Good Times Again

As a newcomer, I believe that it will take only one or two more years for the policies and programs of City Manager Adkins to bear fruit.  We need to exercise patience and support him.  New businesses, more good paying jobs, neighborhood improvement, financial solvency, etc. will be the criteria to favorably evaluate him and his staff.

I expected at least one naysayer to counter my comments about City Manager Adkins.  And now, my expectations are confirmed.  Despite the archived negativity that I've been reading today, he is a well-intentioned administrator and program developer.  Why not give him a couple of additional years to achieve success?

wonder if the needle exchange will be a success?? if so, ya know maybe he can count that one..

Doug Adkins isn't trying anything new. In fact, its the same policies in place for twenty years. What is new is the need for federal funds from grants for roads, schools, and housing including section 8 vouchers. That is what has been new as to the increase in numbers of them, in the past fifteen years. Three five star restaurants downtown, ten microbreweries covering every street corner, nor a bakers dozen spa and massage upscale salons will be sufficient to drawl more high quality residents and businesses. When physician offices and rental complexes are being auctioned throughout town, that is not a sign good things are happening. Additionally, neither is a 30 year old allegedly murdered by her boyfriend running a prostitution ring downtown. The city is known to be more similar to Sons of Anarchy, than Sound of Music. No offense intended to Men and Woman Needed Who Can Sing and Middletown Symphony Orchestra.  Touche.     

All that I'll say at this point is, "give City Manager Adkins an opportunity to bring about the positive change that he speaks of in two more years maximum."  If he falters, then it's probably time to reassess personnel, etc.  Give hope a chance.

someone is trying something new?
here?
who-where-when?

fair enough, anal-ytical--I like Mr.A(which gets me in trouble here), and will help him any way that I can to change our current situation.
But change come very slow and hard around here. Lifers are fed up with "give us time", since they have been hearing that and waiting for 20+ years.

The former downtown area is honestly only important to a select few who have invested there. The rest of us have paid a lot of $$$ to subsidize their investment there, with not enough to show for the time and effort(aka "bang for da buck"). I only wish that admin/council would show that much interest/effort/investment in the rest of our city, which has been neglected for the black hole down there.

I was down there Sat.night and not much was going on. 90% of the places were locked up tight. All credit to Windamere, Morningstar, 3 Moon, At the Square and Canal House. I like them all and try to support them, as well as numerous locally-owned businesses. If it is all the owners' skin in the game, then I am there to support them.

We don't need any more non-profits in the area. We need property tax/payroll tax/income tax-paying businesses. Replacing those with non-profits solves nothing, and only magnifies the problems.

Everyone likes to pile it on the MUSA posters as THE problem. Well--they ain't da problem--they just talk about da problems(which no one else--media included--is allowed to do). 90% of our issues were created in the Donham bunker over decades. We just pay for it all. DMI, MMF, façade grants, street lights, streets, signals---all for one poorly performing out-of-the-way small portion of our community. Easy to see why many are skeptical of the continued effort and related "buzz".

Once again, I will give Mr.A the benefit of the doubt, however time keeps rolling on, and honestly not that much has changed, + we seem to be headed towards repetition once again.

Instead of criticizing and demeaning me, middiemom and analytical, give me real reasons to be MORE optimistic.

So--both of you--in what local efforts are you participating?
What are your histories of community involvement and monetary support?

Lol fact guy--my neighborhood has always had fireworks
Sounds like a war zone on the week of the 4th

It is only in the southwest corner of town where it is not allowed( only gunfire)
Know anywhere else that gets busted for them?

OK--fair enough analytical, middiemom and factguy....
what u really do and contribute to the community is obviously yer private bidness

So---the rest of us can lift up our heads and be proud of what we have left, and move forward to what we can do to honestly make things better around here----no more complaining and whining about "past glories"!

I have faith in the caring regulars at MUSA--their community knowledge and interest in restoring the quality of life in our area. Everyone here should volunteer to serve on a board, committee or project, based on their areas of knowledge and interests. We are all capable of lifting our standards and conditions.

