Chester is looking bankruptcy in the face, especially after its police pension fund runs out of cash in a few months, writes Hadriana Lownekron for Bloomberg.

Chester’s financial decline has been happening for decades.

The city’s population is half of what it was at its mid-century peak.  Closed factories near the Delaware River have been replaced by a prison and the nation’s largest trash incinerators.

A hoped-for turn-around from a major league soccer league stadium and a casino did not materialize.

In this predominantly Black city, 30 percent of its residents live below the poverty line as city debt piles up.

Now, a state-appointed receiver is looking to bankruptcy as a last resort.

 “The alarm that we’re sounding is very real,” said Vijay Kapoor, chief of staff for Chester’s receiver. “Chester is by far — and I mean by far — in the worst condition that any of us have ever seen and ever had to deal with.”

The city has been overseen by Pennsylvania’s program for distressed local governments for nearly 30 years.

Chester shortchanged its pension funds to deal with budget deficits. Now it owes $53.9 million in pension contributions, about 88 percent of the city’s budget.

Read more about Chester’s financial situation at Bloomberg.

Chester’s financial difficulties are not unique as shown in this 2011 video looking at the bankruptcy of Central Falls, R.I.