Nothing surprising here. Picard just doing what he is told to do by his bosses. We all knew the approval on the second go-around was a done deal. Scott-Jones and Mr. Smith standing their ground. The good guys are still out-numbered 4 to 3 on council, at least on this one. The game remains the same.....until the people in this town wake up, give a crap enough to register to vote, educate themselves on what is happening, go to the polls and outnumber the MMF-sponsored voting block contingent who are ruining the city. Meanwhile, the city continues to go down the toilet with their game plan in place and the majority of the citizens seem not to care. The city leaders/MMF are counting on that to remain in effect.

Only in America

This council has been such an incredible disappointment, the runaway train of nepotism, poor behavior, and blatant bully-ism. Mr. Picard, you amaze me with your commentary. Criminals are using houses for heroin transactions? Where do you come up with such nonsense?

I state it again, for the upteenth time. When you have two brothers, an attorney (who practices before two Middletown employees), and a retired city police chief, all having one single tie that unites them all, in Red Crimson and Gold, you only have 4 out 7 that are solely with the city's agenda, and the city with their agenda.

All that money going down to Main Street for the benefit of the Mulligans, and no one cares? This is unlike any city in America.

Lets hope you all remember how they came up with these funds and pandering Dan voted to spend $1.2 Mm, when also saying the levy needed to pass because we needed the bloated fire department. This is the worst council in history, and openly self serving. It won't help your neighborhood, they'll divert the funds elsewhere, but who cares? I surrender, idiots rule.  

In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Portman said that the EPA has recently begun reinterpreting federal regulations to require nearly all demolition to be subject to rules on asbestos removal.

409
    I noticed that the City is paying between $400 - $800 per house for an asbestos survey.  I’m not sure why this would be needed in residential property since most products that contain asbestos are usually easily seen with nothing more than a walk around the property.
    It has been my experience that older commercial properties seem to have more asbestos products that a contractor would need to be concerned about.
   

GG thnx for your honest answer- taking a break from cleaning up storm damage on the iPhone so I just wanted to get back to you. At some point I'll message you and explain some dealings with this city manager that I have had.

A startling oxymoron.

The worse offender in blight in the city of Middletown, is the city itself, Can it fine itself for its negligence, malfeasance, ineptitude? It is the cause of blight. Yet you GG argue property powners cause the problems. You haven't looked at the roads, the sewers, the curbs in disarray, and the terrible manner the city maintains its own assets.

That is what you continue to miss in your solution, and adoption landlords are the cause of blight. They are a minor problem.

The biggest culprit? The city itself. Lets try putting some asphalt down GG and cure the street blight, and work our way back to paint and a nail that needs to be reset on an apartment, how about it.

acclaro,

I would agree that the city is the single largest contributor to our blight problem. Does that invalidate my argument that landlords contribute heavily to the problem…. of course not. I will say, again, that I recognize the street and infrastructure problems. I would support street repair over demolition if the city was incentivized to do so. As it stands now, I feel that the bigger impact would be the removal of blight. For the record, I am not anti-landlord but the city must reduce its current percentage of rentals (currently 40%) as part of its strategy to get healthy. I am surprised to hear you state that rental properties are a minor blight problem….. we must be viewing different neighborhoods. Would you be OK with your next door neighbors renting their homes?

GG

GG  You mentioned a while back that your thought process was evolving when it came to the leadership in this town that is the city manager. I thought you had also said you worked with several of the upper management people. My ? is what do you think of the leadership of our town. If you have reviewed this I apologize I have had other issues to attend to and have not been following much of these post.     Acclaro- I am being told the Mens B-Ball team is looking very good this year I hope they show again in the finals. I'll message you so your son may avoid my siblings classes very, very tough, only  joking. 

A startling oxymoron.

The worse offender in blight in the city of Middletown, is the city itself, Can it fine itself for its negligence, malfeasance, ineptitude? It is the cause of blight. Yet you GG argue property powners cause the problems. You haven't looked at the roads, the sewers, the curbs in disarray, and the terrible manner the city maintains its own assets.

That is what you continue to miss in your solution, and adoption landlords are the cause of blight. They are a minor problem.

The biggest culprit? The city itself. Lets try putting some asphalt down GG and cure the street blight, and work our way back to paint and a nail that needs to be reset on an apartment, how about it.

GS, great school, your sibling is smart, Davidson is a tough school, 1000 kids that could have easily gone to Harvard or Yale.

Bill, your point is well made, but again the fallacy here is once again, the lack of recognition it is not a supply issue, and blight, it is a demand issue. But, I think I get your point. And that is removing only part of blight leaves significant more, that hinders interest, and therefore, market demand. In sum, we reach the same conclusion. Net sum gain----a resounding 0.

Acclaro- Nice to here some one local hitting the books at Davidson. Sibling teaches there. I would encourage all to again contact your councilman and let them know that a vote is a vote. Beyond disappointed in this decision to "Vote again". What do you do with empty lots? What do you do with empty housing stock? Magic money!

Greygoose:
I think that if you go back through my posts you will not find even one instance where I spoke against removing blight. Where that activity should rank on our city’s list of priorities is a whole other, lengthy discussion.
My gripe has been that, once AGAIN the same people who say that we are broke and that there is no money available (whether it be for streets, police, firefighters, sewers, or a large vat of hot tar and truckload of feathers) have sudden “found” a big wad of dough when it was needed for something that the “right” people want to do ...AGAIN!!! That and the fact that, when it happened, NO ONE sitting behind the curvy counter even raised an eyebrow…AGAIN!!!
Perhaps you’ve noticed that I’ve used the phrase “tucked away in one of our other accounts” in quotes. That is because it actually is an exact quote…of words spoken by the previous Finance Director a few years ago when a previous Council had backed themselves into a similar corner. He proudly stated during a council meeting that he had just found $350,000 “tucked away in one of our other accounts” and no one in the room batted an eyelash. (I was watching at home and nearly soiled my pants.) If I recall correctly, he “found” it right after a tax levy that council was counting on had failed.

MikeP,

I absolutely understand the point that you are making and do not dispute it. If you’ve read my recent posts, you will see that I was trying to support the “cause” but not the manner in which it was being supported (because I don’t). I am just trying to make sure that my viewpoint on the city’s leadership has a strong basis in fact. Keep throwing it out there…… your comments have more effect on me than you may think. Any statement that causes me to “ponder” my current opinion is a good thing and as I have stated before, my opinions continue to evolve because I am fairly new in this arena.


GG

Greygoose:

I think that if you go back through my posts you will not find even one instance where I spoke against removing blight.  Where that activity should rank on our city’s list of priorities is a whole other, lengthy discussion.

My gripe has been that, once AGAIN the same people who say that we are broke and that there is no money available (whether it be for streets, police, firefighters, sewers, or a large vat of hot tar and truckload of feathers) have sudden “found” a big wad of dough when it was needed for something that the “right” people want to do ... AGAIN!!!  That and the fact that, when it happened, NO ONE sitting behind the curvy counter even raised an eyebrow…AGAIN!!!

Perhaps you’ve noticed that I’ve used the phrase “tucked away in one of our other accounts” in quotes.  That is because it actually is an exact quote…of words spoken by the previous Finance Director a few years ago when a previous Council had backed themselves into a similar corner.  He proudly stated during a council meeting that he had just found $350,000 “tucked away in one of our other accounts” and no one in the room batted an eyelash.  (I was watching at home and nearly soiled my pants.)  If I recall correctly, he “found” it right after a tax levy that council was counting on had failed.