Wheeling...tell me everything BAD! please :)

[MaryBeth2]

I remember how bad Wheeling smelled when I was a little girl. I suppose the mills that made that smell are closed up now. Something to look into I suppose.

[MasterKutsch]

The main problem with wheeling is that their is not much to do here at all. I mean its a nice small town to raise your family and enjoy a bit of a quieter place but all in all its just as bad as any other town. While it may not look it underage abuse is the biggest problem here (including drugs), also its a very large "middle town" for drug trafficking. Another problem is that everyone knows everyone, so if you have some secrets, keep them secrets. Also everyone in politics knows everyone and they seem to be really tight with each other most people will stay in their positions till they retire. This town is really who you know, not what you do on a very serious level. The reason for the huge demand in teachers is that many are either under qualified, retiring or finding better paying teaching positions. The local authorities also hate the teenage population. and all act like they have a chip on their shoulder. mostly its a nice quiet town but once you get acquainted with it you will eventually see what it is, but then that's no different for any town. Just really make sure you want to come here most adults do and younger children but most teens can not wait to leave. Thats why you will find a large older population at day and a much larger teen population with nothing to do.

[MasterKutsch]

Originally Posted by zheni

Despite the low prices, you may not want to live on Wheeling Island. It gets SERIOUSLY flooded every few years, and in many places houses are dilapidated and empty. There is a large casino complex on the island. Families who do like living on "the island" are often those who have lived there for years (decades?) and all know each other well. It has nice parts, some neat old Victorian houses, but also very run down parts, and might be difficult to sell if you change your mind.

There are probably pretty good teaching opportunities here. My kids went to the private schools, which pay less but also have better students, with fewer social problems at school and home, and smaller classes. The WV education bureaucracy is pretty daunting, but salaries are pretty good from what I understand. You may need to get recertified to teach here.

It is nice to have the colleges nearby, and one of the best things is Oglebay Park. Oh, yeah, BAD things...

Not many good ethnic restaurants. No Thai, Indian, Sushi - but you can go up to Pittsburgh for whatever you want, about an hour (easy) drive.

Don't know where you are coming from, but the winter can get long and gray...but it's gorgeous from April to Thanksgiving. Hope this helps!

The school system you obviously have no clue what your kids are doing, b/c every school is just as bad as the other the only difference is size. And oglebay is a gaint screw up owned by the state but with its own commission. if you ever wonder where your tax dollars are going thats it. Oglebay has a bigger debt then the local drug dealers have to their drug lords. haha but really dont ever work their unless you get to upper management. good first teenage job for the first 5 months then goes to crap.

[MasterKutsch]

Originally Posted by GottaHerdOn

Well, thats half the problem. Because teachers can drive into the other state and make 10,000 more. Also the current teachers in the schools are generally older and are starting to retire now. Leave lots of vacancies to fill. WV Board of Ed. is realizing the problem of 4,000 something possible empty seats in the state next year, and are possibly going to raise the sallary up to 35,000 minimum for 1st year teachers with a bachelors degree. In some specializations, Chemistry, Math, and foreign languages they are even going to offer debt repayment, and for current teachers who would like to get certified in Chemistry, Math, and foreign languages. Its not a Wheeling problem, it is a state of WV problem

even if they do start qualifying new teachers with bachelor degrees most are very inexperience or poor teachers, even the ones who have been here for years are too old fashioned and naive. Most of our teachers now have either a hard time reaching their students or teaching them anything at all. this town is crap if want to really know what goes on here ask the teenagers their the ones that see all the bad stuff but no one has time to listen to them or believe them. you remember how it was as a kid you saw everything that happened and how you lied to your parents about things. its the same as any other town, just a lot smaller and quieter.

[bls5555]

Originally Posted by scorpy01

Hostile to business in Wheeling would be the regressive B&O tax. Business is taxed on their gross income rather than net income. .

What is the reasoning behind this? That is absolutely ridiculous.

[CTMountaineer]

I'm originally from Wheeling. It is a nice town that is about half the size it once was population wise due to factory closings, but the core characteristics of the town remain in place. It has probably the best municipal park system in the world with well over 1,000 acres of fully developed public park land, and is close to numerous colleges and universities... West Liberty State College, Bethany College, Wheeling Jesuit University, the University of Steubenville (20 miles to the North), Ohio University-Belmont and Belmont Technical College (14 miles to the West), Washington and Jefferson College (22 miles to the East) West Virginia Northern, and is about an hour from several Pittsburgh colleges and 1 hour 15 minutes from fabulous West Virginia University.

