The online site City-Data.com (http://www.city-data.com/city/Portsmouth-Ohio.html) was said to be visited by 15 million unique visitors in March 2010. In addition, it is featured in 121 books, on CNN, on WABC in New York, on Bay News 9 in Tampa Bay, and in USA Today's Hot Sites. The site has collected and analyzed data from many sources to create the most "complete and interesting profiles of all U.S. cities as we cou
I try to avoid featuring negativity on my blog. Most of the time, negative content represents wasted energy that serves only to create bad feelings and to cause mindless confrontation. However, in this post, I want to make evident the vast number of people who associate the Portsmouth area with the image of a hideous home.
Here are reader impressions, all from City-Data.com forum that add to this thesis. Most of these have been edited from longer descriptions, some of which do mix positive comments with these negative remarks. Yet, most of the recommendations are overwhelmingly unaffirmative. Overall, I am ashamed of the portrayal of Scioto County. Still, I think these comments will give a reader insight about the sad state of our collective vision of a once-proud place. This perception, unfortunately, represents me, also. To each resident goes responsibility.
Comments In the Recommendations
- I'm getting my family out of here again and moving back to Minnesota. Now that's a place to live.....!!
- Why aren't the citizens taking issues on their city's problems. It is not that big of a town to let it get out of control like these folks are saying. What's Up With That?
- The best we are stuck with is a Walmart. The city itself looks extremely run down, really about the only pretty thing to look at is our new schools and the foliage…The people here are all on welfare as is evident from common sense and the fact that the majority of the businesses are food oriented. Horrible place to live.
- It is the worst county in
- Everyday I am depressed. Maybe that is why there are so many addicts here..they just want to supress their feelings of boredom, poverty and dirty city (especially New
- I don't think I would want to raise kids there. Drugs are a problem.
- I have lived here my whole life and I agree, it is SLUM-VILLE! our crime rating is worse than
- There's no reason to be throwing trash everywhere, couches on your front porch, old fridge in your yard, etc.
- My wife cried with happiness the day I told her we were moving.
- Everybody only really has bad things to say about this town, and I could understand why. But there are some really good people here and I'm sure you'd like it, as long as you don't plan on spending the rest of your life here.
- Portsmouth Ohio SUCKS trust me! Now if you are involved in drugs, prostitutes, corruption, welfare, and some "different" kinds people then this is the place for you.
- The college is growing and doing well. The town is not.
- I live here and agree with you all that
- I didn't think it was too too bad about 5-10 years ago, now though....its a corrupt, crime ridden hellhole. My house has been broken into twice in as many years and just a month ago someone that appeared to be a crackhead stole my wallet.
- Don't move to
- As we drive through we notice it's a sadder, sadder place every year.
- Any factories have shut down. Jobs are few and far between. Without a good tax base, there's no money for community improvements.
- There used to be a coke plant there. Not sure what that is (steel?). They got in trouble with the EPA. That must have been where the bad smell used to come from. The plant went bankrupt, and is sitting there rusting.
- I'm sure there's a lot of crack-houses judging by all the boarded up houses I see.
- I agree with all the unemployment. I have people looking at my husband and I like we are stupid because we both have jobs.
- I've lived in
- I moved out of Portsmouth w/my Father in 1996. The rest of my family is still in Portsmouth and even though I miss them dearly, I THANK him all the time for showing me that there are more things out there than what this small town has to offer! Every time I come back to visit I notice that everyone still looks and thinks the same way they always have.
- My husband left there 15 yrs. ago (still has family there)....Would be a good retirement area, nothing else.
- Everybody knows everybody and everybody don't like everybody. Prostitutes run a muck. Drugs are rampant. Crimes decently average. But, avoid shopping or going downtown on the 1st of the month. This county has to have the HIGHEST WELFARE RATE in the state of
- I used to work at that hospital and WHEW! I am so glad I left that poorly run hospital and the town it was in. My only regret was that I didn't leave sooner.
- The man made "ugliness" of the area is striking. The city government is handicapped by a small but vocal and extremist portion of the citizenry that tries to block every effort at progress that comes along, just for the sake of having their own way. It will take an economic lightning strike and a bold, courageous, and visionary leader to remove
Well, as anyone can see, besides needing some English usage lessons, the respondents are not a bit satisfied with the state of our area. Is it any wonder that the same terrible image of Portsmouth permeates the minds of the youth who live here? This condemnation of home is ALL they hear -- basically they believe the depressed area is doomed to a future of corruption, decay, and eventual collapse because they have become conditioned to find failure. We have done that conditioning together, all of us. No one is above blame.
