Middletown v. Hamilton
Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown City Government
Forum Name: Community Revitalization
Forum Description: Middletown Community Revitalization News
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2480
Printed Date: Nov 22 2024 at 5:07pm
Topic: Middletown v. Hamilton
Posted By: SupportMiddletown
Subject: Middletown v. Hamilton
Date Posted: Dec 31 2009 at 9:12pm
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In thinking about Middletown's struggles with community revitalization and economic development, I thought I would look at how realities stack up to a similar, struggling, former industrial city just down the road--Hamilton. Middletown has an advantage in several areas:
Hamilton: 62,477 residents
Middlteown: 51,422 residents
Hamilton: 413 lane miles of road to maintain
-no boulevard system
Middletown: 520+ lane miles of road to maintain
-must maintain massive boulevards built for 1960's traffic
Hamilton: Seat of Butler County
-1800 jobs, county courthouse, government service center, county administrative center, animal shelter, Princeton Rd office campus, county home, engineer's office, sheriff's office, juvenile courts/jail, mrdd, board of health, educational services, etc, etc
Middletown: not a county seat
Hamilton: uses county jail
Middletown: must maintain own jail
Hamilton: City-owned electric utility cheapest in region
Middletown: Duke Energy same as region
Hamilton: interstate access via Michael A. Fox highway, miles from the city
Middletown: interstate access at edge of town furthest from downtown
Hamilton: home to county airport
Middletown: must maintain own airport
Hamilton: probably will not get 3C train stop
Middletown: likely to get 3C stop downtown
Hamilton: schools haven't tried to pass an operating levy since early 1990's
Middletown: continually running levies
Hamilton: schools continaully achiving Effective status or high in Continuous Improvement
Middletown: low to moderate scores in Continuous Improvement
Hamilton: final phase of school rebuilding program nearly complete
-8 new elementaries, new middle, new freshman, renovated middle and high school
Middletown: final phase in flux with necessity for a second levy to fund and the current operating levy
-6 new elementary, 2 renovated elementary, upper grades not touched
Hamilton: canal still runs and generates some electricity
Middletown: canal is stagnant and a big liability to tackle
Hamilton: storm and sanitary sewers already separate
Middletown: combined sewers have to be addressed in older core of town
Hamilton: First Financial Bank headquarters downtown
Middletown: bank mergers have left downtown without a bank headquarters
Hamilton: four historic districts
Middletown: two historic districts
Hamilton: planning ArtSpace downtown artist housing
Middletown: planning Pendleton Art Center downtown
Hamilton: downtown right on river, with brand new bridge connecting business districts
Middletown: downtown a couple blocks and industrial sites from downtown
Hamilton: newly opened Courtyard by Marriot hotel downtown
Middletown: historic Manchester Hotel ballroom and restaurants recently renovated
Hamilton: older, struggling hospital
Middletown: new state of the art hospital by interstate
Hamilton: hispanic population moving into older, decaying neighborhoods
Middletown: smaller ethnic presence, neighborhoods possibly more vacant
Hamilton: 2% income tax since 1990
Middletown: 1.75% income tax since 2007
Hamilton: severe budgetary problems since 2007
Middletown: severe budgetary problems since 2002
Hamilton: has majority of BCMHA's 1000 section 8 vouchers
Middletown: has over 1500 section 8 vouchers Hamilton: much of shopping is in Fairfield Township, but tax revenues are shared with city
Middletown: much of shopping in city limits in east end
Hamilton: no mall
Middletown: a dead mall
Hamilton: City of Sculpture
Middletown: murals?
Hamilton: Miami Hamilton enrollment: 4,000
Middletown: Miami Middletown enrollment: 2,700
Hamilton: two Krogers
Middletown: a Kroger Marketplace with a Starbucks
(just kidding with the last one!)
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Replies:
Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Jan 01 2010 at 9:54am
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Support Midd.- a couple of observations-
Please don't call the highway off I-75 to Hamilton the Michael A. Fox Highway. That's what it was called originally, but our former esteemed State Senator, Scotty ( I only write legislation to protect insurance companies so that I can get a nice VP job in Columbus in the insurance industry) Nein, got mad and introduced legislation to have it renamed- Veterans Highway. A little internal squabble within the Repub Party years ago. Scotty would be very displeased to hear the Fox name mentioned. The boulevard system that we have has made it so much easier to get from one area of town to the other. It was a slow go to get around to different areas before they were installed in the 60's-70's (?) Thank former city engineer (manager?) Bill Klosterman for those boulevards. That and widening Grand Avenue from two lanes to four was probably the last good thing to have happened here involving the roads. Both were done under competent leadership this town use to have. Don't know as yet about the train stop in Middletown, do we? Notice the enthusiasm from the city leaders has gone quiet lately about this. Perhaps it's a dead issue now-don't know. The school comparisons- Hamilton performing at the Effective/Continuous Improvement level without asking nor receiving more money. Midd. still "not getting it done" while asking for more money to continue to "not get it done". Hmmmm... maybe that's why their levies often fail- ya think? On the subject of new schools being built- Hamilton has probably maintained their student population while Middletown's student enrollment is declining, yet, Midd. has just built larger elementaries to house less students-?????? Won't get any more operating nor building money from us until they can justify the larger schools and improve the performance. More money is not the answer. Hamilton is proving that. Midd. 1500 Sec. 8 vouchers ...... Hamilton 1000 and a larger town to boot! Figure that one out. Thanks, once again, city council, for helping to ruin a once respectable town! Hamilton allows the possibility of hispanics to move into older, decaying parts of town. Middletown gets some fed money and knocks it all down to create "greenspace" for later development, which will only come when they decide to get decent paying jobs in town to attract the people to buy homes here. Eventually, these city leaders will wake up to find that the fed money tap has run out and they will be forced to generate city revenue the correct way through jobs/taxes. I would imagine that Hamilton has as many businesses leaving as Middletown does. Another similarity. Wonder if Hamilton is a more "business friendly" town than Middletown. From what we read from the business folks here on this site, I would imagine almost any place is more friendly than Midd. Thanks Marty K!!!!! |
Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Jan 01 2010 at 10:33am
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Doesn't it make you stop and think when you have Butler Metro Housing Authority with 996 Section 8 Vouchers according to their website and according to the Census Bureau a population of 360,500 in 2008. That is 1 Voucher for every 362 residents.
