Detroit Emergency Manager Recalls City’s ‘Dire’ Situation

Kevyn Orr, the emergency manager shepherding Detroit through its record municipal bankruptcy, told a judge about the tough situation Michigan’s biggest city faced when he was asked to help get its house back in order.

Core services were “substandard” and finances were in “dire straits,” Orr, 56, testified today in Detroit federal court, where a bankruptcy judge is weighing whether the city’s plan to eliminate $7 billion in debt is feasible and fair.