Detroit City Hall Insider

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Category: Life in Detroit

Kilpatrick: Sex, lies and a DVD coming soon

Stop the City Hall Insider if you've heard this plot before.

The mayor of a large American city is groomed for greatness by powerful parents, bestowed with remarkable gifts, grabs the golden ring, and then falls from grace through "weakness, pride and temptation."

That's right: The story that just won't die -- the Kwame Kilpatrick saga -- could be coming to a theater living room near you. The epic rise and fall, which hits on themes of the Insider's favorite flicks from "Omen III: The Final Conflict" to "Malibu's Most Wanted," is being made into a straight-to-DVD movie called 'Scandal in the City'. The creators, Detroit-based Skyline Productions, began advertising their work on Comcast cable, including VH1, this week.

It's not clear just where or when it will be sold. The Web site says August, but gives no specifics beyond saying it's in "post production."

The trailer has all the elements of a rip-roaring good time. A flashback of a young boy saying he wants to be mayor when he grows up. A finger-pointing, powerful mother telling a crowd to stick up for "your boy." Cat fights between the mayor's wife and a lady in lingerie. A mysterious envelope exchanging hands. A jail cell slamming shut.

The ending may not be much of a shock -- we think it may have something to do with text-messages and a resignation -- but great drama doesn't need surprises. We all know how "Romeo and Juliet" and "Back to the Future" end, right?

But there is one mysterious subplot about the flick: The actor playing the mayor is a dead ringer for Malik Shabbazz, one of Kilpatrick's biggest backers and a leader of the New Marcus Garvey Movement/Black Panther Nation.

Here's the clip.

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Category: Life in Detroit

Cockrel's off-the-beaten path restaurant suggestions

Ken Cockrel Jr.: mayor and restaurant critic?

It could happen. During Wednesday's debate, both candidates were asked where they hoped visitors in town for the NCAA Final Four would visit.

Dave Bing, who moved into Detroit last fall but has had a business here for almost 30 years, said he hoped they'd see a clean city. Cockrel recommended two hidden gems, Taqueria El Nacimiento at 7400 W. Vernor, where the menu is in Spanish with English translations, and My Sisters and Me, at 17410 E. Warren, a well-reviewed hole-in-the-wall soul food joint.

El Naciemiento has a great menu serving a variety of tacos, ranging from grilled chicken to beef brains, for just $1.25 to ceviche for $2. My Sisters and Me, which was reviewed by The Detroit News is another bargain-basement restaurant known for being kid-friendly and featuring the Alabama-style chicken recipe the owners' mother invented.

Category: Life in Detroit

Insider redux: Our look at burned out, dangerous buildings

In late October, City Hall Insider took a week to chronicle the burned out buildings that dot the city landscape. Three days after our video was posted, Detroit firefighter Walter Harris was killed while battling a blaze in a vacant building that had previously been damaged by fire. Council members are now renewing a call to demolish more damaged buildings. But as the Insider discovered, despite all the talk, little is done and the neighborhood residents -- and firefighters who fight the blazes -- are the ones who suffer. What follows is a blog entry from Nov. 12:

Last week, the City Council waded through requests to tear down more than 100 unsafe structures.

The majority was burned-out buildings, a chronic problem for a city that's lost more than half its population.

Detroit has relative success in curbing fires during the so-called Angels' Night prelude to Halloween. But during the other 51 weeks of the year, the problem receives vastly less attention: Detroiters are stuck living next to fire-ravaged homes that can sit for months. The city simply can't afford to tear them all down.

The City Hall Insider toured some pockets of the city to chronicle how the fires affect people every day.