Life in "Progress" City - El Centro CA

In all fairness to El Centro, I'm not sure that the city is run by "progressive" democrats. I did a google search and could find the political party of only one councilman (who was a democrat).

So after you read this, let's play the game of "Name the Party?"...........

El Centro, Calif., is the largest U.S. city to be situated entirely below sea level. At the moment, it's also home to the country's most underwater job market. Nationally, the unemployment rate sits at 9.5 percent. But in the El Centro metropolitan area, it's a staggering 27.6 percent. And as workers across the country struggle to navigate the anemic labor market, El Centro has emerged as a case study about just how fragile the economic recovery can be.

In recent years, California's multi-billion dollar budget shortfall and its painful cutbacks have gotten plenty of attention. But even by California standards, El Centro's situation is unusually dire. Since the recession hit, the area's housing market has fallen apart, its wages have remained dismal, and its unemployment rate has soared.

Amit Singh, director of operations at the worker-placement firm Labor Finders International, saw firsthand how the recession savaged El Centro's economy. Labor Finders used to have an office in El Centro, but the company was forced to close down that branch earlier this year. "Unfortunately, the economy there was hit hard, and it just wasn't supporting our business. We tried there for many years to find better avenues, but the opportunities were just not there," says Singh. "We just didn't find that there were any future growth opportunities. Actually, the picture looks pretty grim."

Located within Imperial County and just miles away from the Mexican border, the El Centro metropolitan area is home to upwards of 150,000 people. Among them is Cheryl Viegas-Walker, a banker who also serves as the city's mayor. In El Centro, the position of mayor rotates between the members of the city council. Viegas-Walker has sat on the council for 13 years and is currently serving her third term as mayor.

snip.......

In El Centro, unemployment has always been a concern. Notably, in the past decade, the area's jobless rate has never dropped below 12 percent. But when the economy soured during the recession, El Centro's unemployment rate surged, rising from 15.3 percent at the beginning of 2007 to 31.3 percent by the middle of last year as the housing market crumbled.

27 percent unemployment?

Sounds pretty "progressive" to me.

More....

Update. I just checked on Wiki and found this........

El Centro is operated by a council/manager form of government. The members of the City Council also sit as the Community Development Commission (Commission) and Redevelopment Agency (Agency) governing boards. The City Manager is empowered as the Executive Director of the Commission and Agency.^[9]

In the state legislature El Centro is located in the 40th Senate District, represented by Democrat Denise Moreno Ducheny, and in the 80th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Manuel Perez. Federally, El Centro is located in California's 51st congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of D +7^[20] and is represented by Democrat Bob Filner.

Funny how you can't find a republican with a bloodhound there.

For discussion purposes, let me throw out the question.

Without exception, we know that every shithole in the country has been run by democrats for generations. Does this represent a symptom or a cause of their problems?

More....