Vallejo, Calif., Goes Bankrupt

http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-04-2011/vallejo-ca-goes-bankrupt.html

by: Michael Zielenziger | from: AARP Bulletin | April 30, 2011

Vallejo, Calif. At 11 a.m. on a Friday morning, you'd be hard-pressed to file a police report or meet with a detective in this sprawling blue-collar city of 120,000. The city's sole police station is closed to the public three days a week, and its three substations are permanently shuttered.

Drug sales are on the rise and so is prostitution on Sonoma Boulevard, one of the town's main drags. Burglaries are commonplace. Amid a rising tide of unemployment — 12 percent — and a surge of foreclosed homes, squatters have taken hold even in upscale areas.

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In 2008, it achieved a new kind of distinction — the state's largest city to file for bankruptcy.

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But if Vallejo serves as any lesson, it's that entering a Chapter 9 bankruptcy hardly offers a panacea.

On a recent midday, the busiest retailers in the faded downtown were establishments selling medical marijuana. Dozens of storefronts stood vacant.

"When you don't see streets paved, when you see crime soaring and squatters taking over foreclosed houses, something is wrong with this picture," says Bob Sampayan, 58, a retired Vallejo police officer. He now works with the Fight Back Partnership, a community group that organizes crime watch campaigns. Its operating hours, too, have been cut.

"Vallejo has always been the affordable American dream, but now that's all in jeopardy," Sampayan says. "We can't support the local theater group, the senior citizens center or the community arts group. All the things that help make up a community are not being supported."

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"It's harder for seniors to get the resources they need," says Conrad, 72. As gas and food prices rise, homelessness among seniors is headed up, she says. And with the police cutbacks, "people are afraid to go out at night."

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