Kevyn Orr brings Wall Street Journal readers up to speed on how he "plans to navigate the city out of bankruptcy by next fall," as an editorial writer puts it in a Saturday interview with Detroit's emergency manager.

Saying Alysia Finley admires "the youthful 55-year-old attorney" and treats him gently would understate it. She acknowledges falling under his spell, in effect.

Mr. Orr exudes a contagious energy and optimism about the future. . . . In the 120 days since he started, things have already begun looking up. . . . Despite vocal union opposition, he believes he has support from the silent majority.

Beyond those eyebrow-raisers, the interview is drawing attention online because of sharp language from the EM:

“For a long time the city was dumb, lazy, happy and rich. Detroit has been the center of more change in the 20th century than I dare say virtually any other city, but that wealth allowed us to have a covenant [that held] if you had an eighth grade education, you’ll get 30 years of a good job and a pension and great health care, but you don’t have to worry about what’s going to come.”

Social media reactions include criticism by Detroit native Ron Fournier, a former Washington bureau chief for Associated Press who now is editorial director of National Journal. Detroit is "a city he still doesn't get," Fournier tweets to 21,500 followers, citing the "dumb, lazy, happy and rich" comment.

"Quite a quote," replies David Shepardson, a Detroit News business writer based in Washington.

"Orr has made clear what he thinks of Detroiters and those who represent them," Ann Arbor journalist Micheline Maynard blogs at Forbes under the headline "The Comments Detroit's Emergency Manager Will Wish He Can Take Back."

The EM crosses a line, she believes.

"I've covered bankruptcy a long time," Maynard tweets (@MickiMaynard). The best attorneys would never speak this way in public." At Forbes, she puts it this way:

The top lawyers in the field show a courtesy and politesse about the people with whom they are negotiating. And certainly, about the people whom they represent.

Her post also questions the slam's accuracy.

It is hard to know what era — or whom — Orr is talking about, when he says, “dumb, lazy, happy and rich” — a phrase that is now certain to follow him throughout the rest of his 15-month tenure. As far back as Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh in the 1960s, Detroit officials were focused about the city’s future, trying to attract ventures like the Olympic Games to lift the world’s impression.

The years since the 1967 riots cannot in any way be described as happy ones for the Motor City, save for a brief respite in the 1990s when the American auto industry was booming. . . . One has to infer from Orr’s comments that he may be speaking of Detroit’s unions, who opposed the bankruptcy filing and are challenging the city in court.

In her sympathetic interview -- obsequious, Maynard calls it in a tweet -- editorial writer Finley suggests Orr's bankruptcy filing was at least partly an effort "to escape the bullying" from city unions that sued to protect pensions.



"For a long time the city was dumb, lazy, happy and rich," Kevyn Orr tells the New York paper. [Photo by WXYZ]

These are among comments by Orr in the 2,000-word article, headlined How Detroit Can Rise Again in the print edition:

Union lawsuits: "This is fifth grade stuff."

"This is fifth grade stuff." Why he took the job: "Frankly, the city was at such a dire level, it was all upside — unless you're going to take it to a more corrupt level than it's ever been."

"Frankly, the city was at such a dire level, it was all upside — unless you're going to take it to a more corrupt level than it's ever been." Residents' views: "The vast majority of people are like, 'We just want it fixed even if we don't like the emergency manager.' "

For her part, the writer makes a factual slip by claiming that in Detroit "there are no shopping centers or chain supermarkets."

That overlooks Gateway Marketplace, where a Meijer Superstore -- with a full line of supermarket items -- opened July 25 at 8 Mile and Woodward. Whole Foods in Midtown, though not a supermarket, is another newly arrived chain grocer.