Відео

The population of the region continues to fall. There is nothing left to suck out of downtown Clarksburg, as proven by the fact that White Oaks has been getting zoning changes to add housing to what was planned to be an office park. Any new retail at Charles Pointe Crossing is going to come at the expense of Eastpointe. I'm sure Bridgeport would like the B&O tax off the construction of new big boxes, but do they want a huge dying strip mall at the entrance into their city? Especially when Charles Pointe won't be paying new taxes to Bridgeport until 2050. The increased tax base likely is not enough to pay to maintain all the infrastructure that's been put in place out at Charles Pointe, even the taxes weren't being diverted to pay the bonds. Bridgeport has collected a huge amount of B&O tax off construction, but they've sunk a lot of that into their park system and expensive sports complex. They were probably counting on the taxes from Charles Pointe to kick in to help maintain that sports complex. Big boxes are also dying off nationwide so it's an open question if anything besides Menard's will actually locate there. Supposedly there's a lot in the pipeline but how long have we been hearing that? Charles Pointe has been in default on its loans for over a decade. There isn't enough tax revenue coming in to pay the bonds let alone the maintenance of the new infrastructure. But we are told that the new courthouse annex is what has broken the bank.

Willie Nelson @ Philadelphia (Camden) @ July 4, 2024

@@ryandebarr I should've recognized that voice!

@@marilynblake2188 Yeah... He's 91 and he was sick and missed a couple weeks leading up to the show but I think he was strong here. My mildly Appalachian voice was singing in the background.

Bridgeport people stereotypically play keep up with the Joneses more than any other place in the county. If you live there you don’t want your kid riding the bus because people will you’re poor. But also a lot of kids that go to school at Bridgeport don’t live in the Bridgeport district. They couldn’t take the bus if they wanted to.

@@ryandebarr Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

I think you should go into executive session for that.

@@ryandebarr I read your reply as I'm currently in session. I'll have to get back to you.

News

Yes, because America's hard-hearted capitalism has been SO successful at creating equality and good jobs!

@@monsieurlespaique2333 if you have trouble understanding sarcasm I can sell you $20 of it.

The U.S. and Germany are both mixed economies, but I said nothing about what mix is better. I was talking about traditional building styles vs sprawl and the preservation of our cultural heritage vs destruction of it.

What I said in earlier takes of this video was that so much money is spent on amenities "for the children." But it's spent in places that aren't easy for all the kinds to get to or require resources many of the children can't afford. All the children have to see the downtown. When the city won't do basic things like maintain the parking garage or accept a FREE park someone was going to give them, what does it tell the children? It tells the ones who have the means to get out that they should leave when they become adults because the town is hopeless. And it tells the ones who can't leave that they might as well blast the mind away on drugs because they're stuck in a town that's hopeless. Nobody is going to move to Clarksburg because of a splash pad in Nutter Fort. Let Bridgeport spend the money on those things. Clarksburg should spend its money preserving the things that actually set it apart from Bridgeport.

I think Mayor Malfregoet and maybe Will Hyman are considering the fact that Tiffany Fell sounded extremely frustrated at how doing anything in Clarksburg is like pulling teeth. They really don't want her to leave quickly and be searching yet again for a city manager. The problem as I see it is that most of the leaders in Clarksburg cannot get out of a suburban middle class mindset. Clarksburg is a decayed Rust Belt inner city. I don't think anyone is going to pick Clarksburg over Bridgeport because of a splash pad in Nutter Fort.

Or the city leaders of Clarksburg can just look a block down Main from City Hall and see what VANDALIA was able to accomplish with the Palace Building. It currently has the highest tax-assessed value of any building in the downtown and pays about $300k/yr in property taxes. Of course most of that goes to the county and the school board, but it's still as you said, turning a potential liability into a revenue producing asset.

Thank you

Looking forward to Little Prostate opening it at the Robinson Grand next year 🔥

@@ryandebarr that would be 🔥 lol

The dobro player that performed last night is considered to be the best dobro player of all time. They had a banjoist there that taught Bela Fleck, who is probably the best banjoist alive today and behind only Earl Scruggs and Ralph Stanley. They had other good pickers and fiddlers there also. Folks with multiple Grammys. It might not be an exaggeration to say that the best bluegrass that happened anywhere on earth last night happened in the Robinson Grand. Way bigger deal than a lot of people realize.

@@ryandebarr definitely definitely a huge deal

I’m all for full legalization of cannabis, but according to an article that I can’t find now by the lovely Erin Beck, at least the WVSP does not pursue marijuana arrests except to detain people involved more serious crime such as selling a harder drug. That’s their own policy as stated by the head PR officer in St. Albans. The police are against legalization only because they use marijuana arrests as the pretext for arresting people they want for something else. State lotteries and video poker played a big role in breaking the back of the Cosa Nostra. When you keep something illegal that most people think should be legal, you enable organized crime. Maybe use the taxes from legal marijuana to fund drug treatment for hard drug addictions.

I’m familiar with the spring water but I’m not sure it’s sold here.

I had to look up City View Apartments. I remember them now because of the church in the middle that I walked around and the fact they’re painted. It reminds me of pictures you’d see of Kyiv or Ukraine, where they paint what would otherwise just be drab cement buildings. They had the street dug up between the park and the apartments and were replacing either water or sewer lines when I was there Monday.

