From Bankruptcy to Reinvention – The City of Stockton, California

Stockton, California is the poster child of an American town gone wrong. Twice-named by Forbes Magazine as the most miserable city in the U.S, it filed Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2013. This, after unmanageable public employee pension debt, out of control salary obligations, enormous budget deficits, long term high unemployed, plunging home prices, a non-diversified agricultural based economy and rampant crime, as well as a long history of crony politics and corrupt leaders.

Ironically, the bankruptcy of the city has provided city leaders with an opportunity for civic reinvention.

Our main character in the radio documentary is 25-year-old Stockton City Councilperson and Mayor-Elect Michael Tubbs. Tubbs grew up in the worse part of town with a single teenage mother and an incarcerated father. Tubbs cousin was murdered and that drove him back to his home town of Stockton to try and make a difference. Tubbs became the youngest City Councilperson in the nation. And on November 8, 2016, Tubbs became the first black mayor, having received over 70% of the vote, and is believed to be the youngest mayor in the City of Stocktons 166-year history.

The radio documentary weaves together the voices of Stocktonians who are reinventing their city:

Mayor / City Councilman Tubbs
Tubb’s Mother Richole Dixon
Tubb’s Grandmother Barbara Nicholson
Tubb’s aunt Tasha Dixon
Tama Brisbane, Executive Director of With Our Words, a nationally recognized poetry and spoken-word group

Daisy Armstrong, a past All-City Slam Grand Champion, a 2012 #1 Youth Poet in the Nation, who shares her new election piece titled PresPiece

Credits:

George Koster, Voices of the Community, KCSF, San Francisco, CA www.mixcloud.com/geokoster/
Nick McClendon, AJunk A Punk radio at KCSF in San Francisco, CA  mixcloud.com/kcsfradio/first-a-junk-a-punk-2016/

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