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Did you Think It Was Only Detroit The Libs Ruined?
Aug 12, 2013 19:15:57 #
So....we've been discussing the collapse of Detroit, while the Democrats have been assuring us that "they had nothing to do with it", ( yeah, Al Capone was a boy scout too...), now Moody's just drops a bomb on the Windy City.
Chicago Having just been downgraded three notches by Moodys, Chicago is suddenly hearing the uncomfortable shifting of deck chairs, as people wonder if the nations third-largest city is about to slam into the same debt-and-pensions iceberg that sank the SS Detroit last month.
It was once inconceivable that the Motor City would become the setting for post-apocalyptic visions of burned out, abandoned neighborhoods, a corrupt and incarcerated city government, and all-but-nonexistent public services. Yet Detroits collapse took but a few decades. Now, the same disbelief and denial about Chicago is being heard, yet the evidence for the inescapable bill of mismanagement and bad policy is still making headlines just a few hundred miles north of the Windy City.
For all its manifest faults (such as being the worlds most dangerous global city), Chicago is not yet close to matching Detroits mismanagement, hollowed-out tax base, or loss of productive sectors. Neither is it the one-industry town that Detroit was, nor has it been hemorrhaging residents for decades. In fact, it is a far more vibrant place than when I was growing up here in the 1970s and 1980s, with lots more young people, gentrified neighborhoods (which, admittedly, reduces its gritty charm for an erstwhile resident), and money sloshing around.
Even those decades, though, were an improvement over the citys near-death experience in the 1960s when faced with the decline of traditional industries like steel. Then, Mayor Richard J. Daley, the Boss, saved the city, or at least argued that he did, by building vital transportation lifelines into the downtown, making real development of the suburbs and exurbs a viable proposition. Of course, to do so, he had to drive the Dan Ryan Expressway through vibrant ethnic neighborhoods like Little Italy. It was messy and highly controversial, but it was focused solely on making the city economically competitive again.
Today, Chicago faces another threat, shared by many Democratic municipal governments. The city may seem healthy on the surface, but its finances are shaky, to say the least. Chicago is staring at a massive, $340 million budget deficit, which, if pension plans arent radically changed, may open up to a $1 billion shortfall as soon as 2015. The Moodys downgrade was tied directly to the looming budget hole and lack of progress on restructuring its pension and health-care obligations. All too predictably, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has addressed this by focusing on increasing revenue and getting a bigger slice of state taxes.
The next decade will likely determine the citys future, and mordant urban death watchers should track every step Emanuel and City Hall makes from now on. Whatever you think about Emanuel, hes no deer-in-the-headlights politician, and his battle with the Chicago Teachers Union last year showed his willingness to take on heavyweight opponents, regardless of the outcome. He knows that Chicago will face the same fiscal pressures Detroit did, the same political battles to preserve pension plans, and the same pressure on businesses to relocate to friendlier confines in Indiana and Wisconsin. And theres no hope for help from the state capital: Illinoiss situation is far more dire, with unfunded pension liabilities topping $100 billion. Time will tell whether Emanuel adapts and forces Chicago to make the tough choices, or follows the Detroit model of slow, inexorable collapse.
One thing both Mayor Emanuel and Illinois governor Pat Quinn can be sure of: Their neighbors arent standing still. A friend who runs a Chicago food-industry business told me that one of his subcontractors looking for new land in Indiana personally was contacted by then-governor Mitch Daniels. Daniels apparently had standing orders that he be informed about any company considering relocating to Indiana, so he could reach out himself to sell them on the virtues of the state. Daniels and Wisconsins Scott Walker are just as sharp-eyed as Rahm Emanuel but happen to understand that the key to prosperity is creating business-friendly conditions that will lead to more and higher-paying jobs. Meanwhile, as the excellent Illinois Policy Institute reports, Illinois has the nations second-highest property taxes in the U.S., which comes on top of 2011s 67 percent increase in income-tax rates.
Quinn and Emanuel may win their fight to limit pension benefits, but none of that will matter if they dont create a viable economic environment for entrepreneurs and manufacturers.
Meanwhile, society is suffering. A large part of the citys budget deficit comes from higher-than-expected costs for public safety. Of course, with an elevated murder rate, one can see why Chicagos Finest are putting in lots of overtime. Already, however, warnings are coming that Emanuel may have to start cutting city services to bring down the budget deficit. That could send Chicago into a Detroit-style death spiral whereby the affluent flee the ever more dangerous city, taking their tax dollars and investments with them.
Breathless media reports about the all-time highs on the stock market condescendingly ignore that life is changing for the worse in our increasingly impoverished cities and towns. Even beyond failing local governments, important urban institutions are increasingly at risk.
