What caused Detroit’s bankruptcy?

“It was a long time coming,” says Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley

“It was a long time coming,” says Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley

Some may think the decline in the auto industry is to blame for Detroit’s bankruptcy, but Riley and Mark Binelli, author of The Last Days of Detroit, tell MSNBC’s Alex Witt differently.

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Population decline is mostly the reason to how Detroit got to this point. “The more people moved to the suburbs the fewer people left to handle a tax burden that did not change,” Riley said, adding that people were fleeing for economic reasons.

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So what’s the incentive to bring back investments?

Riley says not all the people have given up on Detroit, business leaders see this as a chance to wipe the slate clean. “Dan Gilbert [Founder of Quicken Loans Inc], is a gambler and he is gambling on Detroit coming back, not sitting and waiting.. he is leading a wave of urban warriors,” she said.