I guess there will be a lot of cops suddenly getting a proper regimen of excercise as bike and foot patrols become universal. Of course that gets a little complicated for the Fire Department. Bucket Brigades wouldn't look too good on the evening news as a house burns to the ground. Some days this whole situation is just too surreal.

This is not a peak oil issue.

It is a budget and economy issue.

The small town I live in, is starting to turn off portions of the street-lamps, because they can't afford the electric bill (not joking). They're shutting off lamps because they can't scrounge an annual of around $6000 to keep them on. If I ever see a new statue, or fountain, or town funded football field, I'm going to burn it all down.

This is a very common theme in municipalities where funds from taxes pour into "renovations" like a fresh coat of paint for an entire state building, or vain lawn ornaments. Yet they never think to stop this, instead they shut off street lights so people get vehicular slaughtered on some dark corner, or they revoke basic fuel funds for emergency vehicles. These people live in a world of their own.

Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas.

I've been to Harrassburgh, there's nothing there but government buildings and a few dingy businesses. The city exists to serve as the seat of Pa's government and any REAL businesses make sure to operate outside city limits where tax levels are probably cheaper.

Their problem is that have no industry or businesses creating wealth inside the city for them to tax to pay the bills. If everybody who works in the city receives their paycheck from some level of government, it becomes a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul and the money is bound to run out sometime.

Harrassburgh is an example of what this country will become if we continue to rely on fat government jobs to create the wealth for the people.

Harrisburg is seriously on the verge of bankruptcy, so as a PA resident this comes as no surprise to me. It also comes as no surprise the mayor has resorted to praying to fix the problem, as she also has to come up with some kind of city saving budget/debt reduction. Her "idea" mimics the proposal the state of PA came up with, that the local council has shot down. There are also some new commute tax she would like to implement, but it is getting heavy heat from state senate

here in stockton, california they have cut the police force over 25%, and now they are shutting down courts that deal in civil litigation throughout the county. DMV (dept. of motor vehicles) has 3 fridays off a month, city workers that work in maintainence, water, parks, road repair, and county offices, have had their budgets cut by up to 50%

robberies are occuring in broad daylight in shopping malls and parking lots that are in upscale neighborhoods, kids riding their bicycles are being beat up and robbed of their bikes and cell phones. women that go to large grocery stores are being beaten up and robbed of their purses, and some are getting their cars stolen too. ice cream shoppes, dry cleaners, restaurants and fast food places are getting robbed in broad daylight. homes in even the upscale neighborhoods are being shot at by passing vechicles...and this is happening all over from what i have been reading.