Stockton Declares Bankruptcy; Burbed Declares Open Thread
Stockton, Calif. files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy
Move stops a barrage of lawsuits and allows the city breathing room, city manager says
SAN FRANCISCO — Stockton, California, became the largest city to file for bankruptcy in U.S. history on Thursday, after years of fiscal mismanagement and a housing market crash left it unable to pay its workers, pensioners and bondholders.
The filing by the city of 300,000 people followed three months of confidential talks with its creditors aimed at averting bankruptcy.
“We are now a Chapter 9 debtor,” Marc Levinson, the lawyer who filed the city’s voluntary petition in the Eastern District of California, in Sacramento (Case 12-32118) told Reuters.
Pleadings in support of Stockton’s eligibility for Chapter 9 bankruptcy will be filed on Friday, Levinson said.
Stockton, home of the second highest foreclosure rate in the nation. And the winner of Forbes’ “America’s Most Miserable City” not once but twice! We offer this as a cautionary tale to any of you considering buying a house that is NOT in the Real Bay Area. When your definition of “Real” is so flexible that it includes the 209 area code, you have officially drunk the Realtard Kool-Aid.
Stockton now has to open their books to a Federal Judge, and we are going to open this thread to anything you wish to discuss. Did you visit any Open Houses in Stockton this weekend?
June 30th, 2012 at 7:50 am
Great little homage to Stockton complete with tour of houses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlhxMvhUOE8&feature=related
June 30th, 2012 at 9:36 am
I’ve never been there but I did watch The Big Valley.
June 30th, 2012 at 10:06 am
On the political blogs I read, the trolls keep bringing up Stockton as ‘A liberal hotbed of failure!’
To which I can only look at them stupidly. Stockton is in like the least liberal county of the state, flopping from R to D quite frequently, and none of the problems they cite have anything to do with liberals (like the pensions based on ‘last year employed’) and everything to do with cities not having the expertise or oversight to deal with gaming the system.
June 30th, 2012 at 10:39 am
Wait until LA goes bankrupt. Things will really start getting interesting then.
July 1st, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Stockton, California new paradigm for struggling cities.
July 1st, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Now’s the time to buy there. House prices can only go up!