Mr. Dave wrote: wow, your older than me good for you, does that mean you know more or are smarter than me...I think not. Why does everyone think you need to be apart of some group approved the city to do anything. Who is stopping you from taking part in things in your own neighborhood. To have them listen to you they should be a quitter, do you really need permission to take part in community involvement?  Myself and several of my neighborers go out once a week and clean up OUR street and look after one another. That Sir is community involvement.   I do not like the city leaders in OUR town but i do not them or anyone else dictate what i am gonna do. Maybe if you didn't you would see a different Middletown, but you just keep on waiting for someone else to fix the problem, that will get it done. It's people like you (those that give up) that make this town not worth fighting for, not the city leaders or the "THEY" you speak of.

Thank you for being Rude! Now i can say it "Myyy way" ( thx Franko!). You are an Idiot Sir!  I only referenced my "seniority" BECAUSE you said "30 yrs" like it GAVE you credibility. As to Community Involvement, are you so thick you did not understand that I gave up doing that, probably when you were a Child, because of the reasons I LISTED. Please reread if you have a comprehension Problem.

You talk like you are Liberal. Are you? Liberals always think THEIR way is the right way and that any one disagreeing is clearly a quiter.

I am a bit of a quiter. I am going to quit trying to make you understand a point other than your own. Obviously that is a waste of time. Your right and everyone else is wrong.

Some of you have been very helpful and I appreciate the time that you have taken to give me some personal insight. It seems that a lot of others just want to argue with each other about , well, anything really.   From what I can gather from the useful comments, Middletown is a lot like Hamilton; there are nice areas and not so nice areas. Our main concern as far as the area is the crime. We're not real thrilled about the school system based upon the research that we have done, but our children won't be starting for a few years and we'll be able to explore private schools or other alternatives by then if they haven't improved. To the person that sent me the like to the house, I apologize if I sounded like an ass in my response, but I thought that I may have given the wrong impression with my question. Someone mentioned about the job of keeping up an historic home; is there anything different to caring for a home that is historic as far as ordinances or is it just the size of the house, etc? Would the 500-700 block of South Main Street be considered the nicer part or is it closer to the bad part? I've noticed a lot of press and comments about Section 8 housing; is Section 8 scattered throughout Middletown or is it isolated? Where are the apartment complexes located? In my experience I have found that crime normally surrounds apartment complexes. With the Section 8 housing and rental property, it's usually not as bad because there are usually home owners amongst them so the area doesn't look as bad. Unfortunately, renters don't normally care about the house that they're renting so they don't do a whole lot with them. However, with today's economy a lot of good people find themselves having to lease and rent homes, often times leading to the purchase of the home; do you find that to be true in the area? I've also seen many comments about North, South, East, New Middletown....what is the significance of the areas? We're looking to move into an early 1900s home and we understand that it will most likely need significant work, which we are OK with. We're not looking to flip a house, but to make it our home for several years. Does anyone know anything about the 7th Avenue area near South Main? I've noticed a lot of multi family homes for sale; has anyone heard of someone buying the homes to make them single family homes again? The homes did look to be in good condition from the pictures, so hopefully someone who cares about the property will keep them in good shape and insist on good tenants. There doesn't seem to be much faith in the local community leaders from all of the complaining. It sounds like a lot of Middletown's problems stem from irresponsible leadership. Why would a city put all of their financialy "eggs"  into one basket (ie AK Steel). If they could have built other businesses around AK and encouraged local business owners and helped them with their businesses, they could have probably done much better. I've asked a lot of questions and you all could tell me to jump off of a bridge, but I do appreciate your time. Even though I hear a lot of negative comments on these blogs I will say that Middletown looks very nice from the pictures, anyway. Whether or not we wind up living amongst you, we sincerely hope that someone will take charge and make Middletown beautiful again. It is such a shame to see these beautiful old buildings neglected so much. I also hate to see people wanting them torn down because they're old. New buildings always look new no matter how they're designed. Any town can have nice new buildings, but a town that takes pride in its' history and preserves its' heritage is something special. Thank you.

I apologize for my typos, but I didn't proof read it until after I had posted my reply.

 I do hope you find the perfect home for your family... Middletown or otherwise :)

Kujani1840 the school system is a major problem.  I moved here 6 years ago with the same assumption as you that the school system would improve before my child got to Middle School it didn't happen and I don't see it happening anytime In the next 10+ years under the current circumstances.  My son now goes to private school.

The two area Private schools that are probably the most well known are:

new potential resident--the BEST real estate values are in mid-city imo.

Sorry. My email is joshual@cityofmiddletown.org 

randy- they won't show up at council meetings to speak their mind for the same reasons they wouldn't show up at Nick Kidd's meeting a few years ago at the old Montgomery Ward building, nor the Sunday Library sessions a while back, the 3rd Ward Marconi thing at the Senior Citizens Center nor the "Meet The Candidates" sessions before the last election ........they are angry, frustrated and feel helpless and without a voice, but they won't get up off the couch, jump in the car and come to the meetings to voice their feelings or ask questions. The old "Apathy Disease" is always with us. Apparently, it's going to take much more than what is currently happening to get the people out in numbers. I guess the town just hasn't gotten bad enough yet or the people haven't been personally affected enough by the city for them to react. Too busy fighting the day to day problems at home to add another problem fighting the city, or, they would just rather move out of the city and leave it all behind. Alot of people sitting on the sidelines watching but not wanting to get in the game. JMO

You guys as making some big assumptions about people you either don't know or have only met once or twice.

Well Pac, what other explanation would you have for the lack of interest, apathy and general malaise from the general populace of this town? IMO I'm not treating my statements as assumptions at all, but rather observations over time. I don't need to know each individual in town to make a generalized statement about the absence of enthusiasm and citizen involvement, do I?