Consider one small example in Chicago this week: The world-famous Field Museum announced more plans to cut its renowned research staff. A half-dozen tenured curators at the 120-year-old museum are leaving, this coming after a $5 million cut in its operating budget, a 20 percent drop in its research funds, and the consolidation of its anthropology, botany, geology, and zoology departments into one generic science and education division. It is a telling sign that an intellectual institution founded in the heyday of civic philanthropy in the countrys industrial center faces an unknown future.
Being $170 million in debt, thanks to underfunded expansion and modernization plans, the Field Museum is in grave danger of losing its status as one of the worlds premier research centers. That will ultimately affect its exhibitions and educational role in the city. The balance struck between shedding expensive capabilities and maintaining some core competencies will fundamentally change the nature of the museum. It may not disappear, but it will be a very different place in a decade, one that may provide far less value to students, youth, researchers, and the like. That sounds a lot like Chicago itself, come to think of it.
Chicago Having just been downgraded three notches by Moodys, Chicago is suddenly hearing the uncomfortable shifting of deck chairs, as people wonder if the nations third-largest city is about to slam into the same debt-and-pensions iceberg that sank the SS Detroit last month.
It was once inconceivable that the Motor City would become the setting for post-apocalyptic visions of burned out, abandoned neighborhoods, a corrupt and incarcerated city government, and all-but-nonexistent public services. Yet Detroits collapse took but a few decades. Now, the same disbelief and denial about Chicago is being heard, yet the evidence for the inescapable bill of mismanagement and bad policy is still making headlines just a few hundred miles north of the Windy City.
For all its manifest faults (such as being the worlds most dangerous global city), Chicago is not yet close to matching Detroits mismanagement, hollowed-out tax base, or loss of productive sectors. Neither is it the one-industry town that Detroit was, nor has it been hemorrhaging residents for decades. In fact, it is a far more vibrant place than when I was growing up here in the 1970s and 1980s, with lots more young people, gentrified neighborhoods (which, admittedly, reduces its gritty charm for an erstwhile resident), and money sloshing around.
Even those decades, though, were an improvement over the citys near-death experience in the 1960s when faced with the decline of traditional industries like steel. Then, Mayor Richard J. Daley, the Boss, saved the city, or at least argued that he did, by building vital transportation lifelines into the downtown, making real development of the suburbs and exurbs a viable proposition. Of course, to do so, he had to drive the Dan Ryan Expressway through vibrant ethnic neighborhoods like Little Italy. It was messy and highly controversial, but it was focused solely on making the city economically competitive again.
Today, Chicago faces another threat, shared by many Democratic municipal governments. The city may seem healthy on the surface, but its finances are shaky, to say the least. Chicago is staring at a massive, $340 million budget deficit, which, if pension plans arent radically changed, may open up to a $1 billion shortfall as soon as 2015. The Moodys downgrade was tied directly to the looming budget hole and lack of progress on restructuring its pension and health-care obligations. All too predictably, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has addressed this by focusing on increasing revenue and getting a bigger slice of state taxes.
The next decade will likely determine the citys future, and mordant urban death watchers should track every step Emanuel and City Hall makes from now on. Whatever you think about Emanuel, hes no deer-in-the-headlights politician, and his battle with the Chicago Teachers Union last year showed his willingness to take on heavyweight opponents, regardless of the outcome. He knows that Chicago will face the same fiscal pressures Detroit did, the same political battles to preserve pension plans, and the same pressure on businesses to relocate to friendlier confines in Indiana and Wisconsin. And theres no hope for help from the state capital: Illinoiss situation is far more dire, with unfunded pension liabilities topping $100 billion. Time will tell whether Emanuel adapts and forces Chicago to make the tough choices, or follows the Detroit model of slow, inexorable collapse.
One thing both Mayor Emanuel and Illinois governor Pat Quinn can be sure of: Their neighbors arent standing still. A friend who runs a Chicago food-industry business told me that one of his subcontractors looking for new land in Indiana personally was contacted by then-governor Mitch Daniels. Daniels apparently had standing orders that he be informed about any company considering relocating to Indiana, so he could reach out himself to sell them on the virtues of the state. Daniels and Wisconsins Scott Walker are just as sharp-eyed as Rahm Emanuel but happen to understand that the key to prosperity is creating business-friendly conditions that will lead to more and higher-paying jobs. Meanwhile, as the excellent Illinois Policy Institute reports, Illinois has the nations second-highest property taxes in the U.S., which comes on top of 2011s 67 percent increase in income-tax rates.
Quinn and Emanuel may win their fight to limit pension benefits, but none of that will matter if they dont create a viable economic environment for entrepreneurs and manufacturers.
Meanwhile, society is suffering. A large part of the citys budget deficit comes from higher-than-expected costs for public safety. Of course, with an elevated murder rate, one can see why Chicagos Finest are putting in lots of overtime. Already, however, warnings are coming that Emanuel may have to start cutting city services to bring down the budget deficit. That could send Chicago into a Detroit-style death spiral whereby the affluent flee the ever more dangerous city, taking their tax dollars and investments with them.
