Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You are right, it is very simple. It is also paid for. One of the things the $3 city user fee funds is more police officers.
Some of the business owners have posted on social media about the vagrancy. One was trying to get other owners to organize and go to city council. I am not a fan of those forums either but useful topics come up occasionally. Due to the fact it will be automatically twisted into a "human rights" issue from the virtue signalers many may be reluctant to participate in a televised council meeting.
I have to wonder if there is more going on behind the scenes. I mentioned the one business owner who called the police and was told, "City council told us they have rights too". Comments like that combined with the City Fire Chief's notable appearance during the $5 million Haymaker purchase debate leads me to think there is much frustration between council and the various departments. It was an embarrassment to the council for him to show up and point out a lack of funding for a basic service like the fire department at that time.
So the Morgantown city government ruins downtown (and some other areas) with their nonsense polices and when nobody wants to come there any longer, they want annex new territory to spread the misery (and grab the cash, of course). I'll bet none of these people live in or near these areas now.
I hate to turn this into a right vs left thing, but after a lifetime of voting Democrat, this is why I vote the other way now. Not saying all people on the left support this stuff, but enough do that I'm no longer willing to take the risk.
Morgantown is becoming a dump. I'm actually ashamed for outsiders to see it these days.
I've not been back in M-town since '00 but I recall High St. looking rough at that time. Certainly not by big city standards then, but for evolving M-town since 10 yrs prior in early '90s (when I 1st came there for school) it had worsened & changed a tad. Have no idea now but it seems outer M-town has grown big w/ stores galore & yet like all mini-urban areas the core downtown from what you all say, has deteriorated.
Hope things turn around for sure as, if & when we get back there to live I'd rather it go back to the way it was at least -- prior to turn of century. Darn I'm getting old. LOL
I've not been back in M-town since '00 but I recall High St. looking rough at that time. Certainly not by big city standards then, but for evolving M-town since 10 yrs prior in early '90s (when I 1st came there for school) it had worsened & changed a tad. Have no idea now but it seems outer M-town has grown big w/ stores galore & yet like all mini-urban areas the core downtown from what you all say, has deteriorated.
Hope things turn around for sure as, if & when we get back there to live I'd rather it go back to the way it was at least -- prior to turn of century. Darn I'm getting old. LOL
It got better in the mid-2000's. Then it got much much worse.
Frederick, MD is a good example of a nice small downtown btw. Wish we could do something like that.
So the Morgantown city government ruins downtown (and some other areas) with their nonsense polices and when nobody wants to come there any longer, they want annex new territory to spread the misery (and grab the cash, of course). I'll bet none of these people live in or near these areas now.
I hate to turn this into a right vs left thing, but after a lifetime of voting Democrat, this is why I vote the other way now. Not saying all people on the left support this stuff, but enough do that I'm no longer willing to take the risk.
Morgantown is becoming a dump. I'm actually ashamed for outsiders to see it these days.
I get what you are saying. You mentioned San Francisco in a prior post. We all need to learn from those mistakes both L/R. You may be interested to hear my sister who was born here has lived there for 30+ years. One of the most beautiful cities in the world. She is a very liberal, hippie flower child type who got a scholarship to Cal Berkeley and even she is shocked at the changes in Mgtn. She joked that some of the people moving here may be so liberal that they got kicked out of San Francisco. LOL She sees people taking it too far and making things worse here. Never a good thing in a small town for either side. It's not the hometown she remembers anymore (and it's always been liberal).
(a bit OT for a minute) Barry Wendell from city council offended a lot of people with small town stereotypes he projected on Morgantown when he moved here from CA. He stated his goal was to "help us" and make it more LGBQT friendly here. Stop. Right. There. Barry needs to get a clue and quit making it all about him. We were LGBQT friendly here in the 80's when I was in college. Before Ellen came out and there was nationwide acceptance you could see a male couple holding hands and kissing on High St back then and no one cared or bothered them.
Even my own conservative, (frankly redneck) skoal chewing, Git-R-Done cap wearing brother in law only approves of my other sister who lives here to go out dancing with her girlfriends at one of the local gay bars. Being married, he doesn't want to worry about weird guys hitting on her. Even most "country" people are accepting here.
So...there are some false stereotypes about this small town to chew on. LOL Not to offend anyone; I just wish when new people would move here, they would STAY IN THEIR OWN LANE for a while and chill and see how things really are here before they run their mouth. If you are with WVU, new here and want to run for council because you have the time, here's a tip: Before suggesting wholesale changes about social issues here (you may be surprised to find we don't need your help on that part), please fix the obvious infrastructure, police protection, blight ones, etc. that we all can agree on.
It got better in the mid-2000's. Then it got much much worse.
Frederick, MD is a good example of a nice small downtown btw. Wish we could do something like that.
Frederick also has the luxury of being 30 minutes from large metropolitan areas in Baltimore (I-70) & Washington (I-270). There are a lot more affluent people there to spend money and clean things up.