Those of us, like myself, who try to look at Middletown and its future in a positive light often come under a lot of criticism on this site. However, just because we keep a positive attitude doesn't mean that we aren't equally as frustrated with some of what's happened in our town--in particular the Section 8 and subsidized housing issues.

That being said, Middletown’s future is in people who are willing to make an investment in our community, such as Kujani. And I could not be more thrilled that he or she is considering Middletown as home—and even more thrilled that he or she is looking at our historical district. I agree with Kujani that the bickering and negativity could be a big turn off for perspective residents that this community desperately needs. A lot of you hammer the city on not being business friendly. Take a look in the mirror and see just how friendly you are being to potential residents yourself.

To answer your questions about the school district. I am a firm believer that a child can get a great education in Middletown’s schools, so long as education is a top priority in the family’s household. Middletown’s school “issues” are in the form of test scores. Research shows that low income kids perform poorer on tests, and with the abundance of low income kids in our district, it’s no wonder test scores are lower and progress is slower. The issue with purchasing a home in on South Main is the elementary school for that neighborhood—which is Rosa Parks Elementary. It has consistently been the poorest performing school in the district. Students, however, qualify for school of choice which I believe means you can send your child to another elementary school in Middletown. Middletown currently has two middle schools—Vail and Verity. They are both about equal in terms of performance, but Vail is the larger of the two schools. As long as your child gets on the “advanced” track in middle school and stays on that track through high school, he or she will be fine. Also, high school students can also enroll in Miami University Middletown coursework their junior year (I think), and it is right across the street from Middletown High School.

As you probably have come to the conclusion, South Main Historical District is a mix of single family and converted multi-family homes. There are both single family and converted homes on the market at the moment. Converted homes tend to be less expensive. Some multi-family have been converted back to single family homes. Marty Kohler—Middletown’s Planning Director—lives in the district. He is currently restoring a home that was used as a nursing home for many years. I was in it a couple of years ago and saw some of the renovation. He would be an excellent resource for you. And because the house is part of a district that is listed on the National Register, you may be able to qualify for federal funds for help with renovation. I am no expert in that regard, but again, Marty may be willing to help you.

Here are some amenities close to the historical district:
Middletown Public Library—has been top rated in the nation
Middletown Area YMCA
The Great Miami Connection Recreation Trail which will eventually link up to Cincinnati and Dayton along the river. In Middletown, it connects you Smith Park.
Middletown Tennis Club is on the edge of the district, which historically has been a top-notch club http://www.middletownsportscomplex.com/home/
You have a 9-hole golf course in the district with pretty reasonable rates to join the club—which also has a pool.
Three long-time congregations within walking distance—First Methodist, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ and Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Catholic community not too far away either.
Miami University Middletown has a center downtown with lots of activities
There’s the Broad Street Bashes and other activities around Governor’s Square throughout the year. Used to be a Farmers Market—not sure.

As far as shopping is concerned, there is a newer Kroger just down Main Street at Engles Corner along with a CVS. There are some restaurants in that area as well—mostly fast food. More fast food and convenience type places along Verity near Germantown Road.

Downtown does not have much to offer in terms of dining and shopping at the moment, but I believe in the next five years Downtown could see a major transformation. There are some things in progress that could be very good for the area in general.

There is a great spirit of volunteerism and giving back in Middletown. And there is still a lot of pride. And a lot of apathy. And a lot of frustration at the same time. Middletown has a great history, much potential and many challenges to overcome. But no community is perfect. You seem to like older homes. Middletown is a community full of them. West Chester, Mason, Monroe, Trenton, Springboro, eh not so much.

Spiderjohn, why would you doubt my sincerity? Do you think I have nothing better to do than to read hour after hour for days on end until 3 or 4 am about Middletown and the available homes? To watch every video on Youtube about Middletown? To read every newspaper article that I could find on Middletown? I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I could find something better to do than to waste your time. You have no idea how serious I was. My wife and I talked non stop for a month about moving to Middletown. We fell in love with the pictures of 700 South Main Street. We had already made many plans on what we could and would do with the house. We plan on opening a business near the area and even joked that if our business became successful enough we would buy more of the historic homes, renovate them and sell them to single families and personally save Middletown. Obviously, that's not even a remote possiblity even if we became millionaires. As far as my intention, we have decided to look elsewhere. Believe me, it is a very painful decision. I had my brother in law, who is a realtor, my sister and her husband and my best friend, who is a licensed housing inspector, go and check out 700 South Main Street and 514 South Main Street. They all agreed that both houses, the bones of them anyway, were absolutely beautiful. But they had been neglected for so long that it would take approximately $100k to renovate 700 South Main Street. We were trying to suprise our family so I was trying to use another realtor. She failed to mention to us that the house had been CONDEMNED and all of the windows were boarded up and that it had been used previously as what appears to be a homeless shelter. It needs a roof, wiring, plumbing, etc... 514 Main Street has had a lot of work done on the inside, but it has a big mold problem. They also found that quite a few of the other homes around it had their windows boarded up. Now, in all of my years as a police officer, I've worked in many neighborhoods that had many vacant homes. Not all of them had to board up the windows in order to keep them from being broken into or damaged. The ones that did were normally very bad neighborhoods with a lot of crime. Now, I'm hearing talk of an active gang problem from some of my police friends. I've considered all of those factors; the crime, section 8 problem, the condition of the homes, the state of the education (approximately 30% of students don't graduate and 2% attend college). I'm not trying to talk bad about anyone. It sounds to me like there are a lot of good people stuck in a bad town with not much hope. I'm not that brave of a person to subject my 2 toddler children to an uphill battle.