Yeah, but the pols have been basically marginalized by the bankruptcy filing and the emergency manager. This is the silver lining (or perhaps maybe the main thrust) of the decision to go for chapter 9. The current top mayoral candidate (who is running as a write in, because of dirty politics that kept him off the ballot) is a seemingly good candidate who used to run a big hospital here in town. I'm optimistic about the future. There is more construction going on in downtown than there has been at any time since I've lived here, and the core of the city is gaining residents rapidly (rental capacity is at greater than 95% in any decent area). We need to trim the fat, so to speak. Hopefully the new class of politicians who have a chance to win after the emergency manager is gone will have the stones to make that happen. Of the $15-20 billion that Detroit is in the hole, the vast, vast, VAST majority is in unfunded retirement obligations. Obviously, this has to change and change now. If we can get that monkey off our back, which won't be easy due to a lot of impending litigation, I think the city has a chance to reemerge from bankruptcy leaner and brighter. We shall see.