Opinion piece on Detroit bankruptcy and political commentary on Hillary Clinton and Anthony Weiner

30 The Virgin Islands Daily News \ = vi The Virgin Islands Daily News Founded Aug. 1, 1930, by J. Antonio jarvis and Ariel Melchior Sr. Published by Daily News Publishing Co. & EDITORIAL BOARD Jason Robbins, Publisher GerryYandel Executive Editor J.Lowe Davis, Editor At Large Ken E. Ryan, Production Director Onneka Challenger, Circulation Director Kevin Downey, Advertising Director Hedy Szabo, Business Manager What a city owes its residents Though it is the biggest city in - U.S. history to file for bankruptcy, Detroit is only one of 26 urban municipalities that have gone into bankruptcy or state receivership for fiscal insolvency since 2008. Detroit should draw attention and debate to a challenging issue underlying all these public insolvencies: What level of public services will we pro- tect and guarantee for U.S. cities? The Bankruptcy Court will have to face that question. It will have to determine whether Detroit can cut into current services any more than it already has. Unless the state or federal government steps in with funds for operating costs, the bank- ruptcy will function as a zero-sum game, with residents fighting credi- tors for a share of city revenue. Creditors have contracts to monetize what they are seeking, but how should the court determine the pub- lic spending that residents need today ‘and tomorrow? Politicians and judges who man- age local fiscal crises speak of maintaining basic services and ensuring residents’ minimal health and safety, but these concepts are short on specifics. While our laws provide an entitlement to a public education, and we have long strug- gled to interpret what constitutes a legally adequate education, there is little to nothing that would tell us what other services the local public sector must provide. ’ As a matter of law, there is no such thing as a crime rate that is too high or an ambulance response time that is too long. Should there be? For nov, it is left to politics and moral judgment to determine wheth- er it is acceptable that less than one in three streetlights are operational in Detroit or that the city has 80,000 abandoned and blighted structures that it cannot afford to demolish. In Detroit, as in many other struggling cities, dramatic police layoffs mean that the average wait time after a 911 call for a police officer is 58 minutes, and a resident can rarely summon an officer at all if the . reported crime is not in progress and violent. As for other public functions that a high-poverty city (especially one with severe winters) might hope to have — such as reliable bus ser- vice, playground equipment, indoor basketball courts, after-school pro- grams, active libraries and commu- nity centers for the elderly — these Michelle Wilde Anderson services are decades into deep cuts « and widespread closures. Indeed, having curtailed everything beyond emergency services, it would be tempting to refer to a government like Detroit’s as a night-watchman state — the libertarian ideal of a government focused only on public safety. That is, we’d be tempted ‘to use such a term for Detroit, and cities like it, were it notsuch a cruel irony: Detroit had more than 15,200 vio- lent crimes and. 500 acts of arson in 2012. The night watchmen are understaffed and underpaid. According to a 2012 study by econ- omists Aaron Chalfin and Justin McCrary, public spending in Detroit on each police officer (including all wages, benefits and retirement costs) is less than two-thirds what it is just 45 miles away in the prosperous university town of Ann Arbor. As a political and moral matter, as much as a legal one, Detroit repre- sents an opportunity to take a stand. for urban habitability. What belongs on our list of minimum standards for a city? Detroit invites us to have a public conversation about what ser- vices and public spaces we expect from city governments for human dignity and for humans to flourish. We have a chance to say that no one should have to wait hopelessly for an ambulance, that a violent crime in a neighbothood every few hours is intolerable. ; Paying for such commitments should not just be the burden of creditors. Many of the city’s credi- tors are rank-and-file public employ- ees and retirees who have counted on a public pension and are not eli- gible for Social Security. Detroit’s bankruptcy plan could send them into poverty in their old age. Basic services and safety in our cities are the responsibility of states, the federal government, the private sector and voters. It is all of them — all of us — who have a role to play in the stabilization that Detroit:is seeking through bank- ruptcy. All of us have a responsibil- ity to help them give basic health and safety real meaning, and to make this bankruptcy a safety net, not a punishment. — Michelle Wilde Anderson is.an assistant