Our mayor appears on slide 19 of the slide show in Yahoo’s expose. He is in denial! The caption to the picture is: “Lawrence Mulligan Jr, Mayor of Middletown, doesn’t think the opioid problem is worse here than in the surrounding area: It’s just more openly discussed.”

Refusing to acknowledge the seriousness of our problems seems to be theme of our city government. And revealing underlying reasons for the severity of our problems is carefully avoided. For instance, when the city pursued Section 8 housing. they invited the low income and indigent demographic that is notoriously susceptible to socio-economic problems. The free money associated with government programs proved too tempting. In consequence, the severity of our opioid problem IS MUCH MORE SERIOUS than the surrounding area. Therefore, it is discussed and scrutinized on a national level.

The housing problem that our city manager is “explaining” in meetings (that the Journal News has been reporting on) is another prime example of treating the symptoms of our problems but ignoring the cause. City hall has done away with our amenities, allowed the academic quality in our schools to bottom out, invited in the Section 8 low income demographic, ceased to provide basic up keep of infrastructure, torn down or sold for $1 (then bought some back for thousands of $’s) much of the downtown commercial properties and then Mr Adkins leads the complaints that we can’t attract home buyers!!! Council has allowed all this to happen under the direction of their chosen successive administrations and continues to make the same mistakes over and over, then expects a different outcome. (Remember the definition of insanity?)

 dezzyfits –

Chief Muterspaw said in his interview on WCPO that their report of Middletown having a severe opiate problem is NOT FAKE NEWS.

But, you are correct in pointing out that we have a population that is susceptible to succumbing to the drug dealing predators. And that is the reason our problem is more serious than the surrounding area. The susceptible population came to be through city government mismanagement … Section 8 housing, loss of businesses and jobs, etc.

The fake news is actually coming from city hall. We are tired of hearing, from them, how wonderful things are in Middletown. Any progress that has been made is miniscule in comparison to the damage city hall has inflicted upon us for years on end, and will not be remedied by making the same mistakes again while ignoring our problems. No need to enumerate them again ... it’s all over this forum.