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The article skirts the obvious: Kwame Kilpatrick's corruption: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Kilpatrick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Kilpatrick The

• bruceb 13y ago
  While Kilpatrick did commit crimes to say the whole downfall is due to him is joke. The article does cover his financial deals that now look to be costing Detroit a lot. At the time thought the paper was supporting those deals.
• danso 13y ago
  Sorry, but what unmentioned corruption are you talking about? This is high up in the article: > Adding the last straw — Kilpatrick’s gamble: He’s best known around the globe for a sex and perjury scandal that sent him to jail and massive corruption that threatens to send him to prison next month for more than 20 years. The corruption cases further eroded Detroit’s image and distracted the city from its fiscal storm. But perhaps the greatest damage Kilpatrick did to the city’s long-term stability was with Wall Street’s help when he borrowed $1.44 billion in a flashy high-finance deal to restructure pension fund debt. That deal, which could cost $2.8 billion over the next 22 years, now represents nearly one-fifth of the city’s debt. And then there's a whole section headlined: "Kilpatrick’s award-winning deal turns into a financial disaster" Kilpatrick is quite famous for his sex and corruption. But are you arguing that those had more of an effect on Detroit's long term viability than a pension deal that blew up the city's obligation to swap holders from $770 million to $1.95 billion in four years? You could argue that only a corrupt bastard would make such a deal, but that deal was talked about at the time...and, the Freep notes, even its own editorial board approved of it. It was a politically expedient and irresponsible gambit, but let's face it, the corrupt don't have a monopoly on irresponsibility.
  • chrischen 13y ago
    He also gave city contracts to friends.
    • drzaiusapelord 13y ago
      and Emmanual/Daley, Bloomberg, and Villaraigosa don't? Every big city suffers from quite a bit of corruption, from backroom deals to strong-arm unions. This doesn't explain Detroit.
      • JackFr 13y ago
        Bloomberg doesn't. As a mayor he's fairly incorruptible, at least in terms of money. He pays for his own elections, and basically does whatever he feels like. With a net worth of 27 billion it's unlikely that anyone could offer him a monetary bribe worth looking at.
        • drzaiusapelord 13y ago
          Except he's not dictator and favor debt is just as real as money debt. The members of the NYC council have their own interests, corruptions, etc that he need to work with. There's this idea that a mega-rich politician will be incorruptable. I'm not sure that's ever been true. The system is bigger than just one guy making decisions and even the head of an organization needs to keep a lot of people happy.
          • JackFr 13y ago
            Well, the thing is trading favors with the city council is politics, not corruption. You might not like what he did to have the city council extend term limits so he could run a third time, but it was above board, and no different politicking to get the law passed to begin with. And I have no doubt that New York City's government has corruption, but comment I was responding to specifically referred to mayors. I get that the head of an organization needs to keep a lot of people happy and the executive may need to needle and cajole, but as I said, that isn't corruption that's politics.
        • 13y ago
• jfb 13y ago
  Detroit isn't circling the drain because of Kilpatrick, as corrupt as he was; the problem is fundamentally the cumulative effect of decades of reasonable if ultimately irresponsible decision making. I liked the freep article a lot; I was surprised by how little approbation Young came in for, all taken with all. There's a fairly serious principle-agent problem in elected government; I'm not sure how you get around things like e.g. Detroit's pension fund throwing the 13th check around, or US Representatives trying to force the US Treasury into default, given that the incentives for more long-term thinking just aren't there.
• bluedino 13y ago
  He lives in Texas and works for CompuWare now.
  • rglovejoy 13y ago
    Not for much longer.
  • billybob255 13y ago
    He was fired back in 2010 and will be going back to prison in October. I'm pretty sure he's in jail until then.
• jfarmer 13y ago
  Detroit has been losing 200k residents per decade since 1950. It's probably more useful to see Kwame Kilpatrick's administration as a symptom of Detroit's deterioration rather than its cause.
• VLM 13y ago
  Look into the concept of failed states. Usually as applied to 3rd world countries, but most of it applies to Detroit just as well. Seems to be an open question if the cause and effect is failed states result in corrupt administration, or corrupt administration results in failed states. Probably a lovely intense feedback loop. But it takes more than just one crook.