- [Narrator] Coming up on "One Detroit", we'll show you where the city of Detroit's gigantic Christmas tree comes from and what it takes to get it downtown.

Plus contributor Nolan Finley talks with retired Judge Gerald Rosen, a key figure in the deal that brought Detroit out of bankruptcy 10 years ago.

And we'll give you some ideas on how to spend the weekend before the holidays.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit".

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(steady music) - [Narrator] Just ahead on "One Detroit", retired Judge Gerald Rosen reflects on the Grand Bargain that rescued Detroit from bankruptcy.

Plus we'll tell you about some of the holiday-themed events taking place this weekend and beyond in Metro Detroit.

But first up, for more than two decades, downtown Detroit has welcomed the holiday season with a massive, beautifully decorated Christmas tree in Campus Martius Park.

But have you ever wondered where the tree comes from or what it takes to get it to Detroit?

We did.

So One Detroit's Elisha Anderson and Bill Kubota traveled to Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula to get the backstory on this annual tradition.

(steady music) - The tree lighting tradition started at Campus Martius Park 21 years ago.

It began really as a small gathering of 2,000 folks, and it's evolved now in 2024 to be a massive weekend festival.

- [Bill] Another December weekend downtown packed.

- [David] Throughout the holiday season, over 2 million people was at Campus Martius Park.

Just the whole atmosphere has become a must-visit throughout the holidays.

- [Bill] And that tree, brought to you by the Downtown Detroit Partnership and the DTE Foundation, around 60 feet tall.

One Detroit's got the story about how it got here.

It starts 220 miles to the north, Manton, Michigan near Cadillac, home of the Dutchman Tree Farms, where we meet Martin Emery.

- When I was 12 years old, I grew up across the street from this farm.

I started helping out after school and it stuck and I never left.

- [Bill] Emery does a bit of everything, and he's in charge of finding the perfect Campus Martius Christmas tree every year.

A search that takes him far and wide, but this year, he found one right next to the Dutchman Farms at the home of Tiffany Kenyon, Devin Collins, and their son also named Devin.

- You know, it's a 60-year-old tree.

- [Bill] Trees like this grow about a foot a year.

The tree top had already been wrapped for transit when we arrived - Last year, somebody else came and looked at it, but then they decided not to get it.

- I drove by it for years, and you know, watched it grow obviously, you know, over 40 years.

And finally, it reached the height that we could use.

- Already stopped by the summer here, and he just said he noticed it from the roadside.

I guess he was out and about looking for Norway spruce, and so he pulled in the driveway.

We happened to be outside and he asked us if we'd be interested in selling it.

- We work out a deal.

Yeah, yeah.

- I can let it go for the right price, I guess, so... - To me, a proportionate tree is half as wide as tall.

Nice taper, you know, even.

Nice top.

That's really the perfect tree for me.

- We always have criteria that we try to point out, and one is that it's got a single, very strong trunk.

The second is that the branches are pointing upward, which means that they're healthy and stable enough to support the weight of all these lights.

- [Bill] The three leading states growing Christmas trees, Oregon, North Carolina, and Michigan, part of agricultural history in Missaukee and Wexford Counties.

But why here?

- The climate, for one thing, you know, the hilly terrain and sandy soil is very good for growing Christmas trees.

This is 70-year-old plantation, maybe older.

Every year, we expand just a little bit more.

- [Bill] Dutchman ships hundreds of thousands of trees each year.

- [David] Those were big with Lowe's and Home Depot are like two of our best customers.

We used to put 'em in shipping containers and send 'em to Bermuda.

I think one time, we may have sent 'em to Panama one time.

- [Bill] It's October, harvest time has begun.

Douglas firs, Fraser firs, spruces and pines.

Keith Helsel has been in the Christmas tree business 45 years.

- Everything goes in a cycle, just like life.

Now everybody wants Scotch pine, and everybody's cut back and hasn't grown them.

(laughs) - [Bill] So what do you do about that?

- Try to plant more Scotch.

- [Bill] These are balsam firs, also a favorite now.

And what makes 'em popular?

- The smell.

The smell.

- [Bill] Can you describe the smell?

- Like a tangerine.

(Keith laughs) To me, I mean that's what it smells like, is a tangerine.

- [Bill] Tangerine like they grow in Florida?

Thanks to these trees, Helsel spends much of December warm in the Sunshine State.

- I run three tree lots for Dutchman in Florida, and the market down there is strong.

