About Ron Russell

Robert B. Kaplan and the Art of Heavy Lifting

It was 2008, and dozens of lawyers had descended on the former Navy town of Vallejo. Located 25 miles north of San Francisco, it had just become the largest California city to declare bankruptcy. Vallejo was pitted against the unions representing its police, fire and other city employees, who wanted the town of 115,000 to stick to its labor contracts with them. The pitched battle attracted a great deal of media attention.  Then there were the less publicized efforts by Vallejo’s creditors to …