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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He lives in Texas and works for CompuWare now.