Yeah, we can't hardly get enough trees, but everybody wants a big tree.

Seems like everybody wants a nine to like 15-foot tree.

- Two gallon, I would say.

- [Bill] At Dutchman, they also have smaller, keep-growing-your-own trees.

- Take this tree home, and you could put it right in your living room, just like that and decorate it.

And when Christmas is over, you could plant it right in your yard.

- [Bill] Is that people doing a lot of that now?

- Oh yeah, yeah.

- [Bill] Indoor work at Dutchman too, a Christmas wreath and garland assembly line, and trees that fit in the trunk of your car.

Maybe take home with you.

Back to the big tree headed for Campus Martius.

Dillon Lykins up there, tying tree limbs while the pickup truck down below pulls a rope to winch them tight.

Lykins, not bothered by heights.

- I could see like four sets of valleys that way.

It's beautiful up there.

It really is, it's pretty neat.

- All right.

- As the tree's prepped for travel, more Christmas tree specialists have arrived.

Another tree has been selected to help fill out the Campus Martius display.

- They'll take another tree, a sacrificial tree, and they'll take all the branches off it, and then they will fit them branches into the other tree to make it, you know, super full, I guess you could say.

- [Bill] How does that work?

Kind of a trade secret.

A drizzly November 5th, crane on sight.

First, a ride up top to lasso the beast.

Some ceremonial chops, then onto business.

(chainsaw buzzing) Today's harvest, that one big tree.

(tool clacking) (truck engine revs) Destination, Detroit.

An eye-catching payload.

- Oh yeah, you get a lot of people looking, but the one you don't want looking is the state DOT.

We don't need him looking at us.

You're not supposed to be anything over the edge of the trailer.

- We're permitted though.

We have a permit, yes.

- But we're permitted.

We're completely legal.

- [Kelly] Yes.

- Let's introduce you to this year's Michigan-grown Norway spruce, hailing from the Christmas tree capital of the world, Manton, Michigan.

Over the next two weeks, will be installed and decorated by a crew of 10 experts, and adorn it with more than 25,000 LED lights, hundreds of oversized ornaments, and a seven-foot star on the top.

(upbeat music) - [Bill] Late November, the festivities commence.

Despite peak season up north for the first time, Martin Emery has gotten away to see what's become of what he started.

- It is like Times Square here, you know.

It's a big thing.

- Four, three, two, one!

(crowd cheers) - Yeah, you know, it really turned out great.

You know, this is awesome, you know, I'm honored.

You know, people of Detroit, state of Michigan, I couldn't be happier.

What the world always needs is a real Christmas tree, and that's as real as it gets.

♪ And Heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ He rules the world with the truth and grace ♪ - [Narrator] This month marks 10 years since the city of Detroit emerged from bankruptcy.

The chief mediator and one of the architects of the deal that rescued the city was US District Court Chief Judge Gerald Rosen.

One Detroit contributor Nolan Finley from "The Detroit News" recently sat down with the now retired judge to talk about his book that details the city's recovery.

It's titled "Grand Bargain: The Inside Story of Detroit's Dramatic Journey from Bankruptcy to Rebirth".

- In the bankruptcy... (steady music) - Judge Jerry Rosen, we are now 10 years out of the Detroit bankruptcy.

You mediated that process.

As you look at where Detroit is now compared to where it was back then, how are we doing as a city post-bankruptcy?

- You know, Nolan, it's very gratifying to see you remember well where we were on July 18th, 2013 at 4:06 PM when the petition was filed, petition for bankruptcy was filed.

Detroit was flat broke, services weren't being provided, garbage wasn't being picked up, snow wasn't being plowed.

Detroit's credit rating was at the very bottom.

It could possibly be junk status and falling.

The streetlights were out, 150,000 blighted homes and properties.

I could go on and on.

- Yeah.

- You remember where we are.

Look where we are now.

I think that in the bankruptcy, we were able to build the foundation and construct the scaffolding for Detroit's recovery.

And of course, Mike Duggan has taken it from there, and he's really done a remarkable job in bringing the city back.

- So what we don't normally think of bankruptcy as a positive thing is, I know at the time, I and a lot of others were writing that, and this could be really the end of Detroit or really put Detroit in a very, very bad place.

Why didn't that happen?

Why did it turn out so much better than we predicted?

- You know, with the perspective of 10 years, here's how I feel about it.

