Among all the helpful suggestions the Motor City has received during its slide into bankruptcy, selling off Belle Isle, a picturesque island park in the Detroit river, to a group of billionaires intent on creating a libertarian city-state ranks among the most outlandish.
Yet Rodney Lockwood, the local property developer who has been pushing his idea for a "Commonwealth of Belle Isle", is not alone in imagining there is value locked up in city-owned assets, which could be put up for sale to help pay creditors.
With a list of assets that ranges from 22 square miles of land, public utilities and infrastructure, and collections of animals and art, Detroit might seem a candidate for a municipal garage sale of historic proportions.
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