Vallejo California is not where I was born but is where I have lived since 1995. It is here that I chose to buy a house and to raise my family. It is now my home town. Vallejo in a way encapsulates the USA. Here is a short history. From the mid 1800s Vallejo had a large naval presence and repaired and constructed ships and even nuclear submarines. Downtown Vallejo was prosperous and business thrived . In the late 1960s the city policemen and firemen staged a simultaneous strike whose effects are still being felt today.In the 1980's the city was offered a large shopping mall which was fought by the local businessmen. In a scene repeated around the country the mall was built in another city and downtown died a slow death.
In the early 90's Congress due to environmental concerns did not approve funds for dredging the bay in front of the shipyard. Soon silt filled the harbor and the shipyard no longer had the ability to service the large subs of the US Navy. The shipyard closed as part of the peace dividend of the end of the cold war. The shipyard employed thousands and provided millions in tax revenues. Latter on the city became home to a Six Flags amusement park and several hundred $10.00 an hour jobs. The town remains to an extent an old blue collar town and votes 85% Democrat. The old shipyard on Mare island sits with a group of mainly unoccupied decrepit buildings.
Crime increased and street prostitution flourished. The state for a short while provided 35 highway patrol officers to restore the peace. Any development in the city is stifled by an incompetent planning and permitting process.
The tax roles decreased but city spending did not. Vallejo became a bedroom community with no good local jobs . The public employee unions signed lucrative contracts with the city and expenditures ballooned as the city was burdened with over 100 employees making in excess of 100K per year. The local school district was so ineptly run that after the head of the district was arrested for embezzlement the state of CA took it over for a while. Crime and drugs are still a problem and the police forces have been reduced. The city was offered the development of a large liquefied natural gas processing facility and latter shopping center associated with a super Wall Mart at the site of an old Kmart. The local liberals howled and the natural gas facility was never built and the Wall Mart shopping center moved itself five miles up the road to the next community. The existing Wall Mart in Vallejo sits closed and the old Kmart property still sets on a vacant lot next to a stinky swamp.
Over time the local politicians did nothing and pushed off today's problems until tomorrow . Tomorrow finally came and several months ago despite legal challenges from the public employee unions the city of Vallejo was declared bankrupt.
Now this is where it gets interesting. About two years ago the city announced there would be no more money to trim trees on city streets and residents would be expected to pick up the tab. This became a hot issue in the local letters to the editor forum. A few weeks latter I saw barricades on my street about tree trimming. This tree trimming was paid for by a grant from the US Forestry Service. There are some nice trees on our city streets but certainly no forest. This in many ways was a mini stimulus package. The issue of tree trimming became mute as did the local citizens complaints. The city streets had deteriorated as the city can no longer afford to do proper maintaining. Recently due to Federal stimulus money a great deal of asphalt has been recently laid.
The trees are trimmed the streets are paved hey everything is great ... But wait nothing has really changed . We have no new long term good paying jobs or even prospects for them; tax revenues are still way down ;environmentalists fight any development and the city bureaucrats slow what few projects are approved;over 50% of our kids are dropping out of school ;and the residents continue to vote the same way they always have. There is a quotation that says those who do not learn by history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them. Have you learned anything today?
I hope this has scared frightened you , and sent shivers up your spine for after all it is Halloween.
A Voice Crying In the Wilderness
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