However, it lacks the downtown density that older cities have like Morgantown, Cumberland, and Hagerstown, MD. Those three cities have great downtown potential but due to their age have big parking issues, rampant bums (especially in hard hit areas like Cumberland), and lack of affluent people to spend money.
Frederick also has the luxury of being 30 minutes from large metropolitan areas in Baltimore (I-70) & Washington (I-270). There are a lot more affluent people there to spend money and clean things up.
However, it lacks the downtown density that older cities have like Morgantown, Cumberland, and Hagerstown, MD. Those three cities have great downtown potential but due to their age have big parking issues, rampant bums (especially in hard hit areas like Cumberland), and lack of affluent people to spend money.
Grew up in Frederick until I started high school. It definitely has the benefit of its location, but the canal restoration they did could be done here along the riverfront if there was a will to do it and if city council could get their heads out of their rears (honestly not sure if possible). I agree about the density issue here vs there, Frederick while losing some of their more historic buildings greatly benefited from the building purging that occurred in the 70’s and 80’s there. Regarding bums and slums in Frederick, the one side of the canal was a no go zone to walk in and you always made sure to lock your doors when driving through it but when they invested heavily in the canal area they moved all of those people out to Hagerstown (bums via one way bus tickets) and to the low income condo neighborhood they built around the Frederick Golf Course way outside of town.
I get what you are saying. You mentioned San Francisco in a prior post. We all need to learn from those mistakes both L/R. You may be interested to hear my sister who was born here has lived there for 30+ years. One of the most beautiful cities in the world. She is a very liberal, hippie flower child type who got a scholarship to Cal Berkeley and even she is shocked at the changes in Mgtn. She joked that some of the people moving here may be so liberal that they got kicked out of San Francisco. LOL She sees people taking it too far and making things worse here. Never a good thing in a small town for either side. It's not the hometown she remembers anymore (and it's always been liberal).
(a bit OT for a minute) Barry Wendell from city council offended a lot of people with small town stereotypes he projected on Morgantown when he moved here from CA. He stated his goal was to "help us" and make it more LGBQT friendly here. Stop. Right. There. Barry needs to get a clue and quit making it all about him. We were LGBQT friendly here in the 80's when I was in college. Before Ellen came out and there was nationwide acceptance you could see a male couple holding hands and kissing on High St back then and no one cared or bothered them.
Even my own conservative, (frankly redneck) skoal chewing, Git-R-Done cap wearing brother in law only approves of my other sister who lives here to go out dancing with her girlfriends at one of the local gay bars. Being married, he doesn't want to worry about weird guys hitting on her. Even most "country" people are accepting here.
So...there are some false stereotypes about this small town to chew on. LOL Not to offend anyone; I just wish when new people would move here, they would STAY IN THEIR OWN LANE for a while and chill and see how things really are here before they run their mouth. If you are with WVU, new here and want to run for council because you have the time, here's a tip: Before suggesting wholesale changes about social issues here (you may be surprised to find we don't need your help on that part), please fix the obvious infrastructure, police protection, blight ones, etc. that we all can agree on.
Agree 100%. San Fran is (was?) beautiful, but they also have people crapping on the streets and dropping their used needles along the way. For someone to come here and try to "help us"...well I think they should get their own house in order first before teaching us any thing.
It is not objectively ok to take dump in public or use drugs on the street. Can anyone really make a sane argument for why it is? And that is one of the biggest issues with the neo-liberal/post modern crowd is that they try to remove any objective standard of quality and/or behavior.
Instead of even attempting to justify it they'd just say we need to devote more resources to the problem. Fact is some of these people have no interest in fixing their lives or just aren't fixable.
As far as being accepting/tolerant. We always have been ahead of the curve. We are a live and let live type of culture for the most part.
I was in town the other week and was quite shocked at how the homeless population has changed in the past couple of years. A lot of new faces, and sadly, most of them were strung out/high.
The large homeless population in Morgantown is certainly a problem. As mentioned, most are truly not locals and have migrated in from less tolerant areas. I've had several encounters with aggressive vagrants and I typically only go downtown during lunch hours. Im not into clubs and nightlife any more so I don't frequent downtown after dark. I don't find there to be any interesting shops or places to frequent for my tastes. I don't have an answer for how to deal with them but I'm pretty certain it shouldn't involve allowing them to disobey common law.
It is almost like the city council is purposefully causing/willfully allowing the immediate downtown area to be neglected and rot so the land value downtown drops so it will be cheaper to buy up later for gentrification and new developments...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
in M-town since '00 but I recall High St. looking rough at that time. Certainly not by big city standards then, but for evolving M-town since 10 yrs prior in early '90s (when I 1st came there for school) it had worsened & changed a tad. Have no idea now but it seems outer M-town has grown big w/ stores galore & yet like all mini-urban areas the core downtown from what you all say, has deteriorated. 
