Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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!!!

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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!!!

If they’re WFH how would they be providing jobs to locals?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Western Maryland gets what it deserves for voting Republican.

Hagerstown City Council is majority female, and 2/5 are POCs:
https://www.hagerstownmd.org/134/Meet-the-City-Council

The mayor is a single mother supporting LGBTQ causes:
https://www.hagerstownmd.org/133/Meet-the-Mayor

NP..IMO, Hagerstown isn't that bad. It's fairly diverse, seems to have some decent paying jobs, and yes, votes blue.

I'm not white, in a biracial marriage with kids. I've been to Hagerstown numerous times, and don't feel like we stick out at all. It's also on the way to White Tail, so I think Hagerstown probably sees a lot of folks going to White Tail.

Cumberland, oth, wow. We stopped over there on the way to Deep Creek, had lunch, and walked around their town. It was definitely a sad town, but the thing that stuck out at me was the dirty look we got from this old guy with a MAGA hat. We've only ever lived in a diverse area, so it was a bit of a surprise to get that kind of reaction.

Anonymous wrote: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.

I’m the PP that lived in frostburg. There is this persistent hope that this will happen - people would talk about this potential a lot - but it never materialized. The infrastructure just isn’t there: there’s not even a Target for chrissakes. There is an awful, awful dearth of professional roles, and even professors at the university are underpaid relative to professors nationally. It’s just depressed in every way imaginable.

Anonymous wrote:Western Maryland gets what it deserves for voting Republican.

First of all, these problems are the result of globalization. Second, this is a very unliberal thing to stay but typical of a lot of elitist liberal posters on DCUM. A lot of people are tricked are into voting against their interests by politicians. Not everyone has the opportunity to go to college and be enlightened like you. The people that live in these areas with no jobs and an opioid crisis are really victims of globilization, bad policies, and politics, just like the people who live in Baltimore and have to worry about violent crime.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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!!!

Combined, the three counties of Western Maryland have four percent of the state's population. Even throwing in Frederick County and you're barely at eight percent. And they insist on electing nutjob Republicans in a deeply blue state. The combination explains their complete marginalization. Duh.

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

There's still a lot of coal in the fields around Cumberland but coal mining will never come back. Goods once manufactured in the city are now imported from China, where teen-age girls work long hours at low wages. The railroads still carry a lot of freight, but they typically pass through without stopping.

It's called capitalism.

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1 This is the only positive path forward that I can see. The potential is there, for sure.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Frostburg, which is a twenty minute drive west of Cumberland and also in Allegany county, is a cute town - I’m the notorious western maryland stripper mom lol (never did strip! Imagine that) - and I couldn’t agree more with the OP. I lived there for four years and came to observe the following: (a) the locals are EXTREMELY insular and wholly distrustful and hostile to outsiders, which is an attitude common to Appalachia generally. (B) During Christmas, I would meet people who’d grown up locally but bolted as soon as they were college aged. Anyone with potential leaves and does not come back - major brain drain. As a result, there’s just not enough of an economic/intellectual base to build upon. Fun stat: 3/4 of Allegany county children qualify for free and reduced lunch.

This. I grew up in a small town in Western PA that used to be somewhat prosperous back in the day. Then, the major industry left and the brain drain started. Anyone with potential left and there just isn't the economic/intellectual base to build upon (well said!) The people left don't have high standards and don't know to demand more from their elected officials. They are stuck in the past and can't adapt to changing times/progress. The vote against their own self-interests. They have no idea they are a bottom rung of society's ladder and need help. They take no personal responsibility in improving their lives and the lives of future generations.

It's like they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink it. Also, help us help you. The government can't magically make their lives better unless they are willing to meet the government half way.

I guess I'm just getting cynical in my old age and especially after these people foisting Trump and his brand of politics on the entire country but I've had enough of them. You don't want to adapt to the changing times? You want everything to be the way it was in the 50s? You want to blame minorities/liberals for all your problems? You don't want to improve your life? Then fine. Live in your dying, $h*!-hole town.

There needs to be towns in this country that are essentially slums to house all the people who are like this. Yes, basic services will need to be provided to those towns so hopefully we can catch the few people with potential but everyone else...they can't survive in real cities. Anyone with potential - we should make it easier for them to be able to leave.

Anonymous wrote:This is what happened to Cumberland



Maryland legalized marijuana ans enciyraged grow houses and dispensaries which attract drug addicts who can at least get pot if not meth and heroin

LOL. Get out of here with that bs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, Frederick is growing, but what is it doing for its "natives?"

Lot of people living in the woods or camps because COL has gone too high and they can't afford to live there anymore.

It's disgraceful. I've seen frail elderly people in their 80s working retail because social security just isn't enough. These are people who are naturally frugal. The fault is entirely with the government that has allowed COL to get so high.

Saying Frederick is Western Maryland is like saying Stafford County is Southern Virginia. Moronic post.

Reading comprehension is not your strong suit, my friend.

Anonymous wrote:Western Maryland gets what it deserves for voting Republican.

Hagerstown City Council is majority female, and 2/5 are POCs:
https://www.hagerstownmd.org/134/Meet-the-City-Council

The mayor is a single mother supporting LGBTQ causes:
https://www.hagerstownmd.org/133/Meet-the-Mayor