Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Detroit on Dec. 12, 2013. The architect of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing admits it was a miserable process. But 10 years on, Detroit’s former emergency manager, Orr, maintains the restructuring of the Motor City is among his most important accomplishments. On July 18, 2013, Detroit became the largest city in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy. (AP photo)
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. — Surrounded by some of the largest fresh bodies of water in the country, many Michigan cities still struggle to provide their residents with safe and affordable drinking water. That irony is especially painful in Highland Park, Michigan, an enclave city surrounded by Detroit, may be facing bankruptcy over tens of millions of dollars in water bills — the costly aftermath of a financial crisis that left residents without a working water plant. READ MORE: How segregation and neglect left Benton Harbor, Michigan with toxic water Highland Park Mayor Glenda McDonald asked the city council to approve hiring an attorney to help prepare for its mediation in May over its water debt with the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). When the council did not approve this request, the mayor declared a state of emergency and asked the state to approve an expedited bankruptcy to get their financial affairs in order. “Highland Park’s annual water and sewer bills of $7,000,000, and growing, are almost as much as our total property tax collections of $9,000,000 per year,” McDonald said in a statement in April. McDonald also said it is “unjust and unconscionable” for 2,000 households in Highland Park How rising water costs could drive this Michigan city to bankruptcy
