I'm not familiar with goings-on in Detroit. What is the proposed revolt about, exactly? "state intervention" doesn't tell us much.
There are a number of background stories submitted under #detroit. Basically, Detroit is on the edge of bankruptcy, and the city council is demagoging to deflect blame from themselves, on whose shoulders many of the cities financial problems lie. Not to say they caused the problem. Obviously, there are many complex reasons why a city like this takes such a massive nose dive, but they have been obstructionists in every attempt to come up with a solution to the problem. They finally have to pay the piper, and they don't like it. A few of the members have decided that if they're going down, then they're taking the city with them. Some city leaders have gone so far as to say: This is white-on-black crime. This is white supremacy. Before you can take over our city, we will burn it.
Personally, I love it. There are tons of artists and breweries, great architecture, unique restaurants, etc. Sure there is a lot of abandonment, but that adds to the open space. The crime is overstated quite a bit in the media, as you might expect. In the city center crime is pretty low. I've lived here for more than five years, and I've never had a problem beyond someone stealing an iPod out of my car (and where couldn't that happen?). I don't think its surreal, but then its my everyday reality, so its hard to say. Most people that aren't familiar with Detroit are blown away by how cool it is when I show them around town, or at least they're amazed by how far it beats their expectations.
Detroit's finances are a mess, and the city is quickly approaching insolvency. The emergency financial manager is a Governor-appointed official that has sweeping powers to make changes to the City's budget and services. The EFM appointment renders the Mayor and City Council near powerless. Most Michiganders are for it. Even a majority of Detroiters feel like it's a better option to bankruptcy, which might be coming anyway.
It's funny - all sorts of California cities are just going bankrupt without all the drama. Between Stockton and Vallejo that's a half million people in insolvent communities just in the past couple years. I dunno. This whole "you aren't adult enough to take care of your finances so we're appointing a nanny" thing is... ugly when you consider that it wasn't even discussed over here on the Left Coast.
I think the difference is that Stockton lost out big in the housing bubble, and their property tax collections plummeted, no? Perhaps a temporary problem, and not one totally of their own making. Detroit has been on a downward trajectory for decades, and there is no end in sight, given the current state of affairs. A clean slate may be what the doctor ordered, but that's never going to happen with this city council in the way.
Well, basically the people who lived there couldn't pay the necessary taxes to keep the city afloat. It's a similar thing to Detroit, the difference being Detroit has dropped 50% of its population since the 50s while California has dropped 20% of its population since the 90s. I think our weather is better. Other than that, game on.