And that the only other City in Ohio, Parma, that runs it's own housing authority has 742 Vouchers with a population in excess of 85000 or 1 voucher for every 115 Citizens.
While Middletown has 1662 Vouchers and an estimated population according to the census bureau of 48000 in 2008, yes it is declining, or 1 voucher for every 29 citizens.
People what is wrong with this picture?
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Posted By: Hermes
Date Posted: Jan 01 2010 at 11:10am
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1 in 29 on a voucher ?!!! Gees !!
Middeltown = Welfare Capitol of The State (Not only for residents but for city government as well) ------------- No more democrats no more republicans,vote Constitution Party !! |
Posted By: Nelson R. Self
Date Posted: Jan 01 2010 at 11:13am
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Certain senior staff of the City of Middletown desperately need to be re-educated on the principles of:
1) cost/benefit analysis;
2) highest and best use;
3) rating/ranking of alternative plans/projects.
So much is spent (especially millions in HUD funds) without thorough consideration as to the positive or negative impact that these grandiose schemes will have on neighborhoods and downtown. If these senior staff were utilizing their own personal resources I'm certain that they would be considerably more prudent in selecting plans and programs for implementation.
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Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Jan 03 2010 at 12:18pm
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Nelson you are exactly right. To much time and money has been spent trying to just maintain the ivory tower downtown at the expense of the City's infrastructure, it's business community, it's business amenities, it's school system, the city's ability to draw jobs that pay a living wage, the housing stock, etc., by relying on Federal funds from welfare programs. This has played a major hand in destroying Middletown.
The mess created and maintained by the city as far as Section 8 and poverty goes has destroyed this city to the point where it's ability to survive is in question. I would venture a guess that when the 2010 census is taken and the declining population is taken into account the poverty level in Middletown will be between 25-35% and that will put an end to any development in this city except for a very narrow strip of land surrounding I-75. No business wanting to prosper will want to move to Middletown except those that carter to the low income portion, i.e. Secondhand stores, etc.
This is unfortunate and due mainly to the shortsightedness and lack of commonsenseof the leadership in this city.
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Posted By: SupportMiddletown
Date Posted: Jan 03 2010 at 5:08pm
The boulevard system itself is not the problem, just the capacity. None of the boulevards have a demand greater than 4 lanes can accomodate, but many are six lanes. University south of 122 is eight lanes, and it is probably the least utilized of any of them.
Middletown needs to begin to think about road dieting and reducing all the boulevards to four lanes, except for the recent widening of 122 around the interchange. Not only will this reduce lane miles to maintain, repave, and clear snow, but it makes streets more friendly for pedestrians to cross. The city could also vacate the right of way for the outer two lanes, increasing lot sizes and taxable property.
I was saddened to see so much of the curbs reconstructed with the recent repaving of Breiel and no lanes removed.
If nothing else, they might provide a good opportunity for bike lanes. ------------- |
VietVet wrote:Posted By: lrisner
Date Posted: Jan 03 2010 at 5:25pm
Bike Lanes...that says it all. You are so out of touch. How much would the Vacating of the Lanes cost? Probably more than the repaving of the existing Lanes would.That would give us another 20 Years to know what we need to do. We don't need more "scheming", that is that got us into this mess. We need less intellectualism and more Old Fashion responsibility. |
Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Jan 03 2010 at 7:51pm
| Support Midd.- reducing the amount of lanes on the boulevards due to the reduction in traffic (due to the people leaving town and the population evaporating before our eyes) may be one way of thinking. However, when these boulevards were built, there was a need to move more traffic around the city in a more efficient manner. In those days, there was traffic galore out on our roads. Two ways to look at this. Your way of reducing the roadway miles to accomodate a dwindling population as our town dies a slow death, or keeping the roadways as is and building the city to attract new residents that will justify our boulevard capacity. We can accept the direction of a fading town's populace or we can attempt to increase those boulevard traffic numbers through increases in residency. More in-depth than the original topic...... (IMO, we increase residency by having competent government, making logical, prioritized, growth-oriented decisions within the budget prescribed. We increase the desire to live here by creating decent paying jobs. We begin to do both, by removing the problem children on Council, the School Board, the current City Manager and most of the Director/Manager levels in the city building and assemble a new group to run the city. This new group must have a 180 degree direction from the current one to make this a better city.) |
Posted By: SupportMiddletown
Date Posted: Jan 05 2010 at 9:48pm
I understand the point you are making, but would suggest that reducing the boulevards to 4 lanes has no correlation with the city dying or decreased demand. Original plans for the thoroughfare system imagined Middletown growing to an immense size, far into Madison Township across the river and past Hunter into Franklin Township. Thus, the roads were probably built to accomodate a future capacity that was never needed. While Middletown has lost population in its core, its overall population is higher than ever because of annexation east and of developed areas to the south like Amanda. Businesses and residents moved east toward the interstate, reducing demand on the boulevards further. You know as well as anyone that I haven't given up on the core of Middletown. I just don't believe 6 lanes will ever be necessary, practical, or positive for the city. Even if the core grows back to its original population. ------------- |