Detroit: It's So Cold in the D

Detroit is best known as the home of America's automobile industry but is more currently becoming the country's first large failed city.  So of the statistics are staggering. The population of the city has fallen 25% to 700,000 since 2000. That's right, 1 in 4 residents picked up and moved.  Copper thieves have plunged the city's highways into darkness. The mayor has openly suggested bulldozing of houses to improve home values. Half of property owners are overdue with their property taxes. It's been the butt of one of the most hilarious Onion headline ever.

Then today the man
who was mayor from 2002 - 2008 was convicted of corruption in one of the most blatant pay-for-play scandals you will ever see.

Kilpatrick could face more than 10 years in prison for two dozen convictions, from racketeering conspiracy to bribery to tax crimes. Once hailed as a hip, young big-city leader, he was portrayed at trial as an unscrupulous politician who took kickbacks, rigged contracts and lived far beyond his means.
"Kwame Kilpatrick didn't lead the city. He looted the city," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in victory.Separately, fundraiser Emma Bell said she gave Kilpatrick more than $200,000 as his personal cut of political donations, pulling cash from her bra during private meetings at city hall. A high-ranking aide, Derrick Miller, told jurors that he often was the middle man, passing bribes from others.
Internal Revenue Service agents said Kilpatrick spent $840,000 beyond his salary as mayor, from 2002 to fall 2008.

This all comes at a time when the state is about to appoint an emergency manager the personally oversee Detroit's finances in order to avoid a massive (and ultimately unavoidable) municipal bankruptcy. The city itself has over $14 billion in long term obligations mostly in the form of pension liabilities and bond payments. That adds up to around $20,000 PER RESIDENT for existing long term debt-- at the number how do they ever hope to pay for CURRENT services like police and fire????

The legacy of Motown has given way to "It's so cold in the D."

If you have an hour to kill check out http://www.forgottendetroit.com/, it's a blog that chronicles the abandoned and forgotten buildings in the city.