Not for the first time, the extravagance of his birthday party has drawn criticism against the backdrop of a moribund economy and decaying public services.
Others have expressed concern that these new, more luxurious alternatives may be pulling passengers off of Muni, thereby creating a "two-tier" public transit system, in which the poorest residents are left riding underfunded, decaying public services.
If historical trends hold, these suburbs will likely shift from white to black — and soon look much like Detroit itself, with resegregated schools, dwindling tax bases and decaying public services.
This country may surpass Kuwait in oil exports by 2010, but it is still crippled by an inefficient and corrupt public service, decaying infrastructure and attacks by a weakened but unrepentant rebel army, say diplomats and local and United Nations officials.
They confront a giant deficit at the nation's second-largest system, after New York's, an even bigger debt to service, decaying rails and power stations, frustrating union contracts, and Springfield and Washington legislators who don't care if a rider going through a C.T.A. "slow zone" can read his free RedEye tabloid front to back twice.
That dissatisfaction has been worsened by an urban crisis here in which street crime and police violence are both increasing and public services are decaying.
Urban planners and policymakers prioritise issues concerning unemployment, overcrowding, decaying infrastructure and declining services, as these remain the more visible dimensions of the development needs of cities.
In short, Eko Atlantic will be a self-contained bubble where the affluent can escape the rest of Nigeria with its power cuts, decaying infrastructure and failing public services.
If you elect the Democratic mayoral candidate, Mr. Giuliani, the former Republican mayor, warned a mostly Orthodox Jewish audience in Brooklyn, New York could well return to a time when a feckless liberal Democrat let services decay and crime and homelessness run rampant.
Another federal report found last year that the nation's transit systems were deteriorating, and warned that, "Decaying transit capital assets raise concerns for service reliability and rider safety".
