The entirety of the problem with downtown Middletown (specifically) is jobs. The only people who will want to live downtown are either artsy-fartsy types who will commute a thousand miles a day just to support a failed initiative and those who can work close by and/or reach said employment from the city buses.
The sum total of those people in this city?
I'd say less than a thousand. In fact - anyone I know who works downtown lives anywhere but downtown.
I'm not so much for the 'redevelopment' or the 'revitalization' or the 're' anything of downtown. Not because I don't believe it can be accomplished - but we've taken the wrong tact.
Get Jobs first - then redevelop as those jobs flourish and the jobs turn into people who want to live down there.
Hsieh (the CEO of Zappos.com - a forward-thinking urbanite millionaire) invested $350M into the Las Vegas downtown revitalization effort. Were there some positives? Yes - but the entire project is widely regarded as a failure.
Why is that? Here's his own words.....he..."would have put "collisions" — serendipitous encounters between individuals who can drive innovation — ahead of co-learning, connectedness and even return on investment."
In other words, he would have grown it organically - not throw $350M wasted dollars at a project that will never see the first dollar of ROI....but invest individually in people who can create jobs (to implement that innovation) far ahead of education, infastructure and money.
Nelson, you know I love ya - but I'm on the bandwagon of who cares at this point. Without jobs - that entire side of the city is doomed. Without jobs - there's no American dream for anyone on that side of town. It used to be you could get a job at Armco, work a few years - make a decent salary - get a starter home (those homes that Adkins despises along the AK fences) and then move to the box board plant and then the hospital or wherever - the whole while buying better house after better house until you ended up on the east side (insert Jefferson's theme song here) and life was grand.
About the best thing people in our city can hope for now is a fast-food flinger job at a smidge over minimum wage and that's why we have a cycle of poverty in that area. Not only is it job-starved, but you can't get out of that side of town and get elsewhere where there are jobs until and unless you have reliable transportation. Sure - there are city buses - but does that get you where you need to go?
We need manufacturing jobs (and LOTS of them) if this city is going to survive. I don't see it any other way. The unions will have to stay out, the plants will have to re-open and get back to work and the people just have to show up and make it happen.
Any attempt to beautify, glorify, revitalize or otherwise will be unfruitful. Those with property on that side of town need to be aware of this impending eventual doom (unless it changes) and do what they have to do to get out.
After doing a bit of research - all these cities that boast of their economic redevelopment....very few ever realize a nickel of ROI - sure the buildings look nice and the area was fixed up nicely - but the real issue is that unless JOBS come out of it - there's not ever enough made out of the projects to pay for them.
That's why I'm against using taxpayer dollars to fund such futile efforts. I was against the BMW dealership deal from the start. Good thing we did that 'ready-to-roll' project that hasn't even begun to start anything, isn't it. Maybe that guy ran the numbers and just decided to take a handout from the city on a decent plot of land....
In short, Nelson, it's a shame - but without Jobs - we're sunk. I'm working on some things to respond to your earlier query - but would rather wait until campaign season to let them loose.... :-)
Bob
------------- "Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions." -Ludwig van Mises
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