How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you — and don't blame Coleman Young | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

This a stark piece of historical and investigative journalism on the part of the Detroit Free Press. It looks at the decline of property values and population since 1950 in Detroit and the fallout from that. The information is layered over the terms of the city's mayors over that same time period. The graphs and charts are interactive and show the major turning points over that period of time. One would be the time when pension payments to police and fire personnel exceeded payments to active personnel. Combined with the de-industrialization of the workforce and the trend toward suburbanization which were nationwide phenomena, you have what amounted to a death spiral. Click title for link.