Stockton's Path to Bankruptcy
Stockton's Path to Bankruptcy

Author: Dennis Cochran

Publisher: Dorrance Publishing

Published: 2019-08-21

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 1480996297

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Stockton’s Path to Bankruptcy How our city government grabbed and abused power and partnered with the newspaper to mislead the community By: Dennis Cochran Stockton, California, grew out of the Gold Rush of 1849. It became a thriving city through agriculture and manufacturing. It boasts excellent schools and colleges and has a world-renowned symphony and art museum. But, in July 2012, it was the largest American city to file for bankruptcy and currently is # 8 on Forbes Most Dangerous Cities in America. Stockton’s Path to Bankruptcy is an insider look at how the city fell apart. In 1993, Stockton won enterprise zone designation from the state government to be used to revitalize the depressed city center. Dennis Cochran was one of several locals invited to submit an incentive idea. He proposed a volunteer-staffed graffiti cleanup program. Cleaning graffiti is an easy, cost-effective way to discourage crime and promote beautification. Initially encouraged by the enterprise zone, Cochran soon learned that it was corrupt and mismanaged with unclear policies, skyrocketing permit fees, and local businesses bullied until they abandoned the center entirely. Like many citizens, Cochran was on the outside of the local government – his offers of help ignored and his good advice rejected. In just under twenty years, Stockton’s local government, protected by a local newspaper, destroyed the trust of its citizens. Cochran chronicles every bureaucratic twist and depravity – from the city losing $43,000 a day, plundering public safety funds to finance a ballpark, to stealing land from a local church. Stockton didn’t become bankrupt because of the financial bubble or housing crisis. Stockton went bankrupt because of its public officials’ abuse of power and attitude of hostility towards the community. Exposing mistakes acts as a disinfectant – and Stockton’s Path to Bankruptcy is a powerful aid to helping heal Stockton and serves as a warning to citizens of other cities.

Urban Politics
Urban Politics

Author: Myron A. Levine

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-24

Total Pages: 589

ISBN-13: 0429888007

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Urban Politics blends the most insightful classic and current political science and related literature with current issues in urban affairs. The book’s integrative theme is ‘power,’ demonstrating that the study of urban politics requires an analysist to look beyond the formal institutions and procedures of local government. The book also develops important subthemes: the impact of globalization; the dominance of economic development over competing local policy concerns; the continuing importance of race in the urban arena; local government activism versus the ‘limits’ imposed on local action by the American constitutional system and economic competition; and the impact of national and state government action on cities. Urban Politics engages students with pragmatic case studies and boxed material that use classic and current urban films and TV shows to illustrate particular aspects of urban politics. The book’s substantial concluding discussion of local policies for environmental sustainability and green cities also appeals to today’s students. Each chapter has been thoroughly rewritten to clearly relate the content to current events and academic literature, including the following: the importance of the intergovernmental city the role of local governments as active policy actors and vital policy makers even in areas outside traditional municipal policy concerns the prospects for urban policy and change in and beyond the Trump administration, including the ways in which urban politics is affected by, but not determined by, Washington. Mixing classic theory and research on urban politics with the most recent developments and data in urban and metropolitan affairs, Urban Politics, 10e is an ideal introductory textbook for students of metropolitan and regional politics and policy. The book’s material on citizen participation, urban bureaucracy, policy analysis, and intergovernmental relations also makes the volume an appropriate choice for Urban Administration courses. Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Broke
Broke

Author: Jodie Adams Kirshner

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2019-11-19

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 1250237122

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"Essential...in showcasing people who are persistent, clever, flawed, loving, struggling and full of contradictions, Broke affirms why it’s worth solving the hardest problems in our most challenging cities in the first place. " —Anna Clark, The New York Times "Through in-depth reporting of structural inequality as it affects real people in Detroit, Jodie Adams Kirshner's Broke examines one side of the economic divide in America" —Salon "What Broke really tells us is how systems of government, law and finance can crush even the hardiest of boot-strap pullers." —Brian Alexander, author of Glass House A galvanizing, narrative account of a city’s bankruptcy and its aftermath told through the lives of seven valiantly struggling Detroiters Bankruptcy and the austerity it represents have become a common "solution" for struggling American cities. What do the spending cuts and limited resources do to the lives of city residents? In Broke, Jodie Adams Kirshner follows seven Detroiters as they navigate life during and after their city's bankruptcy. Reggie loses his savings trying to make a habitable home for his family. Cindy fights drug use, prostitution, and dumping on her block. Lola commutes two hours a day to her suburban job. For them, financial issues are mired within the larger ramifications of poor urban policies, restorative negligence on the state and federal level and—even before the decision to declare Detroit bankrupt in 2013—the root causes of a city’s fiscal demise. Like Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, Broke looks at what municipal distress means, not just on paper but in practical—and personal—terms. More than 40 percent of Detroit’s 700,000 residents fall below the poverty line. Post-bankruptcy, they struggle with a broken real estate market, school system, and job market—and their lives have not improved. Detroit is emblematic. Kirshner makes a powerful argument that cities—the economic engine of America—are never quite given the aid that they need by either the state or federal government for their residents to survive, not to mention flourish. Success for all America’s citizens depends on equity of opportunity.

