Western Maryland

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I don’t think you can. To revitalize any town, you will need to provide a factory or something else that provides good jobs.

If a business wants to relocate somewhere, they will want to move to an area with plenty of good workers. Not druggies. What business would move to a Cumberland type area now when there isn’t a good supply of workers?

Cumberland (and the many towns like it) lived through their usefulness. They are at the end of their lifecycle. They are too remote to come back. Let it be a slum.

I have family in Cumberland and they have no desire to leave or accelerate their education. They don't do drugs but they barely have high school degrees and don't raise their kids with any ambitions to go to college, travel or leave Western Maryland. Part of the problem is how far they are from an airport - at least 2 hours to one by car. They have no experiences outside of their bubble. I don't care if it remains a slum, it's what they want.

The airport in Ridgeley is a one minute drive from Cumberland. I fly in their at least once a month.

You fly commercial to that area? To an imaginary airport that has commercial flights coming in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

When I was growing up in Cumberland, it was solid Democratic. Then the Democrats shipped all the jobs from the United States and ruined Cumberland. Cumberland also see its taxes going to Democratic bastions like Baltimore.
The Democrats betrayed them, and they are voting for Republicans.

Here in the DMV land of milk and honey, the Democrats are popular because they provide all the social welfare benefits so that you can have low cost labor to build houses, take care of your kids, clean your houses, cut your grass, and keep you well isolated from those who do your cut work. Of course, you want the Democrats to stay in power.

LOL. A couple pages back somebody scoffed at my post that folks who vote Republican blame others for their problems. You've just proved her wrong.

One can always tell a privileged upper class white girl

dp.. one can always tell a person who blames others for their lot in life.

-non white, from lower income parents who worked factory jobs that got outsourced.[/quote

- the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

When I was growing up in Cumberland, it was solid Democratic. Then the Democrats shipped all the jobs from the United States and ruined Cumberland. Cumberland also see its taxes going to Democratic bastions like Baltimore.
The Democrats betrayed them, and they are voting for Republicans.

Here in the DMV land of milk and honey, the Democrats are popular because they provide all the social welfare benefits so that you can have low cost labor to build houses, take care of your kids, clean your houses, cut your grass, and keep you well isolated from those who do your cut work. Of course, you want the Democrats to stay in power.

You must be really old.

37

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I don’t think you can. To revitalize any town, you will need to provide a factory or something else that provides good jobs.

If a business wants to relocate somewhere, they will want to move to an area with plenty of good workers. Not druggies. What business would move to a Cumberland type area now when there isn’t a good supply of workers?

Cumberland (and the many towns like it) lived through their usefulness. They are at the end of their lifecycle. They are too remote to come back. Let it be a slum.

I have family in Cumberland and they have no desire to leave or accelerate their education. They don't do drugs but they barely have high school degrees and don't raise their kids with any ambitions to go to college, travel or leave Western Maryland. Part of the problem is how far they are from an airport - at least 2 hours to one by car. They have no experiences outside of their bubble. I don't care if it remains a slum, it's what they want.

The airport in Ridgeley is a one minute drive from Cumberland. I fly in their at least once a month.

The Hagerstown airport is doable from Cumberland. It's small, but it offers some commercial flights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Having lived for many years in a similar place, where the main industry collapsed and the town has been in gradual decay every since, with brain drain and anyone of means escaping while they can, I've seen the pattern repeat over and over, it's a cynical mentality that takes over that somehow convinces themselves that the rest of the country is in similar, if not worse decline and decay regardless of any realities to the contrary, they struggle to make ends meet and thus conclude that their own struggle is everyone else's fault, as though the rest of us are "mooching" off of them. Along with sneering at the ones who escaped as "elitists." I hear this kind of thing every time I go back to visit. I've busted my own tail to succeed - busted my ass and paid my own way through college, worked my ass off to work my way up the rungs in my professional careers, I make more and pay more in taxes than they do yet somehow they think people like me are the problem. And all that belief goes into their MAGA sentiments, and they keep doubling down on it even as their community goes to hell around them.

