Anthony Lewis: A Life Well Lived

The case of Gideon v. Wainwright is in part a testament to a single human being. Against all the odds of inertia and ignorance and fear of state power, Clarence Earl Gideon insisted that he had a right to a lawyer and kept on insisting all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States His triumph there shows that the poorest and least powerful of men-- a convict with note even a friend to visit him in prison -- can take his cause to the highest court in the land and bring about a fundamental change in the law. The quote above is taken from an on-line blog article from The Atlantic discussing the impact of the life, legal scholarship, and impact on the law and its institutions, Anthony Lewis had on our society and world at-large.

Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie Leduff.-- check the book out. "Go ahead and laugh at Detroit," Charlie Leduff sneers defiantly as the once--great metropolis teeters on the brink of collapse. "Because you are laughing at yourself".

Fiscal Emergency

Fiscal Emergency The City of East Cleveland, Ohio is headed back into fiscal emergency sometime this fall. Despite being released from state control after about 14 years, the city, is back in trouble. In eight months, the city has not taken reasonable steps to address a series of serious fiscal, administrative, and operation decisions. A absence of revenue, new programs, and experienced municipal expertise to drive innovation and capitialize on its resources and assets have lft the city vulnerable again to political opportunists.

" City of the Damned"?

Lawrence, MA: City of the Damned Crime  is soaring, schools  are  failing, government  has  lost  control, and  Lawrence, the  most godforsaken  place  in  Massachusetts, has  never  been  in  worse  shape. And here’s the  really  bad news: it’s  up  to  controversial mayor  William  Lantigua  to  turn  it  all  around. I first saw the title to this Boston Magazine article a few weeks ago, and thought, never, in all my years of working and living in urban cities have I come across both a title and a description of an American City so brutal, so harsh, and so desscriptively depressing.

Financially Depressed Rural and Urban Cities

There are a growing number of urban amd rural cities whose financial condition grows weaker by the day. You know, cities like East Cleveland, OH, or Lawrence, MA, whose troubles were profiled in the New York Times yesterday. The Boston Magazine labeled, Lawerence, MA, the " most God-forsaken place in MA". a horrible, and truly replusive way to describe a struggling, municipal city. Due to significant federal and state cutbacks in allocations in city governments, the decline in tax revenues, among other things, have placed numerous cities on fiscal emergency and fiscal watch status. Stay tuned on more critical insight.

Revenue Sharing Among Municipalities How is revenue shared among municipalities when financially challenged cities may not have any revenue to share?

Economic Development for the People? Often, it is said in the economic development realm, that the result of economic development planning and programs, is to bring jobs,and enhance the quality of life for residents who are most impacted by such strategies and designs, but has that been really true? Maybe downtown, but what about uptown? Do low-income residents benefit or is it just what they spend leaves the community and does not return? Just thinking.