"We're all sharing in the blame."

Peter “Autoextremist” De Lorenzo on the bankruptcy of his Detroit hometown:

For those of us who live in the area, it was no surprise in the least. This city and this region have been teetering on the brink for years now. We saw the seeds of malicious entitlement sowed into the system of corporate bureaucracy put in place by Mayor Coleman Young going on 40 years ago, and the city has been a seething cesspool of contentious rancor ever since. The contemptible concept of “what’s in it for me” – as if big city government was nothing more than a public trough for corruption and extortion – has held sway over Detroit and this region for so long now that we all became numb to it, which is almost as sad as the news itself.

But in fairness, the people who aren’t from around here and who take great pleasure in reporting all the gruesome details of what Detroit has been reduced to have no idea what it has been like. They have no idea what it means to live life with this relentless cacophony of entitlement and blatant stupidity that never, ever stops. They have no idea what it’s like to have such astounding and mind-numbingly shocking ignorance on display by what passes for our so-called city government “leaders” that it’s repulsive to even contemplate.

Oh, I dunno. I’d say we’ve gotten some idea these last few years.