Agenda 2008- Journal Article-Dec 28

I'll put our Boys' Band up against any other city's this side of Chicago!!!

My business pretty much "dropped off the face of Middletown" in December.
We have had a busy week, but not with any local businesses. Our out of town clients who trust us and keep coming back. We are looking up, but not locally. Did City Council do any of this for us? Chamber? NO.
We did it ourselves with our reputation and close contact with those "good" clientele. Our service speaks for itself.

The best things in life are right here. Don't be so naive to say anyplace is any better than right here in Middletown.

I think you missed my point.  I have no problem with festivals at all the more the better.  But everytime the issues in Middletown surface that need to be solved, Poverty, Education, taxes, Section 8, Downtown, Businesses leaving town or closing, we get the same blank stare and response.

.....and its those events that get people coming into our city limits, buying from local vendors who pay taxes into the city coffers.  Middfest alone breaths over a million dollars into local businesses.  This years Ohio Challenge was a HUGE success.  There are many cities across this country in much worse shape that don't even have those types of events let alone cities in other countries.  I don't advocate Rose colored glasses to the same extent that I don't advocate bleak colored glasses.  The way I look at it is there is still plenty of opportunity to make things better, this doesn't have to be a permanent situation for Middletown and the path forward comes from the 'good ideas' that people from all walks of the community have.  Three years ago when we bought our building city council was in serious disarray and deserving of the criticism.  However today I do see progress being made and I do believe we have a better group in council making better decisions and that is JMHO.  Our new city manager has actually been trained to manage tough situations like this unlike her predesessor.  Ms Gilleland was named in The Dayton Business Journal's 40 Under 40 a few years which is an impressive recognition.  I think if given time you will see some progress but we need to look forward and stop dredging up the mistakes of the past.

Thank you for your response. Yes, it is true. I have seen the prosperous years in town.We both know what we have now. This is one reason for the negative feelings I have for the way the city is being run now. You've been here for three years. You didn't experience the impact Armco had on the community nor the introduction of Miami U -Middletown and the opportunities it provided for myself and others just graduating from Midd. High in 1966. The daily activity of people shopping, talking, fraternizing, working at the various companies that offered decent employment. A great deal more activity than now. The city seemed "alive" back then, not like now where the city seems like it has lost it's personality, while people seem to want to keep to themselves and not communicate/engage each other with ideas. Nobody seems to care anymore. Has the manner in which the city been managed/direction of the city over all these years done that to all of us? Probably. Another frustration has been the fact that the leaders have ignored the people who still want to try to make it better. When one approaches those in charge with ideas/suggestions as to how they want their city to be and one continually has their hands slapped for trying, one tends to retreat to a save place and lob long distance barbs at the perceived enemy with the intention of doing as much damage as possible. Some of us get that negativity that you mention, honestly. Attend Midfest-attend the Broad St Bash-attend the Ohio Balloon event-attend the Art and Music festival-( did go to the Blues and Bikes Fest because I like Blues music) No. I did not. These are all worthwhile activities and are valuable to the city in a SOCIAL way, but I see no correlation between these events and getting to the heart of the problems for Midd.- the illogical decison-making and poor leadership and wrong direction this town has.If necessary, the city could survive without these events, but the city will surely die if we don't address the decision-making, poor leadership and wrong direction problems we currently have. Events are fine to strenthen the community socially, but to eliminate the spread of the negative cancer we must remove the "cancerous growths" that cause the negativity. JMO

This thread is getting trashy.

Good point.

But what if I had planned to retire and get section 8 housing?

OK. Working sounds fine after all.

VietVet wrote: ..chosen not to retire due mainly to boredom (daytime television programming)

Its easy to throw stones anonymously from the sidelines at the easiest targets, it takes quite a bit more to get involved and actually make a real statement!  Viet seems fairly articulate and informed, maybe he should run for city council and make a real improvement in Middletown's future.  But that of course would be a bit harder than lobbing into blogs and would most likely result in some other anonymous negative author to unsympathetically lob attacks at him, the real him whoever Viet is.  I have no doubt Middletown will thrive albeit over time and in a different manner than  it has in the past so what we really need are good ideas, not negative banter attacking those who are actually trying.

Vet--I believe that many more people watch the TVM meeting broadcasts than read the message boards. Citizen comments can again become an important part of the meeting process and citizen involvement if handled properly and in a constructive manner.

MMom- Towne Mall situation- agree, they are to blame. Just wonder what Council/city leaders were doing as they watched it slowly decline to a ghost mall. We know that they met with the owners but the situation was never finalized. Maximum effort should have been given to retain these stores and jobs, IF at all possible. A MAN for City Manager? Doesn't matter. Olson, the former MALE City Manager didn't do a great job either. The City Manager in this town, man or woman, will have a tough time getting their message through as long as we keep electing the type of people to Council that we have elected for the last 30 years. Women on Council?- Doesn't matter there either. Leslie Ford doesn't contribute any more than Armbruster or Mulligan.Scott-Jones would like to contribute more but you can see the frustration on her face as she is outnumbered. Schiavone, Marconi, Becker are the Council mouthpieces. They tend to dominate the talks. Get money for the "foundation"- should have happened years ago in the 70's to offset Armco downsizing. Since it didn't happen, the city must scrap and claw for any revenue like the government handout predicted from this new administration. The city, like the schools, have a taxing disease that they want to give to the citizens. Kind of a "bleed 'em dry" approach. City needs to start by making itself attractive to businessess which will cost money it doesn't have. City needs the revenue from these new companies to make it more attractive. City can't catch revenue, businessess/jobs or a cold.

Yes mom some of us have seen the budget and Middletown will never be able to tax itself out of the current mess it has made for itself and it's status quo agenda.   But hey while Dayton chases the Hookers, Middletown chases it own tail in a circle to nowhere.