Quote Originally Posted by corktownyuppie View Post
I can't speak for Mikey, and in 1994 I was only 16. But I remember as early as 2003 having conversations with a handful of friends who were in finance talking about the stark likelihood of a bankruptcy.

But it wasn't just because of the financial conditions at that time. In fact, the financial conditions in 2004 weren't great but they were probably sustainable, as long the city residents were willing to put up with piss-poor service levels in every area of municipal operations.

No, the nail in the coffin was the population loss trends over 2 decades, followed by a subsequent acceleration between 2000 and 2003.

So, I side with Mikey in that a bankruptcy filing was not surprising. What was surprising is that it took this long.
I agree. I don't think most city workers expected to lose their pensions, though.