was called "the grand bargain." it wasn't such a grand bargain for city retirees. michigan had one of the strongest in its constitution, in terms of protecting the pensions of public employees. the state lawyers said, "you know, if you can "get into bankruptcy, you can go after those pensions." and that proved to be exactly the case. one of the things that the pensioners got hammered on were these annuities, which were part of their retirement savings. - i delivered this paper here to you a little while ago, lewis. - mm-hmm. there's bold black letters that says, "if the plan is confirmed, your pension will be reduced." they promised us a set amount of return. when it under-performed, they dipped into our pension fund to put that money in our annuity savings fund, and they shouldn't have.

and i agree, especially with sitting here looking at a bill for nearly $50,000. - (chuckles) watkins: now, how much did yours end up being, kim? - oh, mine is 60. - $60,000. - $60,770. everything i earned while i was there, i earned. watkins: absolutely. - and i think that anything that's in my pension plan, i earned, as well. watkins: absolutely. you finally have a big influx of black people in the city, as... good municipal jobs. and just coincidentally, this is also the first generation to get completely screwed by a pension fund. bass: yeah. - now not only do you not get your pension, but you owe us. it's, like, the racism is just unbelievable. little did i know that my investment in my future was going to be snatched back through the bankruptcy. baker: it is phenomenal. each day it gets worse. look at detroit! the poli station closes at 4:00 every day. - mm-hmm. - the post office is open up longer

than the police station. most of the buses stop running at 10:00 every night. in highland park, we ain't even got street lights no more, up and down the cities and the street. you know what i mean? gas costing four dollars a gallon. what you gonna do? you can't do nothing but stay in the house or walk. if you are not needed to work, then you become obsolete to them. you don't need to have a post office. you don't need healthcare. you don't need an education. but our battle is political. it's no longer economic. we got to battle the government and win it over to our side. just like the corporations done took it and make it serve them, we gotta make this government serve us. the worst anger i feel about this whole situation about detroit going down is the fact that... it's the audacity of these guys that have just taken

all they could out of the city and then turning around and even giving people the impression that it's their fault. the main thing i gotta do now is go down to the union to find out exactly what the ramifications of retiring next year are, 'cause i really don't know. and, also, i need to talk to a realtor about the house. i only have one life. and i'll be damned if i live the rest of my life way away from my kids. that's not gonna happen, so i just have to figure out the best way to do what i want, what i have to do, what i'm gonna do, you know. so, i have no intentions whatsoever staying way away from them. that's not gonna happen. ♪

speaker: we're about to worship and have a celebration of general baker's life. this collective's heart is broken. he was teaching us that we don't live in a bankrupt city. we live in a city attacked by a bankrupt system. (applause) he was teaching us that the bankrupt systems do not mean the city is bankrupt, because the city is full of rich and talented people who are being the real restorers of the city of detroit. (applause) ♪

♪ barack obama: hello, detroit! (cheering) i know they've got auto shows in paris and frankfurt and tokyo, but there's only one motor city. there's only one detroit. (cheering) and if you're looking for the world's best cars and the workers who make those cars, you need to be in detroit, michigan. (cheers and applause) that's why i'm here. today, factories are humming, business is booming, the american auto industry is all the way back. all the way back. ♪ watkins: people talk about how detroit has come back, and it might look like that in this revamped downtown. but that's only two square miles out of 140 square miles of the city.

(car horn honking) ♪ and in those two square miles, there are over 90 buildings owned by one man, dan gilbert, and his bedrock real estate company. the main thing i feel when i go downtown nowadays is that this doesn't look anything like the detroit i know. and so this new detroit, i don't know which way it's gonna go. a lot of people in detroit, a lot of black people in detroit, feel that this plan for detroit that dan gilbert and a lot of people have doesn't include them unless they got a lot of money.

guyette: what we're seeing in the city is, you know, dan gilbert, a billionaire, buying up property like it's a garage sale, paying pennies on the dollar for all these downtown properties. and he is being hailed as a hero for helping revive the downtown. you have the downtown district where taxes get captured and stay in the district, don't make it out to the neighborhoods. and then the neighborhoods continue to die. at a time when detroit was going through bankruptcy, this deal was put in place that would provide more than $280 million in public financing to help a billionaire, the ilitch family, build a hockey arena. they gave, i think, 39 city-owned parcels of land

