Sound bites

"We did not take this action improvidently, but after careful thought and an assessment, as we have been saying for the past couple of weeks, of the negotiations that we have been having with our various stakeholders on the behalf of the city. ...We eventually decided that it was an appropriate time to file for Chapter 9 protection."

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr

"As tough as this is, I really didn't want to go in this direction, but now that we're here we need to make the best of it. I think Kevyn and the team he's brought together has a lot of history of succeeding. This is very difficult for all of us, but if it's going to make the citizens better off, then this is a new start for us."

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing

"This was a difficult, painful decision but I believe there were no other options. Why did I do this? What's the rationale? And what's the impact for both the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan? Well let me start with the fact that this is a situation that's been 60 years in the making in terms of the decline of Detroit. From a financial point of view, let me be blunt: Detroit's broke."

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder

"Despite the Snyder administration's promise that emergency management was going to solve Detroit's problems and help continue Detroit's recovery, all the city has is a stack of legal bills, consultant salaries, an anemic democratic life and the bankruptcy that was supposed to be avoided. The question of long-term municipal debt is a national question. Now Detroit is ground zero over how the problem of dwindling revenue and rising costs will be solved throughout this nation."

Reverend David Alexander Bullock

(China Daily 07/20/2013 page8)