The town is mostly German Irish in extraction with significant Italian and Polish groups who have blended in with everyone else. Many people work in Pittsburgh or in the coal mines, the public parks, or local colleges. The crime rate is low as are housing costs. People are generally friendly and welcome newcomers. There really isn't much bad to say about it except that the downtown part of town is largely neglected and unused.

[Nick538]

mattbward

As scorpy01 mentioned, the Business & Occupation tax is just one of many reasons why Wheeling is hostile to business. Towns like Charleston can get away with this because they are not competing with other states. Wheeling has to compete with PA and OH. The B&O tax forces businesses to pay a quarterly tax on gross revenues. For example, let's say your classification rate is 0.5%. You have sales of $1 million. Now, let's say it was a rough year and you lost $100,000. Guess what? The city still gets their 0.5% off the top. That is, you had better come up with $50,000 to pay the city or you are out of business.

On top of this, political corruption is rampant and completely ignored. Certain people have spent $250,000 or more to have themselves elected to a low paying city job. The reason is that they can steer federal grant money and development to properties owned by the officials and/or their partnerships/cronies. If you don't know who to pay off, forget it. Looking to make good money in commercial real estate? Won't happen, unless you have a Ham & Cheese sandwhich in your hand.

The city infastructure is falling apart. Non-profits get all the attention, though they pay no taxes and create few jobs. The city refuses to reduce its' budget, despite losing close to 10% of its' population over the last decade. It has a $1 million budget surplus each year but won't cut taxes. Despite the current economic crisis, job losses and a smaller tax base, city unions want wage increases for their employees.

There is no development to speak of because Wheeling has been suckling on the Federal Pork tit for so long, they have no idea how to create jobs. Company after company is closing, moving out, etc. The Highlands is getting the car dealers and several stores. Downtown is dead. The drug addicted, the homeless, the criminal, etc. all hang around downtown and bother you. A woman was assaulted and robbed in broad daylight, near a busy office building. Murders happen and are swept under the rug. The city has no understanding of real capitalism.

If West Virginia in general, and Wheeling in particular, want to turn things around, they would encourage the following:

1. Pass a Right to Work law, which bans compulsory union membership.
2. Do away with Prevailing Wage laws.
3. Pass tort reform.
4. Harshly punish political corruption.
5. Demand infastructure investment, not pork spending.
6. Focus on For Profit, not Non-Profit.
7. Crack down on crime. Harshly.
8. Do away with the B&O tax.
9. Continue to push down Workers Comp costs.
10. Invest in education.
11. Push health & fitness.
12. Spend massive amounts of money to clean up downtown and encourage at least 1 Fortune 500 company to move their HQ to Wheeling.
13. Cut corporate taxes to the minimum.
14. Tear down blighted properties.
15. Improve city maintenance & services and outsource things that could be done more efficiently by the private sector.
16. Open up the political process. Every land deal, tax break, city contracts, etc. and every dollar spent by the city, county, state & feds, should have names and amounts attached.
17. I'm sure there are more but the city needs to pay me $250,000 for a consulting contract so that I can be the 20th person to tell them the obvious, which is STOP PAYING OUT OF TOWNERS FOR CONSULTING WHEN THE SOLUTIONS ARE COMMON SENSE AND ARE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!!!

[CTMountaineer]

Originally Posted by Nick538

mattbward

As scorpy01 mentioned, the Business & Occupation tax is just one of many reasons why Wheeling is hostile to business. Towns like Charleston can get away with this because they are not competing with other states. Wheeling has to compete with PA and OH. The B&O tax forces businesses to pay a quarterly tax on gross revenues. For example, let's say your classification rate is 0.5%. You have sales of $1 million. Now, let's say it was a rough year and you lost $100,000. Guess what? The city still gets their 0.5% off the top. That is, you had better come up with $50,000 to pay the city or you are out of business.

On top of this, political corruption is rampant and completely ignored. Certain people have spent $250,000 or more to have themselves elected to a low paying city job. The reason is that they can steer federal grant money and development to properties owned by the officials and/or their partnerships/cronies. If you don't know who to pay off, forget it. Looking to make good money in commercial real estate? Won't happen, unless you have a Ham & Cheese sandwhich in your hand.

The city infastructure is falling apart. Non-profits get all the attention, though they pay no taxes and create few jobs. The city refuses to reduce its' budget, despite losing close to 10% of its' population over the last decade. It has a $1 million budget surplus each year but won't cut taxes. Despite the current economic crisis, job losses and a smaller tax base, city unions want wage increases for their employees.