Doug A & Co should hit the ground running in 2016--the team is in place, and we have a new Council and School Board. New faces should be open to other new faces and voices---we wanted change and these bodies will hopefully give us change quickly and effectively. + these people are actually PAYING for IDEAS!!!! Will u b the first MUSA regular to be rewarded????

I am ready, willing and able to make a difference around here, have already volunteered and have plans to contribute in a few positive ways.
And I know the capabilities and talents of many here---time to channel it towards the betterment of the entire community.

The city and lives that you improve/save may well include your own!

Spider
I thought the reason council hired Mr. Adkins was the fact that he was already familiar with all the problems of Middletown and could “hit the ground running to solve these problems”.
I do hope that the new council will take Middletown in a new direction.

This week the Business Insider ha a well written article on Eleven Factors that would erode a city or neighborhood commercial and residential property value. Among these were:

i)  Crime
ii) Schools
iii) Clutter, or proper upkeep of appearance- pride of ownership
iv) Foreclosures and overcapacity; too much property, limited interest in ownership
v) Noise
vi) Pollution/ Contamination

Middletown fails in nearly 80% of the factors listed. Moreover, property valuation, regardless of either commercial or residential, is the bottom-line measure of a community success.

With these factors evident, getting involved doesn't alter this. it is worthy to keep a cemetery cleaned and pruned, houses painted, but there isn't significant contribution or involvement that makes an impact with one exception. Encouraging and mentoring programs may help school children as individuals, but it has limited effect on testing. Moreover, the recent Common Core results comparing Middletown to surrounding areas demonstrated the consistency many know. The school district remains at the bottom or near with little indication isn't advancing upward to get out of its long-standing rank of Continuous Improvement.

Polite community involvement involves helping your neighbor fold boxes, bring extra newspaper, and be willing to help load the moving van headed out of town. Or in the alternative, grab a bullhorn, and yell at top of your lungs, "Middletown is down, but not out. You'll love it here."! Then, you are in line with city council. If we say its so, others will believe it to be true. Community involvement demands a bull-horn and + hype.    

HUD money should never have been considered as a source of money flow in the city in the first place. Creates several problems for the city. Reliance on government money/totally at the mercy of fed government intervention and it trashes the city bringing in unwanted elements such as crime, drugs and strains the medical and law enforcement communities and you lower the quality of the type of people living here. The city's econ devel dept should have done their job and brought companies into town using the corporate and employee payroll taxes as a means to establish money flow and revenue like most cities do, but I guess that would have been asking too much of a department that has accomplished very little, or, they just aren't smart enough to do that. Diversifying the types of employment opportunities should have been considered as Middletown has already learned that you can't place all the eggs in one basket....IE, only Armco/AK Steel and only paper mills as singular choices for livable wage employment and revenue generation.

I wouldn't be so quick on pulling the trigger on the Doug Adkins tribute show just yet. He has a long way to go to correct decades of incompetence from former city leaders, including his leader at one time, Gilleland, who was the queen dictator of one of the most inept administrations this city has seen in it's history.

Adkins will have his chance,and, assuming no progress is made in another year or two, even the rosy upbeat supporters will have had enough of him. Looking down the road, I believe it's a safe bet that it will be business as usual in another two years or more. There will be no change in thinking, ideas nor direction and the same time-worn failed attempts will still be on the table as we try them just one more time and see the same results. Has to be his way as we will still have the same people in power making the same idiotic decisions that got us nowhere for decades. History says this is so. The purge of leaders supporting the current city plan should have happened decades ago. New people with totally new ideas and focus should have been in place long ago. Instead, we are mired in the cesspool we are considered to be by other communities. We got this way by not purging the current line of thinking.

To the contrary Vivian Moon.  My point is that future federal annual budgets will show a long-overdue belt-tightening when it comes to HUD grants (and other categorical programs) for cities such as ours.  That's why a predominantly private sector based approach rather than the usual government dole is predicted and needed.

I would like to take us a little closer to paradise though: