DETROIT -- Fall in this city has always felt a bit like spring elsewhere. It is traditionally the season of fresh starts for the hometown industry, a time when the auto companies get a jump on the calendar and begin shipping next year's models to dealers.

There were some new bright spots this fall, too -- or at least brighter ones. The once-grand Book Cadillac Hotel, long a dilapidated eyesore in the heart of downtown, reopened after a $200 million renovation.

And the saga of Detroit's scandal-plagued former mayor, Kwame M. Kilpatrick, finally ended Tuesday when he went to jail, providing relief to the city from an embarrassing run of headlines in the national media.

But even in a city that has always, of necessity, been able to cast a favorable light on the most difficult news, things could not look more bleak, according to The New York Times.