Downtown Plan

I'm not a council candidate, but I see very little difference between it and other presentations  from  the past. It was however, interesting to see the suggested names of the  proposed area that make up the proposed Central Avenue district.

http://www.cityofmiddletown.org/ed/dsp.html

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Why would the city want to do away with 3 thriving downtown businesses? Denny Lumber helped us renovate our new building and Dobrozsi is our insurance agent. Diver gets used for personal use. We try to keep our business/personal purchases in Middletown as much as possible. If we lose these 3, where would we go?

when I first moved to Middletown in `91 I enquired about the Studio, wondering what it would take to maybe get it up and running and making a fun, second run kind of theatre out of it. the 4500 per month rent scared me away and I imagine this figure scared anyone else away as well that had plans for it.

The morons that run community revitalization as well as our inept city manager like to tell me that the reason our downtown and surrounding area (I live in Park Place) went to hell was because of my PEELING PAINT and WEEDS in the alley.

Try again...downtown died because a few choice families decided they could make more by NOT renting these places for a decent and fair price. So the buildings rot till they are unusable.

So now they tear yet another cool building down and make useless space for no one....

I just want to move.

JimmyD

Does anyone REALLY believe that this town, with it's past history of industry, blue collar image and large percentage of non-college educated people, will be able to support an "arts theme" that is being presented? Who is laying the groundwork for this in convincing city hall that this is the right thing to do? Why isn't this suggestion for the direction of the downtown being questioned by the city leaders? I certainly would offer some doubts if I were them. Everyone realizes that this town is not sophisticated. For the most part, the make-up of this town is industrial park-factory/retail/service industry/small government/fast food workers. Do we really associate any of these trades with encompassing the arts in their lives? Could the arts really pull from any of these professions in any number to support it? Doubtful.

To adopt the theme around the arts for the downtown, the creators of this theme must be counting on participation from Mason, West Chester, Centerville, Springboro and the surrounding communities that personnify (sp?)the arts. If no support from these areas, the arts theme will die on the vine also. Is this a good idea for bringing life back to Middletown's downtown area? I'm not so sure. Wouldn't a better idea be to make the theme more closely tied with the lifestyles that are inherent to the people who live here? Don't know exactly what that is but it "ain't" the arts.

I like mdizzie's input, but I also agree with Vet and Ms. Moon that there is a lack of focus and vision by city leaders to make it happen.  I would love for the downtown area to thrive.  For some reason people in Middletown seem to look at business here as inferior from those in surrounding communities and therefore don't support them.

Is it really a City Governments job to create of all things an Art District downtown with our tax money, where ever that tax money should happen to come from?  If the city wants an Art District they should look towards rpivate funding and I would suggest some of you people that want it pony up some money to fund such a project.   There is nothing more sobering and eye opening than knowing that your bucks are on the line.  It is easy to say do it when somebody else is footing the bill. The city can not provide the basics, let alone delve into this type of project.

Exactly, Mike.

Well Murdock let us all hear your lively plan for the Downtown area?