In the days before and after Detroit filed for bankruptcy, you didn’t have to look too far to read and hear comments about Detroit that range from dumb to mean-spirited to outright vicious.
One has to wonder: Just why did actor Jon Hamm of AMC’s Mad Men have to take a shot at the city of Detroit while hosting the ESPY awards last week, talking about San Francisco beating Detroit in the World Series?
Why did a co-worker flying back to Detroit from an out-of-town visit hear the guys in the row behind her discussing the Detroit bankruptcy to be summed up by one man declaring, “I wish we could just dump Detroit into the lake. We’d all be so much better off.”
A Detroit Free Press reader commented “Way To Go Mo Town!!! We Knew You Could Do It!!! Now, Everybody Gets Nothing!!!”
And the Twittersphere has been mighty busy mocking the Motor City. Just check out #newdetroitcitymottos.
We wanted to go deeper into these attitudes. Would things like this be said, say, if it was Chicago or Atlanta having to file for bankruptcy? How far back does this scorn for Detroit reach? How much of this attitude permeates the halls of Congress?
We were joined today by Michigan Radio’s political analyst Jack Lessenberry and Todd Spangler from the Detroit Free Press Washington bureau.
Listen to the full interview above.