Urban Politics
Urban Politics

Author: Myron Levine

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-02-20

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1317516796

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This popular text mixes classic theory and research on urban politics with the most recent developments and data in urban and metropolitan affairs. Its balanced and realistic approach helps students understand the nature of urban politics and the difficulty of finding effective "solutions" in a suburban and global age. The ninth edition has been thoroughly rewritten and updated with a continued focus on economic development and race, plus renewed attention to globalization, gentrification, and changing demographics. Boxed case studies of prominent recent and current urban development efforts provide material for class discussion, and concluding material demonstrates the tradeoff between more "ideal" and more "pragmatic" urban politics. Key changes in this edition include: Every chapter has been thoroughly updated and rewritten. The Ninth Edition reflects the most current census data and the newest trends in such areas as the "new immigration," suburbanization, gentrification, and big-city revivals; There is coverage of the big-city pension crisis and politics in Stockton, Detroit, and other cities facing possible bankruptcy; A brand-new opening chapter introduces the concepts of the Global City, the Entertainment City, and the Bankrupt City; New photos and boxes appear throughout the book; Increased coverage of policies for sustainable urban development.

The Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis and the Legal Responses
The Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis and the Legal Responses

Author: James T. O'Reilly

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 0199937931

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Legal disputes over worldwide, including the U.S., sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, and over efforts by Roman Catholic bishops to conceal clerical misconduct, have produced many headlines and public discussion. However, the precise legal issues involved remain a mystery to most observers. In this study, James O'Reilly and Margaret Chalmers examine the role of canon law in these cases and the interplay between the global church-based law and the laws of individual jurisdictions where criminal actions and lawsuits are brought.

On Unemployment, Volume II
On Unemployment, Volume II

Author: Mark R. Reiff

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-10-07

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 1137550031

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With unemployment at historically high rates that show signs of becoming structural, there is a pressing need for an in-depth exploration of this economic injustice. Unemployment is one of the problems most likely to put critical pressure on our political institutions, disrupt the social fabric of our way of life, and even threaten the continuation of liberalism itself. Despite the obvious importance of the problem of unemployment, however, there has been a curious lack of attention paid to this issue by contemporary non-Marxist political philosophers. On Unemployment explores the moral implications of the problem of unemployment despite the continuing uncertainty involving both its causes and its cures. Reiff takes up a series of questions about the nature of unemployment and what justice has to tell us about what we should do, if anything, to alleviate it. The book comprehensively discusses the related theory and suggests how we might implement these more general observations in the real world. It addresses the politics of unemployment and the extent to which opposition to some or all of the book's various proposals stem not from empirical disagreements about the best solutions, but from more basic moral disagreements about whether the reduction of unemployment is indeed an appropriate moral goal. This exciting new text will be essential for scholars and readers across business, economics, and finance, as well as politics, philosophy, and sociology.

The Politics of Public Budgeting
The Politics of Public Budgeting

Author: Irene S. Rubin

Publisher: CQ Press

Published: 2019-01-21

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 1544357834

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Using a "power struggles" theme to examine the dynamics of budgeting, The Politics of Public Budgeting shines a bright light on the political jockeying between interest groups, parties, officials, policymakers, and the public. Bestselling author Irene S. Rubin explains budgeting changes over time by setting issues like the federal deficit and health care expenditures in political and comparative context. The Ninth Edition offers students recent examples of public budgeting from all levels of government, emphasizing the relationship among them. Analyzing each strand of the decision-making process, Rubin shows the extraordinary coordination involved in passing a budget and achieving accountability.

The Dis Unite States of America
The Dis Unite States of America

Author: Julio Camino

Publisher: The Little French eBooks

Published: 2024-03-28

Total Pages: 165

ISBN-13:

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If you think that you know what happen with the economic political chaos of the Century 21th, this new book of Julio Camino is certainly not for you. But if, on the contrary, you have doubts, questions and concerns, rather than elaborated opinions, or if you are not very sure about them, this book is for you. Especially if you want to learn about what is going on in the USA and some parts of the world: what is happening and why? Generally, in the United States, upon hearing the word "secession", most people think of Abraham Lincoln, the "deep South" and the Civil War. But there are currently other secessionist movements gaining strength in the U.S., and not only in the South, but in the entire territory, because the same "Big Government" federal emerged from the War of Secession, has gone out of control, causing many States huge frustration and discontent. Along these pages you will find something that you need, even if you are not very conscious of what is missing: information, good information from not well-known but truthful and liable authors.

Saving America
Saving America

Author: Mark Aesch

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-10-14

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1351860909

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National polling indicates that for the first time in American history, people believe their children will not be as well off as they are. The primary reason for this? The lack of performance by government. The public sector receives trillions of American taxpayer dollars every year and yet because of its seeming inability to run effectively, government is not delivering the level of service the people are paying for. In Saving America, Mark Aesch tells us where government -- at the local, state, and federal level -- is falling short and offers a coherent, non-partisan, Seven-Step plan for rebuilding our nation's public agencies. The book is not a political broadside or a theoretical academic tract; it's an accessible guidebook that helps local citizens, elected officials, and administrators make American government great again. The Seven Steps process will lead to measurable gains for organizations large and small, including school systems, municipal governments, entire states, and even the federal government itself.