There is no development to speak of because Wheeling has been suckling on the Federal Pork tit for so long, they have no idea how to create jobs. Company after company is closing, moving out, etc. The Highlands is getting the car dealers and several stores. Downtown is dead. The drug addicted, the homeless, the criminal, etc. all hang around downtown and bother you. A woman was assaulted and robbed in broad daylight, near a busy office building. Murders happen and are swept under the rug. The city has no understanding of real capitalism.

If West Virginia in general, and Wheeling in particular, want to turn things around, they would encourage the following:

1. Pass a Right to Work law, which bans compulsory union membership.
2. Do away with Prevailing Wage laws.
3. Pass tort reform.
4. Harshly punish political corruption.
5. Demand infastructure investment, not pork spending.
6. Focus on For Profit, not Non-Profit.
7. Crack down on crime. Harshly.
8. Do away with the B&O tax.
9. Continue to push down Workers Comp costs.
10. Invest in education.
11. Push health & fitness.
12. Spend massive amounts of money to clean up downtown and encourage at least 1 Fortune 500 company to move their HQ to Wheeling.
13. Cut corporate taxes to the minimum.
14. Tear down blighted properties.
15. Improve city maintenance & services and outsource things that could be done more efficiently by the private sector.
16. Open up the political process. Every land deal, tax break, city contracts, etc. and every dollar spent by the city, county, state & feds, should have names and amounts attached.
17. I'm sure there are more but the city needs to pay me $250,000 for a consulting contract so that I can be the 20th person to tell them the obvious, which is STOP PAYING OUT OF TOWNERS FOR CONSULTING WHEN THE SOLUTIONS ARE COMMON SENSE AND ARE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!!!

You're right about the political corruption and the basically incestual and bloated city government. It is so big that the employees are a major political force in the town, and it is nearly impossible for anyone to get elected unless they agree to ignore the town's needs in favor of maintaining the group in power. The most recent mayor didn't run for re-election. Rumor has it the reason is so he wouldn't be accused of insider activities when the city buys all the junk property he purchased before getting his cronies on board to buy it at inflated prices with government money. It doesn't have the crime of some other towns, but the problems are there and they are largely self created.

[king0]

Wheeling and huntington alike both try and cover up their crime. These are prbably the 2 worst city in WV. There are many shootings and beatings in both areas because of street crime. Drugs are also easy for anyone to get.

[sheepie25]

Poster, I honestly didn't read many other posts and barely yours before I wanted to jump in. I was born in wheeling but raised 10 minutes away in ohio (martins ferry). As I'm sure you found out they call the whole area the Ohio Valley. Well after I went to college in a greatttt WV town (morgantown) I got out immediatley.

BAD (THESE ARE MY OPINIONS SO I DON"T NEED FEEDBACK)

1. People may sugarcoat it but theres nothing to do. Yea theres Wheeling Park , the hockey team (if they still exist)

2. Theres no diversity in races

3.No jobs. Espc. for ppl my age unless you work in the mill or coal mine. Meaning if you had a 16 yr old daughter she mostl likely couldnt get a retail job. I had a fashion degree and couldn't

4. No good shopping excpet for the fabolous mall in st.clairsville or THe highlands which are boring to me.

5. to find a amusement park , waterpark, different restaurants, concerts, shopping, museums, plays etc-you need to go to Pittsburgh. Which is only like a hour but why not just live where the action is? Prolly cost

6. Cops in ohio valley are pigs, they are so bored and I have heard and experenced their harassing behavior.

7. Ugly homes in SURROUNDING areas-i.e bridgeport, martins ferry. Yes theres good and bad. BC even the wheeling has the island and east wheeling.

8. The thing I hated most was winters, hence i moved to FL

9. City goverment is not very foresighted. Unwillengness to try nething innovative or new

Good:
1. From what my parents say homes are affordable. We just sold our 2nd home which was on wheeling parks golf course. Most homes in wheeling are traditional and pretty. If renting a apt there hard to come by though. I know we had a nice house there that sold for a decent price.

2. It really is safe. I spent a lot of time in wheeling(except east and the island) and alwats felt 100% safe.

3. Truth be told-as much as I complain I had the best childhood in the ohio valley. Even though we don't have nightclubs or stuff like that my friends and I made our fun. It was wholesome fun too.

4. Wonderful ppl live in wheelling/ohio valley

5. Cultural-towngate theatre, symphony, 2 colleges

5. Property tax is relativetly good there. Compared to other places..


But what I have learned, it's all what you make it. I at times miss the Ohio Valley and have been back to visit once. But you have to go to a Mountaineer Footballl game if you want to be a true West virginian. Oh yeah and you gotta memorize Country Roads by John Denver. Lastly, long live wild, wonderful west virginia!<3