Cities have been devastated by falling property taxes, fueled by both falling property values and a growing number of properties for which no property taxes are being paid. Property taxes continue to fall as the valuations catch up to the new market values, and now a long-predicted “second wave” of foreclosures is likely to damage…
Category: Austerity
Detroit, bankruptcy, and the national pension fixation
The post I wish I had time to write: how easily people can imagine taking away a retiree’s pension, how small those pensions usually are, and how controversial the assessment of Detroit’s (and everyone else’s) actual pension problem is (for starters, Morningstar says Detroit followed industry practice for its pension plan right up until the…
More than one million join Brazil protests – Americas – Al Jazeera English
Brazil, afire with urban protests: More than one million join Brazil protests – Americas – Al Jazeera English.
Local journalism: Las Vegas
I’ve been thinking recently about how broadly I conceive the term “urban austerity.” Austerity conjures up not just scarcity, cutbacks, severity, but also the people who are outside that scarcity; the people who impose it, who argue for its necessity and who decide which parts of the city need to be well-funded, shored-up, and which…
What the end looks like
The New York Times is stepping up its coverage of Detroit once again, as the city’s emergency manager issues dire warnings to creditors and seems to be paving the way to bankruptcy. There was a flurry of stories about the possibility of the Detroit Institute of Art perhaps being liquidated to help pay off Detroit’s…