DETROIT -- He's gone.
Kwame Kilpatrick is off to Texas to begin his new life. He leaves behind a city in shambles.
Nevertheless, 15 candidates are running to complete Kilpatrick's term, which ends Dec. 31. The primary is Feb. 24. The top two finishers square off on May 5.
To the victor goes the spoiled: a $400 million deficit, city services in disarray and creditors barking at the back door.
The Detroit News hosted a coffee-klatch at the American Coney Island with three of the more prominent candidates: Freman Hendrix, former deputy mayor to Dennis Archer; Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans and the Rev. Nicholas Hood III, a former city councilman. Interim Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and local businessman Dave Bing declined invitations to attend.
The discussion was freewheeling and unrehearsed. Should the failing Detroit Public School system be controlled by the mayor? Are mass layoffs necessary to save the city from bankruptcy? Considering the yawning deficit, should the wife of Mayor Cockrel continue to be chauffeured around by a police officer on the city dime? Is Monica Conyers, the besieged city council president, politically radioactive? Would any of these men accept Kilpatrick's endorsement?
These answers to these questions and more in the latest installment of Hold the Onions. Click on the video above to begin.
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