Breathless media reports about the all-time highs on the stock market condescendingly ignore that life is changing for the worse in our increasingly impoverished cities and towns. Even beyond failing local governments, important urban institutions are increasingly at risk.
Consider one small example in Chicago this week: The world-famous Field Museum announced more plans to cut its renowned research staff. A half-dozen tenured curators at the 120-year-old museum are leaving, this coming after a $5 million cut in its operating budget, a 20 percent drop in its research funds, and the consolidation of its anthropology, botany, geology, and zoology departments into one generic science and education division. It is a telling sign that an intellectual institution founded in the heyday of civic philanthropy in the countrys industrial center faces an unknown future.
Being $170 million in debt, thanks to underfunded expansion and modernization plans, the Field Museum is in grave danger of losing its status as one of the worlds premier research centers. That will ultimately affect its exhibitions and educational role in the city. The balance struck between shedding expensive capabilities and maintaining some core competencies will fundamentally change the nature of the museum. It may not disappear, but it will be a very different place in a decade, one that may provide far less value to students, youth, researchers, and the like. That sounds a lot like Chicago itself, come to think of it.
Aug 13, 2013 08:15:14 #
We need another Bush and another war. That would boost the economy. And by cutting out substitutes to the poor, that will weed out the weak! If they knew how to work hard they would be rich too!! Right.. And the old... well do not get me started on those leaches to our society. Let the old just die... especially the old men with beards and balding heads... the beard suggests they are libs.
Aug 13, 2013 08:41:53 #
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Aug 13, 2013 15:56:11 #
dpullum wrote:
We need another Bush and another war. That would boost the economy. And by cutting out substitutes to the poor, that will weed out the weak! If they knew how to work hard they would be rich too!! Right.. And the old... well do not get me started on those leaches to our society. Let the old just die... especially the old men with beards and balding heads... the beard suggests they are libs.
What does one say to a crazy person?
Why bother saying anything ?
Aug 13, 2013 17:35:30 #
Gitzo UH wrote:
What does one say to a crazy person?
Why bother saying anything ?
Why bother saying anything ?
But, that is a simple question, you tell them to vote republican...
I suggest we do what Bush the Younger did, and to reduce the burden on health care and SSecurity and you call me crazy.. and also If I were old or a student in NCarolina, I would have difficulty voting since they signed the voting ID laws today. Dangerous factions that feel they must be un-democratic (not the party) to win are hardly what our founding father wanted.
What disrespectful people... poor losers .... The American Talaban in many ways... sad.... :thumbdown: :XD:
Aug 13, 2013 18:12:42 #
dpullum wrote:
We need another Bush and another war. That would boost the economy. And by cutting out substitutes to the poor, that will weed out the weak! If they knew how to work hard they would be rich too!! Right.. And the old... well do not get me started on those leaches to our society. Let the old just die... especially the old men with beards and balding heads... the beard suggests they are libs.
Another Bush is total unnecessary; Obama is doing so extremely well on his own. The old can't die... union grave diggers won't ratify a new contract if Chicago goes "under!"
Aug 13, 2013 19:26:07 #
dpullum wrote:
We need another Bush and another war. That would boost the economy. And by cutting out substitutes to the poor, that will weed out the weak! If they knew how to work hard they would be rich too!! Right.. And the old... well do not get me started on those leaches to our society. Let the old just die... especially the old men with beards and balding heads... the beard suggests they are libs.
a billion dollars a day spent on entitlements, no fear of anyone missing a meal.
cut taxes, drill oil and gas, mine coal, economy will BOOM, works ever time it has ben tried.
Liberal tax and spend fails e very time it is tried
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Aug 14, 2013 00:59:46 #
Bruce with a Canon wrote:
a billion dollars a day spent on entitlements, no fear of anyone missing a meal.
cut taxes, drill oil and gas, mine coal, economy will BOOM, works ever time it has ben tried.
Liberal tax and spend fails e very time it is tried
cut taxes, drill oil and gas, mine coal, economy will BOOM, works ever time it has ben tried.
Liberal tax and spend fails e very time it is tried
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Aug 21, 2013 14:25:03 #
A recent article on the plight of Detroit:
Abandoned Dogs Roam Detroit in Packs as Humans Dwindle
As many as 50,000 stray dogs roam the streets and vacant homes of bankrupt Detroit, replacing residents, menacing humans who remain and overwhelming the citys ability to find them homes or peaceful deaths.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-21/abandoned-dogs-roam-detroit-in-packs-as-humans-dwindle.html
Yeah, but can they vote! :mrgreen:
Abandoned Dogs Roam Detroit in Packs as Humans Dwindle
As many as 50,000 stray dogs roam the streets and vacant homes of bankrupt Detroit, replacing residents, menacing humans who remain and overwhelming the citys ability to find them homes or peaceful deaths.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-21/abandoned-dogs-roam-detroit-in-packs-as-humans-dwindle.html
Yeah, but can they vote! :mrgreen:
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