The next mayor will inherit a budget deficit between $139 million and $300 million that has required police and fire cuts.
Detroit also faces a continuing population decline that started a half-century ago when the American auto industry was at its peak. It now has just over 900,000 residents, compared with 1.8 million in 1950. Earlier this year, it was listed as the nation's most impoverished big city.
Detroit is about 80 percent black, and both mayoral candidates are black. But race and the issue of how much the city should cooperate with mostly white suburbs have been constant themes.
Less than two weeks before the city's mayoral election, a full-page newspaper ad depicting images of black corpses and likening media coverage of Kilpatrick to lynching was published in the city's largest black newspaper. It is unclear who placed the ad, and the mayor has denied any link to it.
Kilpatrick said the city "is on the cusp of becoming the biggest turnaround story in American history."
But Hendrix insists the mayor is in denial.
"This isn't just about who is voting," Hendrix said. "This is absolutely about every single person who lives or is a stakeholder in this city."
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On the Net:
Freman Hendrix: http://www.fremanhendrix.com
Kwame Kilpatrick: http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/mayor/default.htm
