Halloween on an iffy Youngstown street....

Monday, November 2, 2009

I think I have made it pretty clear, my neighborhood, and street, are not the best. Normally for Halloween, we drive to a cute little neighborhodd in Niles and go trick or treating there. This year though, the kids were sick so we were stuck home. I got to see first hand what a VERY sad affair Halloween is on my street. There were two brave souls out trying to trick or treat with their children, but no one answered the door for them. Almost every single porch light up and down the entire street was turned off. Couple that with the mostly malfunctioning street lights, and our street was quite dark. To top it off, after the trick or treaters gave up, there wasn't a soul in sight. The place was deserted all night long. It was just sad. I have never lived anywhere that you simply couldn't go trick or treating in such a populated neighborhood. What's truly sad is that I KNOW there are many families with children living here. Everyone has simply given up. It is symbolic. It is symbolic of how we have all given up on this neighborhood. The good families here COULD decorate their homes and give treats. We COULD go trick or treating if the neighborhood wasn't deserted for greener pastures each year. But sadly, I can't blame them. We do it to. As a parent ( a responsible parent anyway ), you have those silly fears of what if I knock on the wrong door? What if it's a sex offenders house? What if the person answering is high? What if the person handing out treats is armed? What if? What could you do? Run background checks on all possible homes and sign them up for trick or treating if met with approval? I don't think so. Nope, I guess we just keep going to greener pastures.... Oh, and to those that have a problem with strange families and strange children showing up to trick or treat each year (and trust me, I have heard it) - What's the most you're going to give away to the non-neighbor kids? $2 in candy? $3? Consider it a random act of kindness. Anyway, Halloween this year sucked. I haven't the first clue what our street could do to pull together to make it better for our neighborhood, but that too is symbolic. If you can't make Halloween work, how do you tackle the rest?

Alright, so we got a "community college" of sorts, now what?

Monday, September 28, 2009

I think it's a bit of synchronicity that just days after posting my last blog, I started seeing signs for Eastern Gateway Community College popping up around town. Apparently, I need to keep better tabs on what's going on in the Mahoning Valley :). Anyway, they are now offically open. They're site is located here - http://www.egatewaycc.us/ and they do have a smattering of course offerings to start off with.

I hate to start off with criticisms BUT most of the course offerings are online only, what they do offer in person is spread over 4 or 5 borrowed campuses, they don't seem to offer an actual degree or certification in anything at all - just random courses and worst of all, their prices are high. I'm sorry but $96 to $116 per course hour is not affordable AND there doesn't seem to be any discount for additional hours. If you reference say, the Houston Community College Systems' 2009-2010 Tuition and fee schedule you'll see that a properly established community college will start off with lower rates ($87.50 FLAT for in district students) and then DISCOUNT for additional hours tacked on. So, for instance, if I took 10 credit hours here at $96 an hour, with no discount, I pay $960. Ouch. At our example school (HCC) those same 10 hours, starting at a somewhat similar rate ($87.50), end up costing me only $571.00!!!!

Now to be fair(ish) - I looked into what seems to be EGCC's parent company (or partner), Jefferson Community College, and they don't charge much less (though they actually have real courses and degrees) and even found this sad little table - http://ns3.jcc.edu/jcc/PageList.aspx?pageid=10 basically showing that state and community college education in Ohio is a rip off.

As much as I would love to spend all day analyzing this, I have real work to get to. So, for now, I guess it's good someone came here but they really need to get their act together. In essence, we STILL don't have a community college, no matter what they "say".

Why is there no community college?

Thursday, September 3, 2009

I was researching a project for a client this morning and was thinking "Hey, maybe I should grab a quickie class on PHP to beef up my skills. In fact, I should get in the habit of taking at least one class a semester just to to keep up with the industry."

So, I went looking and there isn't anywhere to do it! There is no community college around here. If I want to take a class at YSU I have to go through admissions and all that PITA crud and then there are probably prerequisites, if they even have a class on PHP. I certainly don't want to go to a votech and get ripped off. I just want to go to a nice little community college, get a nice little certificate of completion and be done with it.

Why, oh why, in the Mahoning Valley, of all places, is there no community college? No place for subpar high school students to get easy degrees - no place for secretaries to learn new skills one class at a time - no place for housewives to take cooking classes or knitting classes - no place for overachieving teens to get college credit the fast and easy way - no place for community CPR classes - no place for those with limited time and limited budgets to go and learn without getting ripped off in financial aid and loans (you know, the type of college you can actually afford to pay for out of pocket) - NOTHING. I even checked Trumbull county and NOTHING. What the hell!?!

So, here's another common sense proposal (that should have been done ages ago) to improve the Valley and the lives of its citizens: Bring in a GOOD COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM.

In the meantime, I guess i'll just have to settle for an online class and send my educational dollars elsewhere.

If anyone knows why we don't have something as fundamental as a community college in the Mahoning Valley or has any ideas on how to get one, chime in!

Big Brother isn't watching......

Thursday, July 10, 2008

But he should be. Yes, I am against the evils of a too tightly monitored and controlled populace. Who isn't? But, SOME monitoring and control can be a very good thing.

I live in a neighborhood with drive-by's, drug dealers on every corner and "working girls" on every sidewalk. Small children wander aimlessly, far from home, completely unsupervised. Crime is rampant. It isn't safe to leave the house after dark. Etc, etc, etc......

