[Serial_Worrier]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... pumps.html

"They're ready to go to work and they go to fill their cars up. And they can't do that," said Det. Mark McLaughlin of the Stockton Police Officers Assn.

"The PD and fire dept. are both out of gas and the gas companies will not service us because we r in BK" one person texted Fox 40 News. "... the gas vendor is owed money and will no longer service to us."

Holy crap, TEOTWAWKI has arrived!

[Ferretlover]

Just one of many examples regarding the future: all things will not be equal. In fact, whoever is alive in that future time frame will know, from a young age, that you can not depend on anyone.
IOW, no, the government will NOT save us. Unless it is to round people up for labor or the military..

[Lore]

Maybe the TEAS can shrink local government a little more and we can bring back neighborhood malitia? Think of how much money that would save.

[dsula]

What about volunteering? Volunteer fire dept, volunteer neighbour hood watch (aka police), volunteer rescue. It's good. Connects people back with the community.

[Lore]

What about volunteering? Volunteer fire dept, volunteer neighbour hood watch (aka police), volunteer rescue. It's good. Connects people back with the community.

How good can it be if it's volunteer? What you create is a band of loosely trained amateurs prone to poor practices and corruption.

[Pops]

I grew up just down the road, amateurs wouldn't make it in Stockton.

Stockton was the focal point of the Drive til you qualify, Bay Area leapfrog commuting boom of the '90-05 period of 95¢ unleaded. The trend started in the East Bay and before it was over had reached down the central valley 120 miles. A client of my agency was a developer who subdivided and built many homes sold to repeat buyers who bought and held for 2 years, sold for a big profit and moved 40 miles farther from the Bay and bought a little bigger house, held for 2 years... Some did that 3 or 4 times until they were 100 miles from work, then the bottom fell out and every bit of that "equity" went poof along with demand for homes 100 miles from work that would pay the mortgage.

The economy went from kind of a big small town to boomtown all along hwy 99 with an incredible percentage of the economy concentrated on construction, remodeling, real estate clip joints and their co-conspirators, furniture, cars... it was really crazy. Another client owned a unfinished furniture store, if you can believe it, he wound up a rich man with a house on pebble beach.

When I started taking PO seriously it didn't take long to figure out what was going to happen to the real estate and then to the economy in general and of course eventually the government based on property taxes once the price of unleaaded started up.

Just another boomtown.

[dinopello]

What about volunteering? Volunteer fire dept, volunteer neighbour hood watch (aka police), volunteer rescue. It's good. Connects people back with the community.

Totally. I've gone on volunteer hunts for invasive plant species. It's good fun. Instead of groups of us hacking at Virginia Creeper and English Ivy, we could just as easily take our machetes to the hoards of zombies.

[Lore]

What about volunteering? Volunteer fire dept, volunteer neighbour hood watch (aka police), volunteer rescue. It's good. Connects people back with the community.

Totally. I've gone on volunteer hunts for invasive plant species. It's good fun. Instead of groups of us hacking at Virginia Creeper and English Ivy, we could just as easily take our machetes to the hoards of zombies.

There you go, first it's the zombies, then the aliens, then the Irish. After all what good is a neighborhood watch if you can't keep all the wrong types out.

[dsula]

What about volunteering? Volunteer fire dept, volunteer neighbour hood watch (aka police), volunteer rescue. It's good. Connects people back with the community.

How good can it be if it's volunteer? What you create is a band of loosely trained amateurs prone to poor practices and corruption.

Thanks. I volunteer as fire fighter. No pay. I'm going thru a lot of trainining. Saved several lifes in car accidents. Corruption? There's no career to be made, so what should corrupt me? Or you think we have no ethics because we volunteer? Even if it's not as good as paid. Might it be better than nothing?
Are you a city slick? Arrogant, too? Maybe you should try volunteering, it's good for one's soul, give purpose in life, it's better than wasting away waiting for the effects of po to arrive.

[Lore]

What about volunteering? Volunteer fire dept, volunteer neighbour hood watch (aka police), volunteer rescue. It's good. Connects people back with the community.

How good can it be if it's volunteer? What you create is a band of loosely trained amateurs prone to poor practices and corruption.

Thanks. I volunteer as fire fighter. No pay. I'm going thru a lot of trainining. Saved several lifes in car accidents. Corruption? There's no career to be made, so what should corrupt me? Or you think we have no ethics because we volunteer? Even if it's not as good as paid. Might it be better than nothing?
Are you a city slick? Arrogant, too? Maybe you should try volunteering, it's good for one's soul, give purpose in life, it's better than wasting away waiting for the effects of po to arrive.

