May 2010
9 posts
4 tags
Is That Seriously What You're Gonna Do?
Tonight, Morgantown’s leading lights gathered in my backyard and amongst the topics of conversation was last week’s “workshop”. It was, in case you’re wondering, everything that’s wrong with local politics, and particularly the local politics of Morgantown, West Virginia. There is much to criticize - first and foremost, the apparent misunderstanding of the term...
6 tags
The Forty Four Jones Place "Workshop"
There I was, driving across town, back to my old neighborhood, to my old elementary school, notebook and pen in my pocket, hat on my head, ready. Ready for what, I wasn’t sure, but I was relatively certain that the planned workshop to discuss the proposal to build a huge development called Forty Four Jones Place was going to be tense and nervous and exciting and political and it was all of...
6 tags
Wiles Hill, Fighting Back
At some point in the recent past, a local developer proposed to build a huge new apartment building on Jones Street. He cleverly titled the project Forty Four Jones Place. He started the process of getting the necessary permits and permissions. He approached the appropriate politicians to get their support which, owing to the nature of our local politicians, was immediately and unequivocally given...
6 tags
The First Elegant Solution
There are plenty of common sense solutions that can be implemented in an attempt to stem the tide of permanent residents from Morgantown’s neighborhoods. That they they haven’t gone into use tells us much about the attitude of city officials toward residents in the various neighborhoods surrounding downtown. Let’s discuss one (utterly obvious) proposal.
Last week, Wiles Hill...
6 tags
No Sooner...
…than I get the draft written for my last post do I get this in my inbox, a letter written by a homeowner living near 524 Short Street. This happened after the garbage was cleared away and the home’s new residents moved in:
Good morning,
I thought you all needed a fun tale to read over your morning coffee. It’s not about our tree in our backyard that is now just plain ugly and...
7 tags
Although This Isn't About Students...
…it’s hard sometimes not to look toward them with a furrowed brow. Especially when what’s photographed above is often what they leave behind. Then though it has to be remembered: they don’t own these properties. They rent what’s available to them, and this house, on 524 Short Street in Wiles Hill, is one of what was many that available to them. There was a time when...
6 tags
The Dominion Post Is Awful
It’s hard to put it any plainer than that, particularly when our esteemed local publication has just been caught digitally altering photographs for the sketchiest of reasons. The offered explanation - that the newspaper simply doesn’t run photographs of candidates running for office - boggles the imagination. Since when, one wonders. Of course the more likely explanation is that the...
4 tags
Next On The Chopping Block: Woodburn Elementary
It’s a strange thing that Woodburn Elementary survived as long as it did. Sitting squarely within the city of Morgantown’s Woodburn neighborhood - itself slowly being turned from nice livable community to one dominated by landlords and the students they rent to - Woodburn Elementary (like Wiles Hill and Central and Second Ward and First Ward before it) has been targeted for closure by...
3 tags
Wiles Hill's Decline
What’s neat to see, having grown up in this town long enough to remember its various thriving neighborhoods, is watching the city’s local governing apparatuses scheme amongst themselves to kill off those same neighborhoods. They do it slowly, of course, as residents will recognize what’s happening ahead of time if anybody’s too awfully blatant, but slowly and surely the...
