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.

Socio-Economic Crises in Black and Brown Communities in the United States
Socio-Economic Crises in Black and Brown Communities in the United States

Author: Antoinette Christophe

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2023-12-19

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1666936545

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Socio-Economic Crises in Black and Brown Communities in the United States provides insight and awareness concerning crises that exist in underserved Black and brown communities in the United States. The contributors explore these issues through the lenses of public policy, human behavior, environmental injustice, socioeconomic status, gentrification, psychological limitation, Black history distortions, as well as disparities in health, technology, race, gender, and class. They are products of various backgrounds, which provides diverse perspectives from their life experiences.

Community Disaster Recovery and Resiliency
Community Disaster Recovery and Resiliency

Author: DeMond S. Miller

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2010-10-12

Total Pages: 628

ISBN-13: 1420088238

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Once again nature‘s fury has taken a toll in pain, suffering, and lives lost. In recognition of the need for a rapid and appropriate response, CRC Press will donate $5 to the American Red Cross for every copy of Community Disaster Recovery and Resiliency: Exploring Global Opportunities and Challenges sold. In the past, societies would learn from di

American Hometown Renewal
American Hometown Renewal

Author: Gary Mattson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2016-09-13

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 1317509951

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Before the interstates, Main Street America was the small town’s commercial spine and served as the linchpin for community social solidarity. Yet, during the past three decades, a series of economic downturns has left many of the great small cities barely viable. American Hometown Renewal is the first book to combine administrative, budgetary, and economic analysis to examine the economic and fiscal plight currently facing America’s small towns. Featuring a blend of theory, applications, and case studies, it provides a comprehensive, single-source textbook covering the key issues facing small town officials in today’s uncertain economy. Written by a former public manager, university professor, and consultant to numerous small towns in the Heartland, this book demonstrates the ways in which contemporary small towns throughout the nation are facing economic challenges brought about by the financial shocks that began in 2008. Each chapter explores a theme related to small town revival and provides a related tool or technique to enable small town officials to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Encouraging local small town officials to look at the economic orbit of communities in a similar manner as a town’s budget or a family’s personal wealth, examining its specific competitive advantages in terms of relative assets to those of competing communities, this book provides the reader with step-by-step instructions on how to conduct an asset inventory and apply key asset tools to devise a strategy for overcoming the challenges and constraints imposed upon spatially-fixed communities. American Hometown Renewal is an essential primer for students studying city management, economic community development, and city planning, and will be a trusted handbook for city managers, geographers, city planners, urban or rural sociologists, political scientists, and regional microeconomists.

Smart, Resilient and Transition Cities
Smart, Resilient and Transition Cities

Author: Adriana Galderisi

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2018-07-17

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0128114789

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Smart, Resilient and Transition Cities: Emerging Approaches and Tools for Climate-Sensitive Urban Development starts with a presentation of three widespread Urban Metaphors, which are gaining increasing attention from urban planners and decision-makers: Smart City, Resilient City and Transition Towns, being all of them focused on the need for enhancing cities' capacities to cope with the multiple and heterogeneous challenges threatening contemporary cities and their future development and, above all, with climate issues. Then, the Authors provide an overview of current large-scale and urban strategies to counterbalance climate change so far undertaken in different geographical contexts (Europe, United States, China, Africa and Australia), shedding light on the different approaches, on the different weights assigned to mitigation and adaptation issues as well as on the main barriers hindering their effectiveness and translation into measurable outcomes. Opportunities and criticalities arising from the rich, 'sprawled' and 'blurred' landscape of current strategies and initiatives in the face of climate change pave the way to a discussion on the lessons learnt from current initiatives and provide new hints for developing integrated climate strategies, capable to guide planners and decision makers towards a climate sensitive urban development Smart, Resilient and Transition Cities: Emerging Approaches and Tools for Climate-Sensitive Urban Development merges a scientific approach with a pragmatic one. Through a case study approach, the Authors explore strengths and weaknesses of institutional and informal practices to foreshadow innovative paths for an adaptive process of urban governance in the face of climate change. The book guides the reader along new governance paths, characterized by continuous learning and close cooperation and communication among different actors and stakeholders and, in so doing, helps them to overcome current 'siloed' approaches to climate issues. - Links resilience, smart growth, low-carbon urbanism, climate-friendly cities, sustainable development and transition cities, being all these concepts crucial to improve effective climate policies - Includes a number of case studies showing how cities, different in size, geographical, cultural and economic contexts are currently dealing with climate issues, grasping synergies and commonalities arising from current institutional practices and transition initiatives - Provides strategic and operative guidelines to overcome barriers and critical issues emerging from current practices, promoting cross-sectoral approaches to counterbalance climate change