Where to start?
How about the continuing foreclosure binge across the country. This Bloomberg overview really drives home the simple point we’ve been trying to make: No jobs means no income means no housing.
Oh, and BTW unemployment is up nationally with no reason to think it will improve anytime soon. And while we’re at it, how about noting the way that states and localities have more or less become dependent on the federal government for basic operational funding.
Locally CMS needs federal cash just to hire teachers. CATS no longer has any meaningful long-term capital plan and has devolved to jumping at federal dollars in a haphazard fashion. Mecklenburg County is so broke that we are rushing head-long, Uptown crowd-style, towards a shotgun government consolidation with the not-yet-broke city of Charlotte for purposes of propping up the parks and libraries. The key characteristic of parks and libraries being that they are supposed to be overwhelmingly funded with local dollars — local dollars that have instead be directed towards staff-beloved line items like $42m. greenways and $37m. streetcars.
