response 7 of 55:

Dec 2 23:58 UTC 2003

No, I think Detroit had a million people as recently as the 1990 census. 

Detroit has some corruption, sure, and a history of brutal and racist
policing, but it is NOTHING like New York, or Philadelphia, or Boston, or
Chicago, or Miami.  Corruption in those cities is deeply woven into the
civic culture, and all kinds of bribery and abuses are just taken for
granted. 

Detroit is not like that.  Just for example, the governmental affairs VP
of one of the contracting firms which built the RenCen said afterwards
that Detroit was the first major U.S. city they had ever worked in where
the building department was not on the take.

Meanwhile, one of the Chicago newspapers secretly bought a neighborhood
tavern and staffed it with investigative reporters.  They documented that
bribes and payoffs and kickbacks were demanded almost daily, backed by
credible threats to shut down the place.

People who have lived their lives in Michigan (squeaky-clean compared to
the national average) have no idea what real municipal corruption is like.

As someone who believes in reform and good government, it has always been
a frustrating contrast that deeply corrupt Chicago is "a city that works,"
whereas comparatively clean Detroit is "a city that failed."