Reply to Western Maryland

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Western Maryland "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was recently in Cumberland, MD. It was my first time. I was so shocked by the poverty juxtaposed to the beauty. To the despair as compared to the potential for that town.  The bones are there. It’s in a beautiful setting.  Can it be revived?  I could see people moving in and buying cheap houses and setting up cafes and breweries and small shops. Not sure that will help the locals but I’d love to see this happen to that town that has good bones. [/quote]
But who would frequent those businesses to keep them afloat? The locals wouldn't be able to afford those types of businesses. Who would be their customer base? Cumberland is too poverty stricken to make it a weekend getaway type destination.

Plus, how would it help the locals? All these cute stores wouldn't be able to provide a living wage to support a family for years and years. Creating a tax base would help - until the local politicians start blabbering about how taxes are too high/taxes need to be cut on businesses to attract even more businesses. Then the locals fall for that, vote for it and the cycle continues. [/quote]

I guess I am thinking rich dmv folks would live there.  Buy up the houses, fix them and work from home from there and provide jobs to locals.  With work from home becoming more prevalent, I’d consider a move like that….once my kids leave the nest but Cumberland as it is doesn’t feel safe. I just can see it turning. It needs a lot!!![/quote]
That sounds lovely but not realistic. A lot of the infrastructure needs to be built up before you could attract the rich DMV empty nesters. Someone upthread mentioned UPMC taking over the hospital so I guess that is a good first step but what is the health care community like? How many specialists call Cumberland home? How good is the hospital?

Does Frostburg have a lot of cultural opportunities for the surrounding communities? How is the transportation infrastructure? Do they at least have a Greyhound bus service that takes them to other cities?

(Side note - the decline of Greyhound bus service is a sad, sad thing for these poor rural communities. With the decline, these poor rural communities will just become more and more isolated. The federal government needs to subsidize Greyhound just like they do Amtrak)

These jobs (the cafes, breweries, small shops) won't provide health care/401ks. Going really sexist here, but those aren't good jobs for middle aged men. Those middle aged men (and even younger guys in their 20s) will feel excluded.

Rich DMV people moving in will just raise the prices of everything. Then the locals will be priced out of their communities. That is the problem with gentrification.

It does suck. That part of the country really is beautiful but solving the poverty is extremely tricky. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics