Over the past half-century Detroit has been shrinking. Its once projected 2.8 million residence would have fit nicely into its vast 138 square miles. Today the actual population of Detroit is under 900,000 and you could easily place the entire cities of Boston, San Francisco, and Manhattan Island inside Detroit’s city limits and still have some 20 square miles to spare. Over the past decade this exodus has greatly taken its toll on the area. Schools, historic buildings and neighborhoods all abandoned during the great migration from city to suburb. Detroit exemplifies this feeling of a modern ghost town because of its well-documented history, and its notorious legacy of holding onto its abandonment’s far longer than any other city. onlynDetroit is pleased to bring you our in-depth look into this phenomenon, the causes behind it and the possible solutions.

Detroit is known for many things. Unfortunately the one thing Detroit is not known for are its schools. The Detroit Public Schools, (D.P.S.) is currently in the middle of one of its biggest crises. Almost $500 million in debt, it’s hard to imagine the kind of change needed to straighten out its current financial woes. It doesn’t help that over the years, millions upon millions of dollars have been siphoned from the district’s yearly operating budgets. Just across town there is a building that contains the remnants of a careless and apathetic administration. School supplies and records lie scattered about and haphazardly destroyed. Take a tour with us as we explore the dismal state of the schools that have been recently abandoned. See what school officials don’t want you finding out.

Detroit’s city hall has been notorious for corruption, even from its early days. Not even during the Coleman administration did corruption rival that of the current times. Outlined inside are the corrupt politicians and contractors, and the countless scandals they are involved in. While corruption of the past consisted mostly of skimming funds and inside deals, today’s corruption includes secret settlements designed to cover up the mayor’s affairs, murder investigations put to a stop to protect top brass, multiple whistle blower lawsuits, police officers fired for investigating corruption, shady city contracts, perjury, obstructions of justice, conspiracy and much, much more. Spiraling out of control, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick insisted on holding his job as mayor as long as possible in order to make a plea deal for a lighter sentence. Once Kilpatrick resigned, most of his family was out of work too. After Kilpatrick’s reign, City Hall is no longer city hall, it is now known as the Detroit Department of Corruption.

Left vacant for any good length of time, a house or building in Detroit stands little to no chance when it comes to the scrap army. Like locust to a field, the copper thieves in this city are leaving homes, businesses, churches and even schools gutted and without power for days or weeks. In some cases the damage done is not repairable and the structure is simply left to the elements and criminals. The epidemic of copper theft is even grabbing the attention of the federal government. So what are we doing about it?

In the process of attempting to improve the city, Kwame Kilpatrick pushed Detroit two steps back for every step forward. Have you looked around the city and been witness to piles of garbage? Have you ever called police only to have no one respond? Have you seen all the abandoned buildings and wondered why they are there? There is now a very real chance that many of the city's finical problems stem from the repercussions of former Mayor Kilpatrick’s conduct. Kilpatrick’s actions have caused the city to bleed money day after day from. It’s now too late for the city; Kilpatrick's scandalous ways have drained the city treasury and replaced prosperity with a long lasting black eye.