Your analysis pretty much nails it. The Mayor of Pittsburgh, a city of 330,000, is basically chosen by 20,000 public employee union members voting in the Democrat Primary (GOP does not even bother to field a candidate 9 times out of 10). Hence his loyalty is to a small cadre of union members and not to the population as a whole.
The one counterexample I can think of is Detroit, where bankruptcy got them off the hook for a lot of these pension costs. This freed-up money for them to do things like turn the streetlights back on and demolish abandoned buildings. So much of Detroit has gone back to green space that perhaps one day conservative homesteaders could establish themselves there.
That's a good point. Bankruptcy may be the only thing that can break the toxic political stranglehold the Democrat politician/municipal worker cabal has on so many cities. Detroit didn't elect a Republican, but they did elect an outsider white mayor from the county that wasn't part of the city worker cabal.
That's a good point. Bankruptcy may be the only thing that can break the toxic political stranglehold the Democrat politician/municipal worker cabal has on so many cities. Detroit didn't elect a Republican, but they did elect an outsider white mayor from the county that wasn't part of the city worker cabal.
> The one counterexample I can think of is Detroit, where bankruptcy got them off the hook for a lot of these pension costs.
The generic term used by Chicago residents I know is “The Reset”. It must happen sooner or later because the math just does not work. The can has already been kicked down the road many, many times. When the next recession hits, somebody is not going to get paid.