Detroit bankruptcy: survival the only goal in city that once epitomised the American dream Murders are at a 40-year high and nearly 80,000 abandoned buildings blight the landscape. Michigan's governor Rick Snyder has admitted that the city cannot even provide the most basic services to its 700,000 residents, a figure that has shrunk from nearly two million in the 1950s. That is only too clear at the junction of West Chicago and Livernois avenues; a railway crossing where trains have long since stopped running. When it goes dark each night, it really goes dark: only the occasional street light works. Discarded furniture is strewn outside boarded up homes; empty lots are turning back to prairie, overgrown by wild grass, inhabited now by feral cats and rabbits. A fire hydrant with an 'Out of Service' sign on a blighted street on the east side of Detroit (Reuters) The district earned the unenviable distinction this year of being name the most dangerous in America, according to FBI statistics. There are 150 violent crimes committed here for every 1,000 residents, meaning there is a one in seven chance of being a victim. But locals note wearily that they would be better off calling a hearse than an ambulance or police car. Across Detroit, the average police response time to a call-out is 58 minutes, while just one-third of its ambulance service is in use. "It's a good day around here if the cops respond in 58 minutes," said Joyce Copley, 65, a lifelong resident. More like an hour and 58 minutes. We're at breaking point here. We don't even have the most basic services. Will bankruptcy help us? I don't know, but I'm not sure it can get much worse. Kevyn Orr, right, and Rick Snyder at news conference on Friday (EPA) It was this plight that Kevyn Orr addressed as he stood alongside Mr Snyder. Mr Orr, 54, a Washington lawyer who steered Chrysler through bankruptcy in 2009, is the emergency manager appointed by the governor and he declared the city officially bust. He is seeking refuge from the city's creditors - most notably union pension funds - so that he could focus on the "health, safety and welfare" of Detroit's citizens. "Does anybody think its okay to have 40-year-old trees growing through the roof of dilapidated houses?" he asked. Does anyone think our children should walk home from the school in the dark of night in October? The city is a case study in municipal failure, industrial decay, corruption and incompetence. The economic meltdown and housing crisis of 2008 dispatched Detroit into the abyss. Thousands more homes were abandoned; businesses closed their doors for good. The city was not raising the money to keep even the most basic services going. A burned out house located on Stroat and Woodward just blocks north of downtown (Rex Features) "This has been a long period of decline," Mr Snyder said yesterday. It's time to do something about it. ... The 700,000 people in Detroit deserve a better answer. Mr Orr calculates that at least $9 billion of Detroit's liabilities are underfunded pensions and unfunded health cost for retirees. It is money, he said, that the city simply does not have. His decision has infuriated unions and will mean that former city workers, many of them already struggling to get by, will face drastic cuts to pensions and health care. "It's fine for him to come in here with his Washington fees and spout these figures, but we are the ones who are losing our pensions for our retirement after working for this city for all our lives," said a fireman at a station on Livernois Avenue. In a sign of what is expected to be a protracted legal battle, a Michigan judge on Friday declared that the bankruptcy filing violate the state's constitution and ordered Governor Snyder to withdraw it. A native of Florida but graduate of the University of Michigan, Mr Orr was appointed by Mr Snyder to run Detroit in March, effectively replacing the mayor and city council. He insisted yesterday that he had sought deals with creditors, the public service unions and retiree groups but that they had refused to accept reductions. The figures he has encountered are startling. The city is spending on average $100 million more than it is taking each year. The unsecured debt includes $6 billion in health and other retirement benefits and $3 billion in retiree pensions for its 20,000 city pensioners. The sun sets on the Detroit (AP) Those people may receive less than 10 per cent of what they were promised as the city's Democratic political leaders and trade unions continued to strike deals on paper that both side knew had no financial bedrock. And that connivance, Mr Orr told The Daily Telegraph, was even more shocking than the gaping holes he found in the books. "This problem is not something new," he said. What shocked me was not just the numbers, but that this behaviour was tolerated for decades. There is nothing new in what I have encountered. But people let it go on for so long. Even as Mr Orr was making his announcement, a former mayor is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of racketeering charges. The remains of the Packard Motor Car Company, which ceased production in the late 1950s (Getty Images) Bankruptcy has plunged Detroit into uncharted terrain. No major city has sunk into insolvency with such large debts and there is no road map back to recovery. The city's prized art collection - including works by Van Gogh, Matisse, Bruegel and Diego Rivera - may have to be sold under deals struck with the judge overseeing the bankruptcy. At a press conference in front of placards bearing the message "Reinventing Detroit," Mr Orr and Mr Snyder sought to assured the city's residents that the court filing is the chance for a fresh start. It is perhaps no surprise that many locals are as yet unconvinced. "I don't know if bankruptcy will help us or drop us to our knees," said Jodie Holmes, 55, as he waited for a bus outside an abandoned graffiti-covered restaurant. For life in the city that once epitomised the American dream is now about surviving another day.