該城市一個新的起點。斯奈德在謀求秋季連任競選時曾呼籲“作最後努力”，同意州任突發事件管理幹事凱文奧爾按照（破產法）第九章處理該市破產問題。

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 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 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 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.

底特律的衰敗是由一些綜合因素引起的，包括市政府腐敗和管理不善，汽車產業長期萎縮，隨着人口外流，底特律人口已從1980年的120萬人銳減到68.8萬人。大批人口外遷使得整個社區變得荒涼，隨處都是用木板條封住的房屋底特律的面積比曼哈頓，波士頓和舊金山合起來還要大，底特律沒有足夠的稅收來源，用來支付養老金，退休醫療保險、中和大量債務。“底特律無法提供足夠的市政服務，多年來毫無改變。這是不人道的，無法忍受的，它必須治理，”該法官說道。在簽署的計劃裏，羅德鼓勵市民傾訴出對這座城市所感到的悲傷與厭惡。“拋去你的怒火。化悲痛爲動力加入到恢復城市的建設中來”他說。”幫幫你的市領導。這，是你們的城市。”隨着奧爾團隊執政結束，城市很快就會回到民選官員的掌控下，“現在是時候把民主交換給人們了（還政於民），”法官說。案件審理以閃電般的速度通過破產程序，(處理)成功在很大程度上取決於底特律和主要債權人之間達成的一系列妥協，尤其是退休人員同意接受較少金額的養老金支票，之後羅德表示，他們沒享受到密歇根憲法中的保護政策。同時，索賠超過10億美元的債券保險公司，最終放棄拍賣博物館，沒有什麼結果比這更讓人滿意的了。

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 es 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 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 oit 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.

對於加利福尼亞的斯托克頓市這個小城市來說，爲了擺脫破產耗去了兩年多的時間。聖貝納迪諾，一座比加利福尼亞、托克頓市還小的城市，在提出（破產）請求之後，仍在（破產法）第九章的保護下維持了近兩年多的時間。羅德要麼接受補救底特律的辦法，要麼完全排斥，沒有其他選擇。由他委任的波士頓專家，瑪莎“馬蒂”科帕奇，表示這雖然“摳門”，但“具有操作性，”她將未來的成功同市長和市議會的能力水平聯繫起來，而且市政廳急需一種改革方法。該方案最不同尋常的一點是，其中8.16億美元資金是由國家，基金會組織，一些慈善家和底特律藝術學院共同出資的。這筆錢將防止養老金進一步被削減，避免市屬博物館被拍賣——對於這點法官曾警告過“（如果不採取措施）將斷送底特律的未來”。麥克杜根市長，就任不到一年，是自2008年以來第四位市長，當時（08年）的誇梅基爾帕特里克（市長）因醜聞而辭職。基爾帕特里克離任後留下一堆極其糟糕的債務合同，讓底特律陷於高息陷阱中，在經濟衰退期高利率直接導致底特律滑向破產邊緣。底特律地區商會主席、首席執行官Sandy K. Baruah宣佈，底特律正“站在新時代的前沿，準備做一件史無前例的大事。”“高效破產清退再加上深思熟慮讓十幾年間管理上的不作爲一掃而空，創造了一個爲城市發展而無需透支未來的歷史性機遇”,Baruah說道。