Chris Savage, a Michigan Democratic activist has been following the emergency manager law on his site, Eclectablog. He posted a chart of the places that either have an emergency manager already or could get one soon. Chris looked at the Census data and he looked at the towns on that list, and he realized when you put them together... that just over half the African-Americans in Michigan are on the verge of having no meaningful local democracy.
He writes:
Solving these municipalities' problems does not start from the baseline that the locally-elected, democratically-elected officials are not a useful part of the process, to be shoved aside. Everything that happens should begin at the baseline that democracy is not just important, it's essential.