What would be the quickest route to minimize all this? In my opinion, it would be CCTV monitoring. Sticking a camera on every other block won't do it though. We need something very similar to the system the UK has in place. All public places are saturated with cameras (capable of face recognition and high resolution recording) and they are hooked up to loudspeakers. When someone is doing something they aren't supposed, a friendly police officer gets on the speaker and tells that person to stop or wait for the police or to go on their merry way. There is immediate action taken. People are actually caught in the act much, much more often. As a result, crime in these areas has dropped significantly. The deterrent of POSSIBLY getting caught keeps people from ever doing anything in the first place. It's a great system, if you don't mind Big Brother, that is.

Now, I think this system should only be implemented in high crime areas. If a neighborhood or street has proven a good track record with deterring the criminal element, they shouldn't be subjected to it. But if a neighborhood can't control it's more "rowdy" neighbors, the city should step in.

Personally, I know this is a bit pie in the sky as the funding needed is a definite hurdle, not to mention getting the citizenry to approve it. So, I will be moving my happy rear end out of here within a year or two. I just have to pray a drive-by doesn't come too close or the local dealer doesn't decide to set up shop on my front sidewalk, or worse, in the meantime.

Ok, Youngstown, chime in on this. I would love to hear your opinion on Big Brother coming to a street corner near you.......

Lots and lots of lots......

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Since I touched on the issue of abandoned homes in my last post, I figured the next logical issue to discuss would be their resulting empty lots. My Northside street is slowly being opened up to more and more "green space" with an ever increasing amount lots. On the whole, this is a good thing but there are unfortunately many issues surrounding the lots themselves.

First, the city has a program that makes it possible for owners of adjacent properties to purchase the lots. The problem there is that you have to go through a mandatory class, fill out oodles of paperwork and then ultimately pay the city a pretty penny for relieving their tax burden for them. The city needs to remember that many of these lots haven't collected taxes in DECADES. The city is forced to maintain these lots (poorly BTW as anyone who's seen their slash and smash "mowing" efforts can attest to). The lots have become a magnet for illegal dumping. On my block, the neighbors have decided to use the lots as their own personal ATV / GoKart track. Instead of neghborhood parks, the local children have empty lots to play in, which in many cases are littered with demolition debris, broken glass, etc.

I have always thought that the city should completely streamline the process of lot acquisition. Have the property owner go down to City Hall, fill out papers for the lot(s) they want to claim and then add a small payment to the real estate taxes for a number of years. In the agreement the owners would agree to maintain the lot, keep it free from debris and to not build any permanent structures on it until paid off. In return they would have the right to use the property, defend against trespassing and prosecute for illegal dumping. Oh, and owners of rental properties would be exempt and not allowed to purchase lots. We have enough problems with multiple dwelling homes and renters in this area without making it more attractive for them to live here. I'll most likely touch on that issue in a seperate posting.

Now, let's say the adjacent owners do not want the lots or can't afford the extra payments/maintenance fees.... I say give them a few years to change their minds and then allow neighborhood associations to purchase the lots for the good of the neighborhood. Or have the city maintain the lots in trust and give the neighborhood association permission to use the lots for the benefit of the community. In such cases, the lots could be turned into community gardens, playgrounds, well managed green spaces, urban orchards and more. The neighborhood association would also then be able to or be required to post surveillance systems on the property which monitors the property AND surrounding areas, seriously cutting down on crime and curfew violations.

I have so many ideas to help the city. Some are practical, common sense ideas and others are a bit more "pie in the sky". If more people were trying to think of simple solutions to these problems, things would improve so much faster around here. Of course, ideas will only get you so far, you have to actually do them. Not make a plan based on your idea, put it in comittee to review the plan, plan for planning the plan some more, budget for the planning of the plan, put the plan on a website with a schedule of comittees who will be discussing the plan, hire an "expert" to rewrite the plan, re-review the plan, and then scrap the plan all together because too much money was wasted in the "planning" process. If you can't tell, I have a thing against idiotic governmental beaurocracy. Living in Youngstown, it's a major pet peeve :)

Ok, guys, what are your ideas for empty lots? I would love to hear more suggestions on this issue.

Abandoned houses....

Friday, June 20, 2008

Let's start things off with one of the most glaringly obvious issues in the Valley. Abandoned or dilapidated homes. Up until recently, I thought the major plan had been set in stone - Tear them down and turn the lots into green space. The end. But now, I have recently found out that the city of Youngstown has formed a committee to put together ideas to form a plan to go into committee to eventually decide what to do about the issue. Seriously? It's pretty obvious to me. TEAR THEM DOWN and be done with it. I am amazed at the beuracratic runaround the city is giving such important issues. But the longer I live here the more it seems that is their Modus Operandi - Plan for a committee, develop a committee to form a plan, review the plan in a new committee, let the ideas sit on a desk for a year or so, put it back under review for updates and revisions, request budget allocation to discuss and plan for the plan, and perhaps, maybe, if the "plan" is lucky, it might, maybe, be implemented at some point in the distant future, if it's poliically advantageous, that is.

What in the Hell ever happened to common sense in government? Did it ever exist anyway? But come on, some problems don't need the 14 comittee, 10 year run around. In the case of the abandoned homes, the solution is so mind numbingly simple it amazes me that anyone even thinks for a second that it isn't a simple solution. Sure, there may be some environmental issues with some of the homes, but even that takes simple research into EPA guidelines, forming a QUICK and easy to follow plan, and FOLLOWING THROUGH on it.

Let's just cut through all the red tape and get it over with shall we? The money we save on paying for all those plans and committees would help pay for a number of demos anyway.

What do you think? Comment on this article to chime in......

Welcome to Mahoning Valley Meanderings!

In this blog I intend to discuss all the many issues going on in or related to the Mahoning Valley and Northeast Ohio. Those of you who live here know these issues are many, so I should find plenty to talk about. Please comment to leave idea suggestions. Thanks for stopping by!