that were valued at $3 million, sold to the ilitches for a dollar. billionaires are being given public assets in order to do things that are just going to enrich them further. how does that make sense? watkins: they keep on saying, "bringing detroit back." it's very similar to the phrase of "taking america back" in a lot of ways. this whole idea of what's back? back to what? there's thousands of people that never left detroit, a lot of them because they felt stranded here. when they say "come back, detroit," they ain't talking to them. so what does that mean for the new detroit? putnam: i hear the whole who's a detroiter, who's not a detroiter debates that go on. and i hear suburbanites,

and there seems to be so much pain of, like, you know, my grandmother had to move because she was broken into. and... as if, like, this city was taken away from us... - taken from them, yeah. - ...and we're gonna take it back, you know? - yes. - and that's what midtown is about. midtown is about, like, "how can we create spaces and pockets of this city for us to have back again?" and that's, i feel so sad about that because i think, you know, geez, there's a lotta room here, guys, and we can all share it. i think th in detroit, which is still in crisis in so many ways, it just makes all the sense in the world to use the talents and energies of young people as the solution. a friend of mine had gone to brown specifically to get a degree in urban education. gathered up a group of us, and he said,

"let's just start a school, our own." so we started formally planning about four years ago the boggs educational center. ♪ we're excited to be in this neighborhood, and we've already met so of the neighbors. like there's julian, and he hangs out with his buddies on the stoop there. ron has helped us find a lawnmower that we needed to mow the fields. his wife applied to pass out food at the school. our work is going to be making sure people feel included. - there you go. - as opposed to us just, "get outta our way, we're doing this school," you know? watkins: yeah, right, right, right. (children's voices) putnam: i think you'd be really great at doing, like, a community mapping, or neighborhood mapping tour for the kids or something to understand the streets. that's one of the ways in which we really want to be able to say to people, "this is your school, too."

(children exclaiming) watkins (chuckling): hey, kids, hi. howdy, y'all. my name is wendell, wendell watkins. i'm a mail carrier around this area, and i've been here for around 29 years on this route, and i plan on retiring next year. (cheering, wendell laughs) my man! i understand you're gonna ask some questions first. approximately how many houses have you seen come and go? a lot of houses have been destroyed and apartments been closed up, and a few have been built. but for the most part, i seen like... go. student: that means the windows sometime in abandoned houses, that mean the windows get busted out. - they do. oh, i could show you a couple of houses around here where-- like that one, where all the windows are out.

hold on a second. i got something for you. perfect. this is for you, daniel. oh, look at this. my man. (excited chattering) it's a bedroom, a living room, a dining... a space for people with wheelchairs, exactly. yep. - look, another bathroom with another toilet. (laughing, chattering) student: i wish i was old, i wanna live here. putnam: furqan, i think you said that young people need spaces like this? - yes! putnam: that's a really interesting idea. that's something to think about with other abandoned buildings, right? - i need a game room. students: chugga chugga choo choo. chugga chugga choo choo. chugga chugga choo choo. it's the headquarters of the naacp, national association for advancement of colored people. in detroit, it's on my route, and as you might see,

there's a bunch of pictures up here. and... i was wondering, do you recognize any of these people up here? children: yeah. watkins: yeah? go ahead. go ahead. student: martin luther king, rosa parks. that's all i know. watkins: this is a newspaper ad from the detroit news, i believe, from the day that i was born. students: what?! watkins: in april 24, 1956. student: what? watkins: two rooms, partially furnished, newly decorated, good transportation, shopping, white adults. student: what do they mean? watkins: that mean they only would rent it to white people. look at this, it's... "colored." colored. colored. only colored. students: oh, wow. watkins: it's detroit, michigan! it's not down south. so that's the reason why organizations like the naacp were important, because they got rid of this kinda nonsense. people fought together and organized and worked hard to make sure things like this wouldn't happen anymore. all right. here we go-- whoa! a mailbox!

(laughing): mailbox. hey, now. (children talking, laughing) putnam: it occurred to me how much i had been internalizing the way detroit looked. somehow, it's the fault of stupid, poor black people. and why can't we just get our act together? so i thought "oh, it's not-- it's not my fault." it certainly is not my fault. watkins: mm-hmm. - but it's not a lot of people's fault. it's not my family's fault; it's not my neighbor's fault. it's like the fault of people who made decisions decades before... watkins: mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - bad decisions... watkins: absolutely. - ...that were self-serving, and that's part of the reason why detroit looks the way it looks. and i thought, "oh, to do these kinds of histories is healing work." it's not just history. it's healing to tell children, "this is not you." watkins: mm-hmm. all righty. mm-hmm.