When I was going through it, trying to get this deal and that deal and put the Grand Bargain together, it was head down and get to the finish line because all of us knew that time was Detroit's enemy.

If this bankruptcy went on for years of entrenched litigation and warfare, there'd be nothing left of Detroit but dusted legal bills.

So we were all committed to getting through it as quickly and expeditiously as possible.

And I think we had a unique confluence.

In the book, I call it Detroit's Big Bang Theory - [Nolan] Yeah.

- of people and events coming together to rescue a great city.

- Mm-hm.

- But people were committed.

And also, we had people like Governor Snyder who had the political will to make the difficult decisions, first to put the city into bankruptcy, and then to make the difficult decisions when we were in bankruptcy on how to prioritize the issues to help ensure Detroit's recovery.

- Well the book is the "Grand Bargain: The Inside Story of Detroit's Dramatic Journey from Bankruptcy to Rebirth".

Talk to me about the title, the "Grand Bargain".

What was the Grand Bargain?

- So the Grand Bargain was actually a three-legged stool.

And the idea, which I doodled on a cardboard backing of a legal pad, and amazingly, quite almost miraculously, that piece of cardboard is now hanging in the Detroit Institute of Arts as the solution to the largest municipal bankruptcy in history.

But the Grand Bargain, the idea was to take the art at the DIA, the art collection, which was really the city's only real asset.

- And the creditors wanted at that asset, right?

- They did.

They wanted to liquidate it.

In fact, one of the creditors hired an appraiser who came up with a plan to carve up the Diego Rivera murals, carve 'em up and sell 'em off piecemeal.

- So the art was at risk at the DIA, but also the pensions of city retirees.

- The pensions.

- And the Grand Bargain that you put together to doodled out, as you say, save both.

How did it work and what were the elements?

- So when we started, I realized the city had no real assets other than the art.

And I also knew that the retirees, Kevin or the emergency manager, was threatening 35 to 40% cuts to the pensions of the civilian and uniformed retirees.

And that would've been a disaster.

So I began to think of the bankruptcy as bookended by, on the one hand, the art as the only asset, and on the other hand, the retirees as the largest single group of creditors, but also, there were political implications, racial implications.

You may recall that many people were saying that the art was the preserve of the wealthy suburbs, and why not just sell it and everything will be fine.

I thought that was a terrible idea for many reasons, not the least of which was Detroit had been cannibalizing its heritage to mortgage its future for decades.

And where had it gotten us?

If we had liquidated one of the great artistic treasures in the world, and I should parenthetically add last year and this year, the museum was chosen as the number one art museum in the country.

But if we had liquidated the museum, I felt like it would be the exclamation point on Detroit's obituary.

- Jerry, what was the third leg of the stool?

- So the three legs were the state's $350 million commitment, $380 million from the foundation, and the third leg of the stool was the DIA itself.

We all felt, certainly the state, the governor, legislators, and even the foundations were contributing, felt that the DIA had to have some skin in the game to preserve the air.

- Can you talk about that story in the book, and you call it the most expensive breakfast, perhaps in history.

The putting together of the deal to get the DIA board to put in their contribution.

What did that take?

- We'd gotten the commitment from the state, we'd gotten the commitments from the foundations, but both the state and the foundations were requiring to, as they put it, requiring the DIA to have some skin in the game.

So I gently started negotiated with Gene Gargaro, who was the chair of the board of the DIA at the time.

And initially, we first got 'em up to about $50 million.

It was very painful 'cause they were under some stress financially.

First got 'em up to 50 million, and I knew that probably wasn't gonna be enough.

So I called Governor Snyder and I told him that we'd had a soft commitment of 50 million from the DIA.

And he said, "Well, you know, I'm gonna be getting an award from a group called the Americans for Art in Washington at the end of the month."

I'm gonna invite Gene to go with me and I'll talk to him.

So he did, the night before he went to Washington, I got a call from the governor.

You know, my Blackberry lit up and he said, "Guess what I've been doing for the last couple of hours?"

I said, "I don't know Rick.

What?"

He said, "I've got the DIA's," remember he's a CPA.

- Yeah.

- He said, "I've got the DIA's audited financials.

I can see how we can save him 5 to $6 million a year."

I said, "Great.

What are you gonna do with that, Rick?"

He said, "I'm gonna ask Gene for $100 million dollars tomorrow."

I said, "Rick, get the award first."

- And so they had breakfast, and then - They had breakfast in Washington.

- the commitment was made.