This structure, as well as the homes on Washington behind the fire department, were infested with vagrants and everyone knew they were going to burn. Demolition is more visible than proper boarding. It also allows city leaders to create scapegoats for their own failures of governance. Our leaders can’t campaign and win on good ideas because they don’t have any. They go for what allows them to post and posture almost 💯 of the time.

After Watergate, the FBI was shaken up and rebuilt. They got pretty effective at dismantling organized crime, especially the Mafia families. Clarksburg’s associate organizations were rattled pretty hard between 1985-1990. A lot of people have noticed that at least the older, more organized crime figures kept the sleaze confined to certain areas and handled people who pushed it too much in the face of polite society. They weren’t moving dope through abandoned houses on every block.

I am an unaffiliated voter and I recognize that issues like abortion have absolutely nothing to do with a city or county race. Unlike a state supreme court, there is nothing the official can do to stop abortions or to protect abortions. If I see a candidate bringing that subject up in a local race it tells me they don't care about the job they're seeking. I do not think I am alone in this. I have seen local candidates try this kind of partisan posturing in central West Virginia and it does not work. People want their local government do give them clean drinking water, to adequately remove sewage and trash, and to send the cops, fire, and EMS in a reasonable amount of time when there is an emergency. Jacksonville was failing at most of that stuff and the Democrat won not be cause she was a Democrat or because she was a woman, but because she addressed the things the voters wanted their local government to do. Ron DeSantis won Duvall County by 12% last year. If it was about partisan iss, his endorsed candidate would have won this week. But people know that mayor and governor are two completely different jobs with different responsibilities and focuses.

I am also curious. I wonder if anyone outside of the RG management and city finance director even know. They are never clear about P&L. Ryan Tolley insisted the RG was turning a profit but he didn’t count the mortgage payments because they’re made by the city, not the RG. I also don’t think he counted the salary of the three full time staff. At a budget meeting this year, the finance director said the RG turned a profit “if it started the year at zero.” What does that mean? It stood out to me because I don’t know what’s really being said there.

The “structural damage” was a crack in the glass veneer by the base of the front steps. They also claimed a photography studio violated the zoning regulation. Unfortunately I talked to them too late in the process for them to go to BOCA or PZA. Jim Llaneza did it to them. After he died things got better in Code Enforcement as far as new problems but they wouldn’t reconsider old condemnations. Unless you were on council or something.

Village Square. Hundreds of people came in from New York to gamble and stayed in hotels along the Interstate. In the early days of the Goings/Bowden council they inquired about putting a hotel there. The problem as I understand it is wetlands protections there for the mouth of Davisson Run at the West Fork River. A lot of illegal infill had already been done and the Corps of Engineers wasn't going to play ball. Rehabbing the Waldo wouldn't have been any more expensive than grading that area and building a new hotel. After historic preservation credits it would have been cheaper. It didn't go anywhere because Martin Shaffer was associated with the Waldo. But why-- was it just pure spite? Possibly. But maybe it's something else. The Waldo isn't laid out well to be a big casino but there is enough space on floors 1-3 for a restaurant, bar, or two as well as some gaming. Having 80-100 rooms above it means that many people downtown every night. There is no other project that I've ever heard of would pay for itself in this way and spur growth. It can't just be ignorance and spite.

I liked Harry well enough at first but it was a desperation hire and he took the job out of desperation. I don’t know if they need a local but they at least need someone who will move there. Kiddy doesn’t want to be the manager. He took the job because the other proposed names were… Let’s just say he felt he had to do it. But he gave them almost eight months, two months longer than he first said. If they can’t get it done then there’s bigger problems than lack of a manager. Which was kind of my point- it’s hard to imagine them finding someone good that’ll work 20-30% below market rate and put up with the BS in Clarksburg.

How about you as city manager.

It would be a pay cut but there’s no sum of money that would make me want to work for them.

I forgot about Lexington. I am familiar with it. It also has an urban growth boundary. Lexington metro area pretty much ends at the growth boundary. The city is a lot denser than most. Cincinnati sprawls and there’s not a clear place where I-75 communities stop being Cincinnati metro and start being Dayton metro.

If you count the three beach towns as part of Jacksonville, it’s already over a million. I guess unified county government does leave these gray areas. “The consolidated government has and shall have jurisdiction as a chartered county government and extend territorially throughout Duval County, and has and shall have jurisdiction as a municipality throughout Duval County except in the Cities of Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Neptune Beach and the Town of Baldwin.”

Don't forget Baldwin,which is also an independent town or city in western Duval County.So that makes 4.

@@willbygosh4887 everybody forgets Baldwin. I was looking into Columbus-Franklin. Columbus makes up the majority of Franklin County but they haven’t unified. Marion Township got absorbed by Columbus, and Columbus exists “within” Montgomery Township, with the latter existing only on paper. In the Dayton area, Kettering, Beaver Creek, and Huber Heights converted from townships to cities. A portion of the old Wayne township covers part of Wright-Patterson AFB and couldn’t be incorporated so a part of it remains on paper outside of Huber Heights.