STOCKTON, Calif. -- The name painted in the plate-glass window, "Bradley's," has a martini glass standing in for the "y."
The late-afternoon sun has turned the other windows into mirrors. Deep inside, in bar-appropriate shadow, patrons rest their drinks on 100-year-old mahogany and, as in many a neighborhood pub, consider hopes gone astray.
Across the way are a marina without boats and parking garages without cars. There are few people outside on downtown sidewalks.
This is what it looks like when a city is close to going under.