When Mitt Romney said that 47% of people couldn't be helped, I wonder if he was thinking of these left behinds.

On the bolded, I never understood why some people seek out conspiracy theories that portray the world as evil and aligned against them, like the Alex Jones type. But, yeah, they need the world to be as hopeless as they feel, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Why should the people vote for Democrats? They have never done anything for those dying towns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why should the people vote for Democrats? They have never done anything for those dying towns.

Nobody can help these people 100%. It really needs to be a Help us Help you situation. If they aren’t willing to meet the government half way, then what do they expect Democrats to do? Can you blame any politician for not paying them much attention ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should the people vote for Democrats? They have never done anything for those dying towns.

Nobody can help these people 100%. It really needs to be a Help us Help you situation. If they aren’t willing to meet the government half way, then what do they expect Democrats to do? Can you blame any politician for not paying them much attention ?

What happened to "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" R motto?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should the people vote for Democrats? They have never done anything for those dying towns.

Nobody can help these people 100%. It really needs to be a Help us Help you situation. If they aren’t willing to meet the government half way, then what do they expect Democrats to do? Can you blame any politician for not paying them much attention ?

What happened to "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" R motto?

Again, those people have no clue how bad off they are. They live in a bubble and just don’t know. They also probably don’t want to know. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is for “other” people.

[Anonymous]

Here's the chamber of commerce for Allegany County:
https://alleganycountychamber.com/

They have two events this month including a crab feast and a networking happy hour. Check out their monthly newsletter.

Here's the same thing for Montgomery County:
https://www.mcccmd.com/

0 events in August, one legislative reception in September.

Tell me Cumberland isn't trying....

[Anonymous]

A crabfest in the mountains?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A crabfest in the mountains?

It's still Maryland, afterall. One thing about western Maryland is that it's on the other side of Sideling Hill, which is very difficult to get over without seriously stressing your car or truck. 18 wheelers especially have a hard time with it.

If we had a better high speed rail system, places like Cumberland would do a lot better. Think of like a Grenoble type city, which is similarly cutoff in a mountain valley, but is served by high speed rail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the chamber of commerce for Allegany County:
https://alleganycountychamber.com/

They have two events this month including a crab feast and a networking happy hour. Check out their monthly newsletter.

Here's the same thing for Montgomery County:
https://www.mcccmd.com/

0 events in August, one legislative reception in September.

Tell me Cumberland isn't trying....

The Governor and Maryland are also hosting a meeting of the Appalachian Regional Commission in October.

https://governor.maryland.gov/2022/08/02/governor-hogan-announces-state-of-maryland-to-host-appalachian-regional-commission-annual-conference/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A crabfest in the mountains?

It's still Maryland, afterall. One thing about western Maryland is that it's on the other side of Sideling Hill, which is very difficult to get over without seriously stressing your car or truck. 18 wheelers especially have a hard time with it.

If we had a better high speed rail system, places like Cumberland would do a lot better. Think of like a Grenoble type city, which is similarly cutoff in a mountain valley, but is served by high speed rail.

Oh please. This is not the 1950s. There is an interstate and vehicles are fine. We move goods and people around Colorado. We do it in MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A crabfest in the mountains?

It's still Maryland, afterall. One thing about western Maryland is that it's on the other side of Sideling Hill, which is very difficult to get over without seriously stressing your car or truck. 18 wheelers especially have a hard time with it.

If we had a better high speed rail system, places like Cumberland would do a lot better. Think of like a Grenoble type city, which is similarly cutoff in a mountain valley, but is served by high speed rail.

You people are insufferable. Grenoble is about 1.5 hours from both Lyon and Geneva and has world class skiing. But of course, the main distinguishing factor between Grenoble and Cumberland is high speed rail. Idiotic.