Tagged: Detroit

DETROIT (AP) - Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is planning to discuss the city's fiscal crisis and problems with its transportation and lighting systems.

The address to residents is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the Northwest Activities Center.

Bing recently said Detroit's continued financial struggles may require the intervention of an emergency financial manager and he would consider filling that role if asked by the governor. He's said the city faces a $150 million "cash shortage" by the end of the first quarter of 2012.

The mayor said in April that Detroit faced a possible state takeover if the city couldn't make improvements to its finances. A state law passed in March gives state-appointed financial managers more power when fixing the finances of municipalities and school districts.

A four-mile section of I-94 in Detroit is among the most congested highways in the nation. That’s according to a new report from Texas A & M University.   

Bill Eisele is a research engineer with the Texas Transportation Institute. He says the organization identified 328 choke points in the nation’s urban roadway system. Eisele says the stretch of I-94 in Detroit is a good example of where heavy commuting use often collides with special events downtown.   

“So if Justin Verlander’s on the mound…we’re probably picking that up…that extra traffic downtown…we’re picking up any construction…work zones…all of those things…that occur throughout the year," says Eisele.  

Eisele says encouraging downtown workers to telecommute or shift their schedules is one way to reduce traffic congestion along I-94 in Detroit.  

Michigan had only one roadway on the list.

89 of the 328 congested roadways are in California.

Detroit will run out of money in the first half of next year unless the city cuts its budget, the Detroit Free Press is reporting. From the Freep:

A closely guarded report on Detroit's finances paints an alarming picture of a city that will run out of cash by April unless officials make immediate, painful reductions that will cut deeply in to public services. The report, obtained by the Free Press, outlines some drastic scenarios that illustrate how steep those cuts must be for the city to stay afloat…

The problems are so severe and immediate, restructuring experts said, that the state may have no choice but to appoint an emergency manager with the authority to gut union contracts, sell assets, restructure the government and end nonessential services.

“The mayor plans to speak Wednesday at 6 p.m.,” about the city’s financial situation, the Associated Press reports. As the AP notes, “It's possible that Detroit's poor health could lead to the appointment of an emergency manager with sweeping authority to make changes.”

A fire has been burning since at least 6:45 a.m. this morning in the old Packard Plant in Detroit.

More from the Detroit Free Press:

The fire was still burning at about 11 a.m., one of numerous blazes that firefighters respond to monthly at the plant, he said.

"When they’re over there with 30 (firefighters), that leaves holes in the city," Varnas said. "That’s why we have to stop these fires."

Arson Capt. Patrick McNulty said firefighters are only allowed to spray the blaze from outside the ruins of the old plant.

"There's standing orders not to go in there," McNulty said. "Too dangerous for the firefighters."