poverty

Vivian,

Say what you will about the negative impact of the Section 8 program.  What most of you continue to ignore is the waste of HUD funds (CDBG, NSP, HOME, Stimulus) and misguided planning of the occupants of the fourth floor of the municipal building.  Consider the opportunities foregone by Judy, Doug and company.

Gentlemen
I hope the following information will help you better understand the poverty levels in Middletown. Please remember that over the past five years these numbers have increased.

From City of Middletown Section 8 Analysis
June 2010
Page 12

POVERTY LEVELS 2006 - 2008

% Families Below Poverty Level
Middletown 13.5 %
Ohio 9.7%
U.S. 9.6%

% Individuals Below Poverty Levels
Middletown 19.0%
Ohio 13.2%
U.S. 13.2

processor wrote: In my opinion Middletown's failure is a result of many different forces.  Squeemy points out one huge drivers.  Middletown's businesses used to be locally owned and operated.  Over time these were sold and became facilities within larger organizations.  This resulted in the management staff being significantly reduced.  As these people left town looking for opportunities the professionals who supported them, lawyers, accountants, etc also drifted off.  I think that this was just a changing of the times and was no one in particulars fault but it did significantly reduced the talent in town.  To witness this just look at many of Middletown's seniors.  Many are world class in intellect, drive and achievement.  Then look at the 30 - 50 year olds.  There are still some high achievers, but not nearly as many as before.  Then look at the 20 - 30 year olds.  Certainly some high achievers, but an even smaller proportion of their age cohort.   The city councils/administrators of the 1980's - 2000's certainly let us down with their lack of understanding of the underlying forces and appropriate counter measures.  I think they were trying to hold on to what they had versus looking for appropriate replacements.  For example they tried to hang on to the downtown retail by doing a "me too" and putting a roof over the place.  All this did was postpone the inevitable and make things worse.  They looked to keep the housing stock full and started us down this road of HUD money and Section 8.  They sold our "soul" to an unthinking unyielding bureaucracy instead of tending to city basics...low crime, good streets and other infrastructure, good fire protection, and low taxes.   Now we're in a huge mess with no easy way out.  I think that about the only path out is to significantly reduce the poverty in Middletown by reducing, preferably eliminating, section 8.  Then we'll need to tear down all housing stock, old factories, etc that are not being used.  City council needs to forget all of their HUD type projects and work exclusively on basic city functions; infrastructure, crime reduction, beautification and economic development.  We need to set the conditions that companies find attractive and then sell, sell, sell the city to them.  Ideally they would find some real business people to do the economic development NOT government officials who really don't understand and can't get in to see the right people in the right organizations.  If I was looking to expand my business in SW Ohio Middletown would not be on my short list because of the poverty, high crime, high taxes, etc.  West Chester, Mason, even Fairfield would be on my list.  Only once this was fixed, would Middletown be on my list for consideration.   I feel bad for the low income people who would be displaced, but the boat is sinking and will drown everybody if not righted soon.  No boat; no one can be helped.

EXCELLENT!!!! BINGO! NOW, BEFORE THIS GETS ERASED SOMEHOW.....SOMEONE MAKE A COPY OF THIS. EXPAND IT TO BILLBOARD SIZE AND PLACE IT IN FRONT OF COUNCIL SO THAT THEY MAY READ IT PERIODICALLY TO REMAIN FOCUSED WHILE GILLELAND, LANDEN AND THE OTHERS TRY THEIR BEST TO DERAIL THIS MESSAGE. MIGHT TAKE A COPY AND TACK IT UP ON THE WALLS OF EVERY OFFICE IN THE CITY BUILDING SO THAT THEY STAY FOCUSED ON THE CORRECT THINGS ALSO. I WOULD ALSO SUGGEST THAT RIGHT AFTER THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND THE PRAYER, THAT COUNCIL READ THIS VERBATIM BEFORE EACH MEETING IS STARTED.

GOOD ASSESSEMENT PROCESSOR.

In my opinion Middletown's failure is a result of many different forces.  Squeemy points out one huge drivers.  Middletown's businesses used to be locally owned and operated.  Over time these were sold and became facilities within larger organizations.  This resulted in the management staff being significantly reduced.  As these people left town looking for opportunities the professionals who supported them, lawyers, accountants, etc also drifted off.  I think that this was just a changing of the times and was no one in particulars fault but it did significantly reduced the talent in town.  To witness this just look at many of Middletown's seniors.  Many are world class in intellect, drive and achievement.  Then look at the 30 - 50 year olds.  There are still some high achievers, but not nearly as many as before.  Then look at the 20 - 30 year olds.  Certainly some high achievers, but an even smaller proportion of their age cohort.

Richard Saunders wrote: Acclaro:   Don't insult Detroit!  Detroit wasn't stupid enough to pick a fight with HUD, as Middletown has done.

Guess we can't compare Parma's Section 8 program with Middletown. Dug up an old post from Nelson Self and Vivian dated 2010 which stated that Parma is around 80,000 in population where Middletown is around 48,000. Parma has the allotted (correct) 700+ in Section 8 vouchers where Middletown has 1400+ or so. Gonna skew the data a tad bit if we try to compare.

Spider: Section 8.....lower income....one in the same IMO. It is an addition of poverty that this city can ill afford. Guilt by association at best with Section 8. No matter how we slice it, it can't be a good thing to add to a city, especially in the inflated numbers asked for by the city leaders.

Spider and Vet
I posted 2 maps on this blog several years ago showing Section 8 and high crime areas however now I can’t find the post. High poverty areas = high crime areas is a true statement in almost ever city.
However the research and these maps clearly shows that City Hall over the past ten years did not use the HUD Funds in the areas of high poverty and high crime to help solve the problems.

Lay the crime activity maps over the top of the S8 maps.
Scary--however S8 is somewhat scapegoated since the high- density crime areas are also lower- income non-s8 also.

Would be interesting to see the numbers on police responses - pre Section 8 lower numbers versus post Section 8 overabundance. Have read articles citing strains to city resources. Just comments, no data that I'm aware of. See the police briefs in the Journal everyday. Looks like we have a jump in theft from candy bars at the UDF to copper out of the air conditioners at businesses and residential. Can we tie this jump to the increase in the lowering of the income levels and all that that brings? Dunno. By inviting HUD to town in abundant numbers, have we made ourselves a target for influencing those connected with the criminal element here as well? Dunno. How about those "at-large" people we read about in the police briefs? Were they attracted here by the freebies initiated by the city?

I would imagine that with the increase in Section 8 and the invite of freebie hand-outs, the trend that would follow would be a certain amount of criminal element that would also track to the city that normally wouldn't be here. No proof...just stereotyping I guess. Wasn't Parma the other Ohio city saturated with Section 8? If so, wonder how they are faring on crime statistics?

Hmmmmmmmmm......Maybe look at it this way, lower paying jobs still fund the tax base........Being a consumer 100% is the goal. Taxes are not collected on self-sufficiently, they create jobs and avenues which provide for more tax collections based on population density. They want to tax the same dollar a 100 times.....A lot of smaller businesses do not want higher paying jobs to move in, they will be stuck with a less educated pool of employees or slob workers to choose from.

over the hill wrote: Isn't it our city council and and revitilation dept. and our city manager's job to try to keep what business we have and promote new businesses to the area?

Excellent point, stanky

Bo, jobs just don't lose themselves. The question is why did companies leave Middletown, taking the jobs with them, and what could/should have been done about it OR whose fault is it that the conditions haven't been there for new companies to move in.