Nagy speaks but does Council listen

Paul Nagy: A plan for city's revival

Friday, January 09, 2009

Here is a plan to turn Middletown around. It will work if we will work it. I'll lay it out step by step and then make some observations.

• Cut 20 percent from our general fund budget for 2009. That would be $6 million. Our general fund budget is $29 million to $32 million, depending on how the figures come in for the last quarter of 2008. Put the $6 million in the budget under "Middletown Emergency Turn-Around Fund."

• Give our economic development department $2.2 million — $200,000 of which they should use for operations and creating the proper environment to bring businesses to town.

The additional $2 million they should give to CBL ( the owners of the Towne Mall) when they have a written contract that CBL will empty the mall of its remaining tenants and agree to turn the mall into "The Ohio Research Center" (or some such designation).

They should then take that written agreement and go — hand in hand — with CBL, Miami University, Sen. Gary Cates and other representatives to Gov. Ted Strickland and tell him: Here is Middletown's commitment to bring the research and development he wants in education, energy, bio-tech, environment, infrastructure, high-tech and housing to Ohio.

These are also the issues that President Barack Obama is committed to move on when he takes office. That puts Middletown in the 21st century and in the forefront of Ohio's future development. We should ask the governor and the president for specific funding and assistance in bringing research and development companies to Middletown. It should be proposed that the products developed by the research and development companies be produced here in Middletown. This all would be on the east end and on Interstate 75. It would provide many jobs for Middletown.

• Put $2 million into the Middletown "Multi-income Housing Fund." That will be the seed money to develop a multi-income housing development downtown of 500 to 600 units, such as the East Lake housing development in Atlanta that is so incredibly successful and which I and others have been proposing for three years.

It is about a $125 million project. Along with this, start a special charter school for children from low-income families. There are developers and financial investors interested in coming to Middletown to do this. This would bring our Section 8 problem under control, reduce crime, tear down some of our dilapidated buildings and old housing projects, and bring 500 to 600 families to patronize downtown businesses. Downtown doesn't need any more money. It needs people. People spend money. It would provide many jobs for Middletown.

• Establish a $400,000 special fund to be shared by Miami University and our school board to develop a special program guaranteed to get our youngsters' grade scores up to the best levels immediately. If they don't know how to do this, then they should cut out one third of administrators and their salaries, and put that money toward more principals and teachers and contact the Drew School at East Lake in Atlanta and find out how they have made their children's scores the highest in the state of Georgia.

• Add $400,000 to our HUD money for removing blighted buildings and turning the properties into green areas downtown and pretty-up the city to attract investors. Insist that the money be used only for this purpose and fire the council, city manager and the planning commission if they don't do it and attempt to divert the money to other places, as they often do.

• Use the final $1 million for the resulting projects that come from the efforts of Sam Ashworth and Ann Mort. Their plan is positive and everyone should encourage it.

All of this will also make us strong county players. There are those who will say this plan won't work. They are negative and lack courage. They will say it's impossible. Yet, it is done every day in cities all over the United States and around the world.

Napoleon said, "Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." This is the time to do it. We must act quickly while we have the opportunity. Obama and Strickland are going to make changes in priorities. We must move now.

There are those who will attempt to prevent moving forward because they want to continue to control power and the taxpayers' money for their own interests and special projects. It is time for change and they must be stopped.

These are serious times and not the time for those whose consciences are not burdened with the plight of all of the people.

All of us must call council members, e-mail them, speak up at council meetings, attend other meetings and bring about change. It doesn't matter who gets the credit. Change the plan if you have a better idea.

Aren't you tired of no businesses, no jobs, no road paving, poor government, declining property values, a negative reputation and Forbes saying our city is dying? Others say our city is dead. Many of us have believed in resurrection most of our lives. Why shouldn't we believe in it now? We can have a vibrant city again and as strong an appearance on I-75 as West Chester Twp. Let's do it. Get off of your apathy and make it happen now.

Mr. Nagy

I would like to respond to parts of your post.

Section 2 Economic Development - The City needs to hire a professional grant writer to apply for all the millions of dollars in State and Federal funds that are available. Then the City needs to have an open discussion on what, how and where these funds will be spent. All areas of the City should benefit from these grants.

Section 3 Multi-income Housing Fund & Downtown - I agree with Spider, the river front property should be used for single & middle income housing.
The Section 8 Housing in our community needs to be cut a percentage each year until it is in balance with the population.
All low income agencies and services should be located in the downtown area so easy transportation is available to these families.
The Free Clinic needs to be enlarged and or moved. Hours of operation need to increase to 7 days a week so low income families do not need to go to the emergency room for simple medical treatment and or medication.
All downtown property owners need to come together and agree on a 5 year plan to rent their buildings for a percentage of the business profits. It has worked in other communities I see no reason why it wouldn’t work in Middletown. This would give the business time to get established and all the other spaces around them to be occupied. Without this agreement I do not believe the downtown area will suceed and grow.

Section 4 Chater Schools & Better Test Scores – I believe we have what we need to educate the children of our community. Why do you think we need a special school to educate low income students? We have a million dollar program in place now called HEAD START that is NOT WORKING. They are not getting these children ready to enter the school system. Why spend millions of dollars on another program when we can simply fix the one we already have that is so badly broken? What we need is to educate the parents so THEY can educate their children and have them ready to learn when they do start school. What we need is for the parents to be involved in their childrens education and teach them their ABC’s and numbers before they start school. What we need is for the parents to take their children to the library and get books and not movies. Parents need to show children the world of books by reading to them when they are young. What we need is for the children to get enough sleep every night and come to school every day. All of the above WILL INCREASE TEST SCORE within one year.

Section 5 Blighted Buildings – I believe we have programs in place for this purpose.
”Pretty up the City” I believe we have “Keep Middletown Beautiful” on the City payroll
 for this job. I believe they also get grants from the State and the Middletown Community Foundation.

Section 6 Sam Ashworth & Ann Mort – I’m unsure of what these projects may be but I believe these problems would be better served if the City took leadership. How are we going to pay for cleaning up the City when we can’t even pay for the Street Sweeper to operate? We have laws in place to make business and private property owners clean up their property. Maybe we should start by enforce them.

THE PROBLEM ISN’T MIDDLETOWN…THE PROBLEM IS LEADERSHIP