DETROIT – A walk around Detroit today reveals a different world than five years ago, when the city was exiting bankruptcy.
READ: Judge approves Detroit’s bankruptcy plan
Retired Judge Gerald Rosen said he gives the city an A+ for the changes it has made since 2014.
“To have made this much progress in this short of time is almost miraculous," he said.
Rosen help negotiate the deal that got the city out of bankruptcy. Detroit’s filing was the largest public filing in U.S. history.
Rosen said that progress was the result of people coming together to help save the city.
“People throughout the state invested. The DIA Invested, the pensioners invested, the uniformed forces invested, the unions invested. So many people came together,” he said.
Local 4 bankruptcy expert Doug Bernstein said he doesn’t believe the city would have seen the investment it has without the bankruptcy.
“We don’t think about the bankruptcy anymore, which is the biggest testament to the bankruptcy that it was always the fear that ‘Who would come to Detroit if it filed for bankruptcy?’” he said.
While there’s plenty of work to be done in the Detroit, particularly when it comes to schools and neighborhoods, Rosen pointed out that it took half of a century to get to bankruptcy, so the full recovery will also take time.