It is my belief that any positive future change must first involve the area youth, the future lifeblood of our communities. They must set new visions of optimism with an awareness that includes their critical struggle in the change. They must realize their own potential for creating exciting opportunities while learning, living, playing, and working in Scioto County. The old guard is stale and suffers from a poor public image, not necessarily due to their poor performance, but due to their untimely involvement. Some are even unfit to mentor with proper intention and grace.
To this end, I believe education is foremost to accomplishing any goal here. In fact, the better label is "re-education." Amid assets such as flood wall murals, wooded forests, and affordable housing, young people still believe they do not count in this area; they merely occupy space for 18 to 21 years until their acquisition of knowledge and of age lifts them to greener pastures. When is the last time you have heard the word thrive used to describe the old head?
My soul yearns to instill a sense of urgent cooperative activism in young Scioto residents. As a baby boomer, I felt that sense of belonging when I young. I'm not advocating walkouts and boycotts (although we did) as much as I am advocating giving the young their birthright of voice and meaningful activity.
To see young adults BELIEVE in something and ACTIVELY CHANGE something by working together is a beautiful vision, a vision much better than one filled with dilapidated real estate, crime-ridden streets, and ghosts of once-successful industries. I have witnessed such transformations in programs such as the Ohio Youth Conservation Corp and the now-defunct (I guess) West End Ministries. Here, in young hands, lies the best opportunity to thrive.
Sophia Loren 
7 comments:
Frank,
I wholly agree with you. The Brookings Institute has spent 3 years studying Ohio and recently released their final report. You can read it in full at www.greaterohio.org. Though they do not specifically address the drug problem, they focus on the importance of a vibrant core city that becomes an important hub to the surrounding community.
Main Street Portsmouth works specifically in our downtown. They procure 1000's of volunteer hours, add to visual improvements through flowers and facades, and strengthen businesses who are investing in this renaissance.
I believe with an indescribable passion that a cooperative, grassroots vision established by groups who can work on multiple fronts to better our community is key piece of the puzzle. If we can collaborate, get traction, and work the plan, the whole result will be greater than the sum of the parts, and we will have Progress in Portsmouth!
Craig. Thanks for reading. I enjoyed your comments. I think, the key is to begin WORK TOGETHER and involve YOUTH. Negativism is very difficult to overcome once it has a stranglehold. Often, the old plan futures for those who won't be around, ignoring the eventual needs of youth except for school activities. We must attract a significant number of our best students to stay in the area as our greatest resource - this takes tremendous foresight. Most positive comments were "were be OK for retirement, little else."
Frank, you are doing good work, my friend. Of the posted comments above, the one I felt to be the most damning is the comment about the local government. I can remember the same problems with governmental stagnation. City and county government have long displayed a complete lack of foresight when it comes to maintaining the health and growth of the community. Activism is the key. You must get the younger generation involved in the political process and demand a government process that is responsive to the electorate. Scioto county looks worse every time I come back to visit my folks and it honestly makes my sick to see. I worry about the health and well being of my family and mourn for the nice place it used to be. Good luck and keep going!
I have deep roots in Scioto county and I do miss the hills, walking in the forests, and visiting the river. My Grandparents grew up in Greenup County, KY and along with many other members of their family they moved to the city, Portsmouth where they had oppurtunity and were able to raise their family.
I left the home town that I loved to raise a family in a safer environment and my children are doing fantastic. They love going home to visit and I am able to show them all the places in the county that mean so much to me. One of my sons said that someday he would like to raise his family here if things ever get better.
It's a shame that our home has gone to waist.
The city of Portsmouth was once a real river city. It can be again, we just have to find the good "Wisdom" and use that knowledge to turn it around.
maybe we should title it
"The Allegory of the River City"
As I sat at he new location of the new Dakotas stake house next to the overpass a train went by and I thought how sad the train station was torn down. Now the state is spending million to build a high speed state wide train system and we tore ours down! I was told by the man running the recking ball "This is one of the toughest buildings I have ever had to tare down" People that building was sound , it was made to look like it was destroyed !only the drop ceilings were tron down and Vandal's? ram sacked it. We truly lost a big piece of our history when this was allowed to go. God help us all, we are sheep being led to slaughter by the local news media! We will have nothing left in this town but jails and courts.
Portsmouth at one time was the place to live. But now it has a cancer that is fatal. This cancer is corruption. The officals don't want industry or anything that will make them distribute power. They now have a class of people that live on the government and have no goals, ambition, desire. The court system is the biggest form of cancer I have ever witnessed in my life. They feed on milking the government programs to send these people to counseling, anger management,and any other money wasting program available from the government. I know this is everywhere to some extent but Portsmouth, Ohio is the worst city I have ever set foot in in America. The area is looks like a third world country. I would like to see the State and federal government do a complete clean-up of the town. From the officals down. The best decision I ever made was moving away forever.
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