Detroit's Fiscal Crisis

With the city facing a $389 million shortfall over three years and the threat of receivership, Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick announced this month that Detroit would soon lay off 686 people and eliminate 237 vacant jobs, cut employees' pay 10 percent across the board, end overnight bus service and close the aquarium. That is just a start, as consultants consider cutting departments - like cultural affairs and the zoo, and health, transit and street lighting - and ponder new taxes on everything from alcohol to vacant land.

Thanks to Seth Budick