Western Maryland

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious - what is everyone here doing in Cumberland? We spend a few days there every year for Del Fest and have gotten to know the area well. But…what else is there? Def not Rocky Gap just for fun?

Nothing. There is nothing.

[Anonymous]

In Cumberland on the way to Frostburg for camp. I was fascinated by the place. It was so depressing but yet so inspiring. An entire abandoned town. It made me look up houses for sale.

[Anonymous]

I was born in Cumberland. My dad was from Frostburg and my mom from Cumberland. My dad had 12 siblings. Only he (one of the oldest) and the youngest got out. He got out when I was 1 when my aunt put her typing skills to use to fill out for him an old school SF-171 and he was able to get a job doing manual labor for DOD in the exurbs. My siblings and I are all in the professional class. I have one set of cousins who were able to get college degrees because their father was not a local/military and had more education. Everyone else is working at a gas station or doing hair, etc. It's sad. I'm beyond grateful to my dad to have the courage to get out. Besides the jail and the college, there is a Berreta factory and a boat factory. Cumberland used to be a prosperous town and the tourism industry it has been trying to launch is just not enough to keep it afloat.

[Anonymous]

China has been showing its hand of late. The West is idiotic to have given China so much power. If we're smart, we'll begin to bring back factories and production to the U.S. It'll benefit the nation and communities like Hagerstown and Cumberland, and lower the risk of a future war with China. Yes, it'll increase the price of goods. We can deal with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do other small towns with no industry survive? Genuine question. At least Cumberland has the outdoors to sell.

Oakland, Friendsville and Grantsville have the outdoors to sell.

Cumberland really doesn't have a lot to sell at this point. Their infrastructure is outdated, the kids who come up who have potential leave and there is nothing there to attract or retain now people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious - what is everyone here doing in Cumberland? We spend a few days there every year for Del Fest and have gotten to know the area well. But…what else is there? Def not Rocky Gap just for fun?

We go to visit family. There is no other reason to go unless you're passing through by bike or car.

[Anonymous]

I am surprised to learn how many of you are apparently startled to learn that there is this thing call "Appalachia."

I mean, I don't disagree with most of the explanatory responses about industry +/- , etc.

For those of you posting to say that you 'couldn't believe' you saw this or that on your way to the corporate retreat @ Deep Creek ... did you not previously know about Appalachian poverty and the exit of industry? Or maybe you thought all of Maryland was like Kensington with a little Chesapeake Bay on the weekends? Am genuinely curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised to learn how many of you are apparently startled to learn that there is this thing call "Appalachia."

I mean, I don't disagree with most of the explanatory responses about industry +/- , etc.

For those of you posting to say that you 'couldn't believe' you saw this or that on your way to the corporate retreat @ Deep Creek ... did you not previously know about Appalachian poverty and the exit of industry? Or maybe you thought all of Maryland was like Kensington with a little Chesapeake Bay on the weekends? Am genuinely curious.

We know about Appalachian poverty. I had never heard of Cumberland and was just surprised that in that beauty, was like a mini Baltimore slum. Also, when you think of poverty, you think something has always been poor or that way. Cumberland clearly has the bones of something that was once not so. Again, like Baltimore. Maybe I need to get out and visit depressed towns more but I’ve been to Martinsville, West Va and that didn’t strike me in the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do other small towns with no industry survive? Genuine question. At least Cumberland has the outdoors to sell.

Oakland, Friendsville and Grantsville have the outdoors to sell.

Cumberland really doesn't have a lot to sell at this point. Their infrastructure is outdated, the kids who come up who have potential leave and there is nothing there to attract or retain now people.

But why is Oaklands outdoors so much more valuable than Cumberlands?

[Anonymous]

Where is Oakland as it relates to state parks and lakes as compared to Cumberland?

Location matters.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Cumberland and Baltimore are two sides of the same coin; both ruined by industry leaving, both dealing with politicians who do not care, both dealing with brain drain.

The only difference is that Baltimore HAS stuff going for it, like the Port of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, etc. to keep it afloat and at least relevant.

the extreme poverty in parts of Baltimore is also due to redlining though.

But even more due to similar problems as plague Cumberland, with a much larger number of low-skilled, poverty-stricken residents who blame others for all their problems.

Where have you found that low-skilled, impoverished people blame others for their problems?

You can't be serious.

I am dead serious. I suspect you don’t actually know any people who fit that description.

