????2009年,在地方政府的資助下，通用汽車(General Motors)和克萊斯勒(Chrysler)迅速走出了破產，速度之快創下了新紀錄。等到協商最終細節時(也就是幾周時間)，通用汽車以及一定程度上克萊斯勒的未來似乎已經有了保證。兩家公司精簡員工、經銷商、品牌和縮減債務后翻開了新的一頁。很快，它們的成本結構變得有競爭力了。基礎工程和設計能力保持完好，兩家公司都穩步走上了成功之路。

????底特律市要走出破產所需要的時間可能會長得多（專家們表示，可能要一年半，甚至更久)，而且也更麻煩。城市退休工人正在為養老金和醫保吵個不休，而地方政客們將權力和特權交給了銀行家和債權人。更糟糕的是，所有這些痛苦不一定能換來未來的好日子。事實是底特律市破產后的未來似乎并不比破產前更光明。迄今為止，沒人能對底特律的經濟前景給出任何繁榮預期，哪怕是最輕度的繁榮。

????自從1967年騷亂導致幾十人死亡以來，底特律已經多次試圖重振經濟，再現二戰后美國汽車城的繁榮。這些重振計劃初衷很好，也得到了大量的資金支持。 但沒有一個能阻止底特律工業滑坡、政府失靈以及人口縮減等消極趨勢。如今，底特律的市中心已經不怎么有吸引力了，大量年久失修或廢棄的房屋、工廠和空地從三面包圍了市中心(第四面是底特律河)。總體上，底特律有20平方英里的閑置土地，規模與整個曼哈頓相當。沒有足夠的游客和通勤上班族，納稅人口銳減，這些都難以抵消底特律正在逐步演變成鬼城的印象。

????市里各處仍有一些活動，有些甚至還很熱鬧，比如韋恩州立大學(Wayne State University)和底特律醫藥中心(Detroit Medical Center)。但它們也只是在努力掙扎，希望不要被周圍的蕭條所吞噬。破產只會讓情況更糟。隨著底特律裁減雇員，縮減治安環衛等基礎服務，這些社區的活力也會遭到削弱。財務虧空的痼疾就像濃霧一樣籠罩了這個城市。一方面穩住債權人，另一方面尋找新的收入來源，這個過程一拖再拖，怎么也沒法讓人聯想到積極的經濟、社會環境。

????但是即便是在底特律走出破產后，又能怎么樣？這些年來，有過很多振興底特律的想法和計劃，比如亨利?福特二世1977年決定在底特律河岸邊建造復興中心（Renaissance Center）。這個不被看好的中心包含寫字樓、酒店和零售商鋪，但它吸引不到租戶、購物者和游客，1996年只好低價賣給了通用汽車公司（General Motors）。

????樂觀主義者會舉出抵押貸款公司Quicken Loans的創始人丹?吉爾伯特的例子。過去幾年，他已購入底特律市中心15棟建筑，將自己的7,000名雇員遷入其中。吉爾伯特的設想是在市中心低價購入的建筑中打造一個科技社區，吸引工程師、軟件設計師和創業者入駐。但是如果吉爾伯特要將他的想法從慈善變成投資，還需要更多的人來填滿這些空間，而不只是他的員工。任何人只要在下午5點后去底特律空曠的城市街道上走走，就知道這會有多么困難。

????Speed records were set in 2009 when General Motors (GM) and Chrysler zipped through government-sponsored bankruptcies. By the time the final details were negotiated—a matter of weeks—the future of GM, and to a lesser degree Chrysler, seemed assured. With fewer employees, dealers, brands, and debt, both companies got a fresh lease on life. In a stroke, their cost structures had been made competitive and, with their basic engineering and design skills intact, both were launched solidly on the road to success.

????Getting the city of Detroit through bankruptcy will take far longer – experts say a year and a half or more – and be far messier, as retired city workers fight over pensions and health care while local politicians cede power and privileges to bankers and creditors. What's worse is the lack of any future benefit from all the pain. As it stands, the post-bankruptcy future of Detroit looks no brighter than its immediate past. So far, no one has presented an economic vision for a prosperous Detroit that seems remotely doable.

????Since the 1967 riots that left dozens dead, there have been several well-intentioned and solidly financed efforts to lift Detroit back to its post-World War II prosperity as America's Motor City. Yet none has been enough to stem the counter-forces of industrial decline, dysfunctional government, and depopulation. Today, the city of Detroit features a moderately attractive downtown that is surrounded in three directions by acres of decrepit or abandoned housing, abandoned factories, and empty lots (on the fourth side is the Detroit River). In all, Detroit has 20 square miles of vacant land, roughly equal in size to Manhattan. There simply aren't enough visitors or commuters, much less tax-paying citizens, to blunt the perception that Detroit is on the way to becoming a ghost town.

????Here and there, clumps of activity, such as Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center, remain and even thrive, but they struggle to push back against the blight that surrounds them. Bankruptcy will only make things worse. The vitality of these neighborhoods will deteriorate as the city lays off employees and retreats further from essential services like police protection and garbage pickup. The malaise of financial distress envelopes the city like a thick fog. The protracted process of stiffing creditors on the one hand and scratching for new sources of revenue on the other is not going to be anyone's idea of a positive economic or social environment.

????But even after Detroit emerges from bankruptcy, then what? Various ideas and schemes have been floated to revive the city, such as when Henry Ford II built the Renaissance Center on the banks of the Detroit River in 1977. Ill-conceived, the complex of office, hotel and retail space failed to attract tenants, shoppers, or tourists, and was subsequently sold at a bargain price to General Motors in 1996.

????Optimists like to point to the energy and vision of Dan Gilbert, founder of mortgage provider Quicken Loans, who has bought 15 downtown buildings over the past few years and moved 7,000 of his employees into them. Gilbert's vision is for a kind of techno-community, built on a foundation of cheap real estate in trendy, gritty downtown neighborhoods, and populated by engineers, software designers, and entrepreneurs. But what Gilbert needs to move his activities from the philanthropy column into the investment category is more people who aren't on his payroll to fill all that empty space. One need only venture out on a deserted city street after 5 p.m. to see what a struggle that will be.