Is New York the Next Detroit?

Mayor Mike Bloomberg is warning that whoever succeeds him will need to deal with New York City's public pensions, lest the city turn into ... yes, you guessed it, Detroit. Detroit is clearly going to be the universal warning to feckless politicians, the metaphorical destination for all mismanaged cities, playing much the same role in the popular consciousness (and the newspaper cliché book) that Beirut played in the 1990s.

"Avoiding the hard choices is how Detroit went bankrupt," he said in a speech Tuesday, according to the New York Post. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, thinks that his successor as mayor will have a unique window to act, because all the major public sector unions are currently operating without a contract.