professor of law at UC Berkeley School of Law. OPINIONS Monday, July 29, 2013 Mrs. Anthony Weiner is Hillary 2.1 I sat there watching the television screen as Anthony Weiner squirmed before the microphones for the second time in two years, and realized that this was a deja vu moment. At first I thought it was because the former congressman and aspiring mayoral candidate was, once again, apologizing for tweeting and cheating without really meeting. And then I took one look at Weiner’s wife and realized that this had absolutely noth- ing to do with the fellow. Huma Abedin might have creamy olive skin, beautiful brown eyes and long dark hair, but you don’t need to put her in a pantsuit and slap a head- band on her tresses to realize that we ate now in the presence of Hillary Clinton, version 2.1. We all remembet the pre-Senate, pre-State Department Hillary who inspired both awe and revulsion for her assault on the East Wing. Never before had we been treated to a first lady who so. blatantly and brazenly sought equal status with the guy we’d actually elected. Eleanor Roosevelt, her idol, had exercised a considerable amount of weight behind the scenes. But it wasn’t until Franklin died that she really came into her own. Not so Mrs. Clinton, or, rather, Mrs. Rodham Clinton. It was painfully obvious to anyone paying attention that Bill’s wife was hell bent on giving us that two-for-one bargain that the couple had promised during the campaign. Say what you will about her, Hillary was a force to be reckoned with. And praised. And loathed. Even her most strident ene- mies didn’t underestimate her survival instincts. Health care? (If at first you don’t succeed ... .) Whitewater? (Did any-_ THE CAUSE OF DEATH Christine M. Flowers one say rafting?) Vince Foster? (Personal tragedy, nothing more.) And then came the stream of women: Gennifer (no relation,) Paula (a genu- ine victim) and, of course, “A little bit of Monica.” Anyone who thought that Hillary was going to let the Bimbo Bombs destroy her carefully constructed plans clearly didn’t know just who they were dealing with. Our first lady stood by her philandering man and rode the crest of a sympathetic wave into the Senate. Mrs. Wynette Goes To Washington, so to speak. ~ And who did she take with her on that long and fruitful journey, ever upward, ever more successfully? Why none other than Mrs. Weiner, the love- ly, inscrutable Huma. Hillary once said that she had one daughter, but that.ifshe had another it would be her béloved personal assistant. HumaAbedin has been by her men- tor’s side for almost two decades, and it is yeasonable to think thatshe spent a large part of that time taking notes about how to thrive and survive in the political jungle. Therefore, it is not surprising that she (1) chose tomany an animal indigenous to that environ- ment i.e., a cheetah, and (2) figured out how to make sure that she could withstand whatever wounds he man- aged to inflict on their shared ambitions. Anthony’s wife has taken a page from her pseudo-mama’s dog-eared book and has perfected the art of dam- age control. First, you assume a posture of dig- nified disappointment, wherein your whole body seems to just “‘sigh” under WAS DEBT, POLITICS AND UNFUNDED > PENSION 5S. ff Pty the weight of the offensive conduct. It’s a cross between an “I can’t believe he did this to me” and a “boys will be boys, God bless their randy little hearts.” Then, you gaze sadly at the perpetrator as he stares into the cam- era and apologizes for the second, third or 13th time for being a pervert with his privates. Then, you allow him to draw a line in the sand where he says he might be sorry but he won’t go gentleinto that good campaign and is continuing to seek the mayoral prize. : And then you spring into action. You straighten your shoulders, raise youn pointed chin, allow a few wisps of that luxuriant velvet hair to fall across your delicately drawn cheek and assume a stoic pose. You love- him, you say. You believe in him, you say. You forgive him, you say. You idiot, we say. But you do not hear us speaking, because you do not care what the pea- nut gallery thinks. This is not about the crowds massed to watch this pub- lic shaming. This is not even about your husband who, truth be told, is probably sleeping in the garage these days, which is why he has both the time and the inclination to tweet. This is about something far more important to you, perhaps almost as important as the future of the child you and the Tweeter have in common. This is about your political survival. Huma Abedin learned at the feet of a master, someone who might very well parlay her experience as scored wife into an office in the West Wing. Huma is a bit more modest, of course. Seems she’d be content to redecorate Gracie Mansion. — Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer and columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021726