As burglaries, home invasions, carjackings and assaults creep into Oakland neighborhoods less accustomed to crime, residents have built fences, armed alarms and installed security cameras. Oakland has been dealing with a resurgence of crime, particularly in the rapidly-gentrifying areas of the city, including Temescal. Some neighborhoods have also hired private security firms (some of which…
Category: Cities
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is one of many cities in New York State struggling to close a deficit. This local news story about Syracuse follows the pattern of pretty much every other local fiscal crisis: SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The next mayor of Syracuse will preside over a city that will go broke unless significant changes are made, according…
Bankruptcy for Ailing Detroit, but Prosperity for Its Teams – NYTimes.com
The Detroit slide into bankruptcy is like describing an elephant: hard to know where to start. The narratives circulating about Detroit are all fascinating, sometimes irritatingly (but predictably) simplistic but I think the reporting has improved with time, as reporters are forced to look for new angles. Here’s the New York Times’ latest piece: Detroit’s…
Here Is Every Foreign Country That Gets More Federal Aid Than Detroit – Next City
There’s a lot to say about these kind of comparisons (do we really want to get people to pit struggling cities against (in some cases) struggling countries?) but the raw numbers are interesting. Even more interesting would be a historical comparison of federal aid to Detroit and other U.S. cities (spoiler alert!). I Here Is…
Left with nothing | The Washington Post
Cities struggling with vacant properties can use their ability to place liens on properties that fall behind on their taxes, a terrific way for cities to reclaim properties not being used by their owners (usually property speculators). Flint and Cleveland have used this, as have other so-called ‘shrinking’ cities. But in this terrible twist, Washington…