The New York Times reports today that the Vallejo (CA) City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to declare bankruptcy in the face of dwindling tax revenues, the housing market meltdown and a faltering economy. Vallejo has 117,000 residents.

Given the steep decrease in property and sales taxes and transfer fees as a result of weakness in the housing market, municipal bankruptcy is "something that one hears about a lot more now," said John Quigley, a professor of economics at University of California, Berkeley. "And in California, you hear about a lot of cities being pushed to this sort of thinking by the housing crisis."

"We've been doing more with less forever," said Detective Mat Mustard, vice president of the Vallejo Police Officers Association, which opposed the bankruptcy declaration. "We're going to start losing people. Who wants to work for a company or a city that's bankrupt?"

The BEA will release 1st quarter GDP figures tomorrow, and the BLS will release employment data on Friday. To be sure, these will be carefully-watched figures as the nation holds its breath waiting to see if we're moving closer to the R-word.

But these are national data, and it becomes easy to overlook the fact that some areas within the nation are currently in throes of economic turmoil. This morning's release of metropolitan employment data reminds us that, regardless of what happens in aggregate, many Americans are already living a recession.

Unemployment rates were higher in March than a year earlier in 309 of the 369 metropolitan areas, lower in 40 areas, and unchanged in 20 areas, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Fourteen areas, 12 of which are located in California, recorded jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent, while 9 areas registered rates below 3.0 percent. The national unemployment rate in March was 5.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted, up from 4.5 percent a year earlier.

In March, 45 metropolitan areas reported unemployment rates of at least 7.0 percent, up from 26 areas a year earlier, while 69 areas recorded rates below 4.0 percent, down from 128 areas in March 2007....Overall, 193 areas recorded unemployment rates below the U.S. figure of 5.2 percent, 163 areas had higher rates, and 13 areas had the same rate.

There were a slew of articles today from around the country about the impact of federal budget cuts on local communities, particularly for local education programs (see below). These articles detail the impact of cuts on a wide variety of programs and constituencies, from summer school to youth vocational education, from a rape crisis hotline to arts and music classes, from school counseling to early-reading instruction.