DETROIT — Seven governors came and went during the decades-long decay of Michigan’s largest city that culminated with a humiliating collapse into financial ruin.
It’s the eighth who’s aggressively tying his legacy to the prospects of a Detroit turnaround.
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder pushed for more powers for the state to intervene in distressed cities and schools. He hired Detroit’s turnaround specialist and blessed the bankruptcy filing.
It’s his latest contentious decision in a stretch remarkable for the sheer pace and breadth at which he’s moved. He’s again in the national spotlight just a half-year after making Michigan — bastion of the auto industry and organized labor — a right-to-work state.
Experts say Snyder had no choice but to guide Detroit into bankruptcy, from which he hopes it emerges by fall 2014.