i'm not the most adventurous guy in the world. and most of my friends are here, my family. but as i get older and more people started dying, things started changing more. my kids don't live in the city anymore; they live in california. i feel absolutely no reason to stay here, except inertia. so i mean if i had my druthers, like i if hit the lottery or something like that, and i could get rid of my house-- which is another albatross-- if i could do all that stuff, and i'm gonna retire next year, the thing is i'm, i'm outta here. that's a fact. ♪

guyette: much of southeast michigan, home prices have recovered pretty much to where they were before the crash. but in the poor neighborhoods, that has not occurred. the pricing of homes has stayed pretty much flat. out of the whole country, six of the 15 zip codes with the most homes under water are in detroit. i think the total is somewhere close to 50,000 homes in just these six zip codes.

people can't sell them. either they walk away fromhem, or they're trapped there. (doorbell chimes) (knocking) watkins: hey, tina. what's happening? - how are you? great. - all right. - good to see you. - you, too. you, too. - okay. - all right. get this... tina hamilton: i see you've gotten some things taken care of here. watkins: everything has to be out of the house? hamilton: no, it doesn't have to be out of the house. we just want it to look presentable where we can show. the repairs will drive the price down, and it will bring more buyers. and, basically, lower prices is what brings the buyers. watkins: mm-hmm. hamilton: and we'll be selling your home on a short sale

based on the information that you've provided. what exactly does a short sale mean, and what do you think this house will go for? hamilton: a short sale is when the seller has a hardship and cannot pay your normal payments anymore, or the home is under water. meaning that the value of the property is... - either or, then? okay. - ...way less than what it was worth when you purchased it. so the bank will agree to take less than what you owe on the property and forgive the difference to the seller at the end. so what it means for a new buyer is they get a home, normally in move-in condition, for pretty much foreclosed price values on the markets. - mm-hmm, mm-hmm. hamilton: okay, i know that it's an overwhelming process for you,

and it usually is for lots of people. but it really isn't as bad as you think. - mm-hmm. i understand. hamilton: and you've really come a long ways... - i really, truly do. hamilton: ...from the first time. so we're getting there. - i was so depressed. oh! hamilton: yeah. you've done a awesome job. - thank you. hamilton: we're getting there, and from here on out, it's gonna be smooth sailing. and all i need you to do is to get your forms to me, and i'll do the rest. watkins: all right. all right. that sounds good. yeah. it's like one way or another, i don't know if i'm gonna be able to sell the house or short sell the house, or leave the house. i'm gonna have to play it by ear and see what happens. a lot of people on the route have been here for many, many years, and some of the kids, i'm e only maian they've ever known.

did you know your mailman's first name by any chance? pam: one of them. - yeah, i knew one of mine, too: e.c. edwards. hey, now. - hey. watkins: something i like about this gig, i remember... there's these faces that i do, like this. you've seen me do that before? mm-hmm. all these crazy faces. you've seen them, right? well, this one, i used to always do when i go up to elementary school on my route. there's one little boy, whenever i go like this, he'd go right back. and i used to think that was so cool. years passed, right, and i was walking down in the supermarket once. and this, this man, walking with his two little kids, he looked at me like this, he went... then he went....

i said, "aw! aw, man, that's funny." i said, "aw, man." he said, "you don't recognize me!" i said, "oh! you're the little kid!" we start hugging each other. that's kinda nice, i like that kinda thing. you know, the changes in myself and other people, change in myself is reflected through other people. you know, it's just nice. i like that kind of stuff. it's a good job for a sentimentalist. definitely. ♪ (happy chatter) hey, family. that's cool as hell, man. goodbye tension, hello pension. (laughs) (yells) moore: i wanted to get you when you first saw it. watkins (laughing): hey! moore: it's cool. - that was sweet. that was so cool, man. thank you so much! i'm gonna miss him.

30-some years knowing my friend. nothing like return. (laughing) watkins: what's up? - oh, what's up? the most important thing i'm gonna miss is the hugs and those big smiles and the happy voice that you can hear him all the way down the street, and you know that he's coming. i know, you have to go with family. - thank you, thanks, dawn. ♪ ♪ ♪

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del toro: major funding for america reframed is provided by the corporation for public broadcasting and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. additional funding was provided by the wyncote foundation, the national endowment for the arts, and the reva and david logan foundation.

oggcccccg'''xx?■ñrç rcrcrcrcrcrc (soft dratic mus) ♪ - i'm tired of all the well meaning non-cripples determining what i can and cannot do to form my life and my future. you know, get out of our way. - i knew about the rights for women, certainly,