Vallejo becomes the model for post-bankruptcy urbanism – is this the future some people would like to see in American cities?: VALLEJO, CALIF. — The first couple of years were ugly. After this working-class port city became the largest in America to declare bankruptcy in 2008, crime and prostitution surged as the police force was…
Tag: california
How schools end up broke when states need money
School administrators tell business leaders about budget cuts (Riverside, California), part of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce Business Education Partnership. As California governor Jerry Brown’s efforts to put tax increases on the ballot winds its way through the state’s political process, school districts continue to struggle. Teachers, administrators, and parents are trying to bring attention…
City unemployment, underpinning California’s budget crisis
Four of the five cities with double the national unemployment rate are in California, no surprise to those of us who have been following the state’s deep recession (and interesting to consider in light of the coastal/inland divide described in last week’s New York Times, and the debate that has generated). Read: Bottom Line – Cities…
The unkindest cut: automatic triggers
Background on the looming California budget cuts this spring… Every government bases an adopted budget on revenue projections (and engages in a variety of tactics for keeping money flowing out while it waits for that revenue to flow in). Of course, those projections meet reality at some point during the year, and budgets may need…
Stockton, Calif., takes ‘first step towards bankruptcy’
Another city mentions the B word: Stockton, California will “skip some bond payments in an effort to restructure its precarious finances.” Along with defaulting on about $2 million of debt payments through the end of its current fiscal year, the city located about 85 miles east of San Francisco will seek mediation with its major bond…