San Berdoo Goes Bust

San Bernardino seeks bankruptcy protection

San Bernardino on Tuesday became the third California city in less than a month to seek bankruptcy protection, with officials saying the financial situation had become so dire that it could not cover payroll through the summer.

The unexpected vote came at the suggestion of the interim city manager, who said the city faces a $46-million deficit and depleted coffers.

"We have an immediate cash flow issue," Andrea Miller told the mayor and seven-member City Council.

Mayor Patrick Morris called the decision, passed on a 4-2 vote, a "stain" on the city. But he said the only other option was "draconian cuts" to all city services, including the police and fire departments.

"It means the bills will be paid," said a dejected Morris, who is not a voting member of the council.

The city's fiscal crisis has been years in the making, compounded by the nation's crushing recession and exacerbated by escalating pension costs, lucrative labor agreements, Sacramento's raid on redevelopment funds and a city reserve that is tapped out, officials said.

Another city done in by rotten accounting and a pension problem.

San Bernardino, known as San Berdoo, or even just Berdoo, to locals, was a step on the route to my parent's cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains.  As a kid, and even into young adulthood, before they eventually sold the house, I must have driven through hundreds of times.  I don't remember much, except heat and gas stations, which pretty much seems to be a fair summary:

A city in southern California bereft of fun. The best thing to do there is to pack up and get the fuck out. It smells like urban decay and broken dreams. It also smells like raw sewage for some reason, though after careful investigation you won't find any processing plant. More likely it's the high concentration of ghetto-ass people.

Only notable for being the origin of the McDonalds franchise in 1940. Nothing significant has happened since. Not that it matters, because most of the inhabitants here are so ignorant and shallow that it wouldn't matter if the most important human discovery had taken place here; no one would care.

Oh, and according to Wiki, the city is also close to the home of the original motorcycle club with grew to become the Hell's Angels, the Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington (later of Berdoo).

Oh, and a couple of songs about San Bernardino:


"Five Little Miles from San Berdoo" by Jane Russell, better known as a curvaceous  actress.

And "San Berdoo Sunburn" by Eagles of Death Metal.  I was prepared to dislike this one based on the name of the the group, but I actually found it kind of funny and catchy.  It portrays the kind of person I associated with San Berdoo.