I volunteer 2-3 times a week at my local hospital, but that doesn't make me a doctor.

There was an historical fact depicted in the movie, "Gangs of New York". When
you bought fire insurance then you were serviced by voluntary brigades that the insurance company liked. The volunteer fire gangs would often compete brutally for the homes to be saved sometimes at the expence of the home.

http://jason-cochran.com/blog/when-gang ... ig-pharma/

[Fishman]

Well peak oil might be involved. With the quick bankruptcy of three California cities, it looks more like Blue state disease. High entitlements, too high taxes driving business out, city goes broke. Attack away. Sentiment doesn't pay the bills.

[glaucus]

Fishman wrote:

...it looks more like Blue state disease.

But it's actually diagnosable as Red state disease. I'll let Ezra Klein of all people set you straight, Fish:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/the_red_state_ripoff.html

[ritter]

I grew up just down the road, amateurs wouldn't make it in Stockton.

I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley also. Horrid place during the best of times. I drive through on the annual pilgrimage to see the parents. It is decaying as we speak.

Volunteer fire is all over Northern California and generally does an amazing job. The idea of volunteer police is a bit unsettling. Agree with Pops that they wouldn't stand a chance in the valley.

[Newfie]

I was in Stockton a couple of years ago doing a short site survey at the train station. Looked kinda seamy to me. Not a lot of charm. But there were some big new suburbs out in old rice fields.

Not an attractive place.

Red state blue ..... Looked kinda purple to me.

[Pops]

Exactly Newfie. Back in the day the port of Stockton was a big deal and there were some great old turn of the century neighborhoods which of course now are getto - have been since I was a kid in fact. When the city got that all money from developer they spent a butt-load (sorry for the economic terms) on building a convention center and touristy stuff at the old port, sunk a bundle in the typical Chamber of Commerce boondogle trying to attract business. Of course it did exactly what the "chamber" wanted and transferred a lot of that money to the boosters themselves - no wonder "boosting" is slang for stealing. I'm sure there are pension problems too like everywhere but I don't know about that.

[autonomous]

Stockton CA is ranked as the most miserable city in the US in a survey by Forbes:

Located in the state's Central Valley, Stockton has been ravaged by the housing bust. Median home prices in the city tripled between 1998 and 2005, when they peaked at $431,000. Now they are back to where they started, as the median price is forecast to be $142,000 this year, according to research firm Economy.com, a decline of 67% from 2005. Foreclosure filings affected 6.9% of homes last year in the Stockton area, the seventh-highest rate in the nation, according to online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac.

Stockton's violent crime and unemployment rates also rank among the 10 worst in the country.

http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/02/stockton-miami-cleveland-business-washington-miserable-cities.html

The housing crash continues unabated in Stockton:

In the first half of this year, the city had the highest foreclosure rate of any in the country, according to RealtyTrac, a company that collects foreclosure data. While it has come down a few points in recent months, for the last few years the unemployment rate hovered around 17 percent, nearly double the national average.

The hardships here are hardly limited to those already at the margins of poverty. The women’s shelter has seen more middle- and upper-middle-class battered women. “These days almost every person I see has been through foreclosure or their mortgages are seriously underwater,” said Timothy Miller, a psychologist who has served wealthier Stocktonians for 30 years. “People feel absolutely crushed by that pressure.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/us/years-of-unraveling-then-bankruptcy-for-a-city.html?pagewanted=all

[Outcast_Searcher]

What about volunteering? Volunteer fire dept, volunteer neighbour hood watch (aka police), volunteer rescue. It's good. Connects people back with the community.

How good can it be if it's volunteer? What you create is a band of loosely trained amateurs prone to poor practices and corruption.

Spoken like a true liberal. The ones who espouse large governmental agencies, no matter what the cost -- social or monetary. (Who cares about money? Just complain about, and tax the rich).

I find it highly amusing that corruption is brought up as a straw man for volunteerism, even as Obama buys off all his buddies in the unions. Hilarious.

[Outcast_Searcher]

Fishman wrote:

...it looks more like Blue state disease.

But it's actually diagnosable as Red state disease. I'll let Ezra Klein of all people set you straight, Fish:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/04/the_red_state_ripoff.html

Yeah. Ezra Klein. The far left apologist for all things Obama redistributive while whining about "the rich" who actually pay most of the taxes already. Yeah, THAT will bring some objectivity and wisdom to the discussion!

[Serial_Worrier]

I am so enjoying the ongoing demise of blue cities. Obviously Detroit is the king of Democrat wastelands!