Spruce, you are exactly right. There's a great deal of slamming of the school system with this post, and some of it probably justified. However, you want to know what's wrong with our town?
In the late 80's and 90's due to a lack of foresight by leaders in the community, spaces to build new homes dried up. People who wanted bigger homes with multiple baths, multiple car garages, etc.... started moving to other communities.
Meanwhile, the homes they left turned over at least once in the following decades. They were then bought up by the slum lords who have ruined this community. We hear these morons who lease property to the lower income of this community griping because the city makes them bring homes up to code. They use scare tactics to hold their renters hostage. " Gripe about conditions to the city leaders and I'll raise your rent or evict you". Talk about a racket. These assclowns suck the property value down, collecting rents but never putting back.
Drive down to the new restaurant and see some of the shacks that people are forced to live in. Four family flats with broken windows, no insulation, windows that allow more air through than paper. See what these people are getting for five and six hundred dollar a month rentals.
While these slums continue to deteriorate they not only bring down the market value of our homes, they create blighted areas within our city, making whole neighborhoods worth half of what they were when these slumlords took over.
Will the drop in property values continue to support the infrastructure of the city? No, just as you say spruce. However, to put the burden on people who took jobs knowing what their future held in terms of pay schedules is wrong as well.
As I said before the schools and the city need to take a new focus with all new employees from the top down. Future employees will have a choice of working here at a reduced rate or going elsewhere. That will eventually open the doors for lesser quality employees and will further drive down the market value of my home and yours.
The train is off the track and I believe there is still time to put it back on. New thinking will have to be in place to make that happen.
on March 3, 2015, 4:21 pm, in reply to "