LOL, you don't think that many folks in this situation blame undocumented immigrants, for example? I'll bet YOU don't know anybody in this situation, not me!

I actually WAS in that situation (on food stamps and got cash assistance), and I never thought my problems were due to someone else. But please go ahead and malign society’s most vulnerable.

See, here's the thing: So was I, and like you I didn't think that way either. But that doesn't give me a license to speak for everyone in my former situation.

Trump made a point of blaming these people's problems on illegal immigration, and his BS worked. Just the other day a guy doing work on my WV property told me West Virginians would be "far better off if the government would stop spending money on illegal immigrants and spend it on American citizens."

Also there are literally posters on this thread blaming Cumberland’s problems on transplants from Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am surprised to learn how many of you are apparently startled to learn that there is this thing call "Appalachia."

I mean, I don't disagree with most of the explanatory responses about industry +/- , etc.

For those of you posting to say that you 'couldn't believe' you saw this or that on your way to the corporate retreat @ Deep Creek ... did you not previously know about Appalachian poverty and the exit of industry? Or maybe you thought all of Maryland was like Kensington with a little Chesapeake Bay on the weekends? Am genuinely curious.

We know about Appalachian poverty. I had never heard of Cumberland and was just surprised that in that beauty, was like a mini Baltimore slum. Also, when you think of poverty, you think something has always been poor or that way. Cumberland clearly has the bones of something that was once not so. Again, like Baltimore. Maybe I need to get out and visit depressed towns more but I’ve been to Martinsville, West Va and that didn’t strike me in the same way.

Baltimore and Cumberland were once connected by the canal and railroad trade routes when that was the industrial transportation. Obviously there was a lot of money in Cumberland until the trade died.

"Cumberland was a key road, railroad and canal junction during the 19th century and at one time the second largest city in Maryland (second to the port city of Baltimore—hence its nickname "The Queen City"). The surrounding hillsides provided coal, iron ore, and timber that helped supply the industrial revolution. In addition, the city was a major manufacturing center, with industries in glass, breweries, fabrics, and tinplate. However, following World War II, it began to lose much of its industrial importance and its population declined from 39,483 residents in the 1940 census to fewer than 22,000 today.[1]"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cumberland,_Maryland

[Anonymous]

So that begs the question? How can one help a town like Cumberland absent putting a factory or a hospital? How does one revitalize it but not drive the locals out? Presumably a lot of these boarded up, dilapidated homes are owned by someone who doesn't live there and they'd be up for sale?!?! Or they are up for sale but until there is a trend to make Cumberland an "it" town, theyll remain that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Cumberland and Baltimore are two sides of the same coin; both ruined by industry leaving, both dealing with politicians who do not care, both dealing with brain drain.

The only difference is that Baltimore HAS stuff going for it, like the Port of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, etc. to keep it afloat and at least relevant.

the extreme poverty in parts of Baltimore is also due to redlining though.

But even more due to similar problems as plague Cumberland, with a much larger number of low-skilled, poverty-stricken residents who blame others for all their problems.

Where have you found that low-skilled, impoverished people blame others for their problems?

You can't be serious.

I am dead serious. I suspect you don’t actually know any people who fit that description.

LOL, you don't think that many folks in this situation blame undocumented immigrants, for example? I'll bet YOU don't know anybody in this situation, not me!

I actually WAS in that situation (on food stamps and got cash assistance), and I never thought my problems were due to someone else. But please go ahead and malign society’s most vulnerable.

See, here's the thing: So was I, and like you I didn't think that way either. But that doesn't give me a license to speak for everyone in my former situation.

Trump made a point of blaming these people's problems on illegal immigration, and his BS worked. Just the other day a guy doing work on my WV property told me West Virginians would be "far better off if the government would stop spending money on illegal immigrants and spend it on American citizens."

Also there are literally posters on this thread blaming Cumberland’s problems on transplants from Baltimore.

When Jessup closed and Maryland did away with the death penalty, the sentences for prisoners on death row were changed to life in prison and they were transferred to Cumberland's North Branch facility. The prisoner's families followed them and exacerbated existing social welfare problems. Drugs are another problem but not associated necessarily with prisoner's families. Drugs affect the losers who could not get away from the area and the losers who are attracted to the area for easy access to marijuana if they can't get meth or heroin. As the last generation with decent jobs and modest pensions die off, Cumberland will have nothing left but the dregs.

[Anonymous]

They vote 70%+ Trump/Republican out there. See what all that love for Republican policies has done for them?