Now you have the money coming in from the various sources.

You've got the retirees on board for the sacrifice they'd have to make.

Then you had to take this to the creditors.

And you talk in the book about a deal with the creditors that came together in a barbershop.

- The haircut at the haircut.

- Haircut at the haircut.

- We needed to get deals with the financial creditors, the folks who had been lending money to the city for decades.

And the pension debt was extraordinary, over $9 billion in pension debt altogether.

And we had to get deals with the financial creditors to be able to get everybody on board.

And the first deal we got was with a group of the, it's called the UTGOs, unlimited tax general obligation bonds.

And we'd been negotiating with 'em for about three or four months, not making much progress.

And I needed a haircut.

I looked like Bozo the Clown.

- Mm-hm.

- And we were having a session and I said, "I'm going over to get a haircut."

And Dave Hyman, the lead lawyer for the city, and Tim Coleman, who was the lead financial guy for the bond folks, said, "You know, we need a haircut too."

So I called Frankie, my Italian barber.

I said, "I'm bringing a couple friends over."

Went over there, I got the governor on the line on my Blackberry, told him that we were having a negotiation, and he gave us all a pep talk.

And in about two and a half hours, we put together the outlines of the first deal that we had with a financial creditor.

It turned out to be a very important mark in the bankruptcy because once we got our first deal with that financial creditor, we were able to leverage that and get a deal with the next one, and then the next one, the next one.

You guys in the media began calling it the Grand Bargain Express.

And I started telling the creditors that, you know, a bankruptcy is like a train waiting at the station.

- So you've been involved in a lot of cases over your career as a federal judge in Detroit.

And talk about how unique and how remarkable this process was in your experience.

All bankruptcies, all legal cases don't go this well or turn out this well.

- Well, remember, I was a judge.

I was actually the chief judge of our court.

And when you're deciding cases, you're the decider.

In the bankruptcy, Steve Rhodes was the decider, and he did an immaculate job of presiding.

But being the mediator, my job was to get deals.

And I quickly realized that we had to get deals so that Detroit could be able to move forward to the other side of the bankruptcy.

And this was much different than deciding cases, even high-profile cases that I've had because this was persuasion rather than, you know, knocking the gavel down and ruling.

- And it's all in this book.

Jerry Rosen, we thank you for being with us today.

- [Narrator] We're entering the week of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, and there are plenty of holiday-themed events and activities taking place this weekend along with some great historical exhibits.

Cecelia Sharpe and Haley Taylor of 90.9 WRCJ have the details in today's "One Detroit Weekend".

- Happy holidays, Cecelia.

I know that there's so much going on this weekend as we turn the corner into Christmas week.

Starting tomorrow, December 20th, Cirque de Soleil.

The show runs through December 31st.

- [Cecelia] And on Saturday, December 21st, "Last Christmas: Vietnamese Show" is on the main stage at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts.

The musical performances will give the audience a true taste of Vietnamese culture.

- [Haley] And December 25th marks the first day of Hanukkah, and Detroit is celebrating in Campus Martius Park with Menorah in the D, where a 26-foot menorah will be lit.

- Wow.

- I know.

- [Cecelia] Now if you want to experience the glory of Detroit baseball fandom, look no further than the Detroit Historical Society, where "1984 World Series Street Portraits: Photography by Carlos Diaz" is up through January 6th.

The photo series highlights fans and vendors outside of Tiger Stadium during their World Series run.

- And of course, there is so many fun things to do, so stay tuned for a few more events to check out.

Have a great weekend.

(steady music) - [Narrator] Before we go, here's a holiday message from Detroit PBS President and CEO Rich Homberg, looking at the station's accomplishments in 2024 and plans for the new year.

- 2024 was an amazing year for our city and here at Detroit PBS and 90.9 WRCJ.

From hosting the NFL draft in April and Kresge's 100th celebration to Detroit PBS announcing our future Detroit Public media campus, the year was filled with so many highlights and we look forward to what 2025 will bring.

Our New Year's resolution, to continue to keep you and your family informed, engaged, entertained, and inspired to the power of public media.

All of this is made possible by our fantastic team and our incredible partners who continue to collaborate with us throughout the year, and through viewers and listeners and members like you.

Thank you for your support and for helping us to imagine the possibilities.

On behalf of all of us at Detroit PBS and 90.9 WRCJ, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

- [Narrator] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit".

Thanks for watching.

Head to the One Detroit website for all the stories we're working on.

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