After first making the list in 2006, debuting as the 50th best place in the U.S. to live in, Middletown has steadily declined over the past 6 years, ranking 86th in 2008, 89th in 2010 and now in 2012, not making the list at all.
So what has transpired over the past 6 years that would lead to Middletown dropping off the list completely? It could be any number of things really, but I would suspect it has a lot to do with the rotten and adversarial politics that has been on display during this time, which has contributed to the over all sense of decline in the quality of life in town.What do I mean by rotten and adversarial politics? Well lets see.
We have an all Republican, five member Township Committee, that has been in control for over 30 years. Gerry Scharfenberger, Tony Fiore, Steve Massell, Kevin Settembrino and Stephanie Murray ( and lets not forget the unofficial 6th member of the committee, the Attorney, Brian Nelson) all seem to have gotten their leadership skills and honesty quotients directly from the national GOP.
Often times residents are looked down upon from the dais with contempt or scorn and told half truths or outright lies when they address the Township Committee on subjects that are not of the normal, feel good, cookie cutter variety. People questioning the Shadow Lake dredging project, those seeking to save the Middletown Swim Club from closure or the building of turf fields come to mind.
Middletown once, not very long ago, had a library that was top of the line, looked upon as a true treasure and revered by many in town. Now, it seems a mere shell of an institution that it once was thanks in part to the Township Committee politicizing and expanding it's Board of Trustees in order get rid of it's long time Board of Trustees President and to confiscation $840,000 of surplus and reserved funds to offset the Township's budget, leaving the library with very little to no funds which could be used to purchase new things like books or computers or to do any capital improvements to any of its facilities.
Middletown no longer has a Parks Department to oversee and maintain it's many splendid and wonderful parks. Many of the parks around down are in need of upkeep; grass needs to be mowed, benches need to be replaced or painted and some have been closed off.
And lets not forget the ugly and protracted - what some would call negotiations, while others would call extortion - labor talks with the members of Middletown Police force, where the Township threatened to layoff 10 policeman and several officers if the local PBA did not agree with their demands to a pay freeze and benefit givebacks. Or the politics of our Board of Education and the decline of our schools test scores.
I can go on and on, there is so much more to say and add as to why Middletown is no longer considered one of the top places to live by Money Magazine, but I'll leave it here for now and a follow-up later.
It will be interesting to hear how Tony Fiore, Gerry Scharfenberger and others "Spin" Middletown's decline on the list, seeing how they previously were so eager to let everyone know and never forget Middletown placement on the list in the first place.
Something tells me however that they will ignore and not mention any of this seeing how there is an election in several weeks.
25 comments:
LOL, yes "spin" it will be, round and round and round until we're dizzy from their version of the truths.
Blame, blame, blame... What have you done Mike to make Middletown better? I'm a republican and I understand on the local as well as the national level both parties are at fault for the mess we are in. People like you Mike that continue to drink the kool aid of 1 particular party on why they are great and the other is evil accomplishes absolutely nothing. Unless of course Mike you are being paid by your party to spew your 1 sided nonsense. Well then Sir, that I could understand. If not, you're then exactly what BOTH parties want in their followers, SHEEP that work for nothing while they enrich themselves as the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves. Until "followers" like you Mike figure this out, we will continue to have what we have...
Every day that passes the quality of life here is diminished because of the likes of, Scharfenberger,Fiore,Settembrino,Massell and their mouthpiece,the squat little lawyer !
here is no hope for ths town as long as they serve.
Well, Money Magazine is wrong - Middletown still holds the number one slot in my opinion. I love living here.
Annon 5:30.
You are spot on.
People that paint any group of people with a broad brush are ignorant.
I don't care if it is a race, an ethnic group, a political party or a baseball team.
When you make a general satement about a group of people you are really making a statement about yourself and your inability to see people as individuals.
In short, you are not very bright and you do more harm than good for your cause when you stop thinking for yourself and drink the Kool Aid.
What has Mike done? His blog has given citizens a little peek into the goings on in the Township Committee, Sewerage Authority, Parks Dept, Schools and Library..
He unveils the truth behind those self-serving Middletown press releases that pass for communication with the public.
Enrich themselves indeed.. We know Mike won't have a lounge chair waiting for him at the Sewerage Authority,,,but by pulling back the curtain on the low rent politicians in our township, we can see for ourselves who will.
Anonymous 10:44,
You sound like sharfey's cheerleader and you have no room to talk about anyone else being ignorant when you sre number uno in that regard ! Plenty stupid also if you think you are really anonymous. Your diatribe brands you.every time.
The TC in this town is drunk with their own perception of themselves. The people here have lost all respect for most of them,especially G.S. and A.F..
You can't be on the list forever. I'm more concerned that my taxes and the Middletown Republicans do a great job with that!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME,Anonymous 7:20a.m. ??????
Is that why a reassessment was needed to correct all the inequities in the re-evaluation that have existed and continue to exist??
The only ones these Middletown Republicans represent are themselves and make no mistake about that !!!
They do a great job in seeing our taxes go up every year, regardless of how much it is. They never go down. Plus, the hidden taxes are increasing like any fee that has to be paid from licensing any animal to opening a business in town.
Anon 7:20 AM,
A town CAN be on the list and in the top 100 best places to live for as long as the survey takes place. so long has the towns is managed and led in the manner the meets the surveys requirements to be in the topp 100.
Anon 5:30 PM,
It isn't Mike's job to make Middletown "better" the members -- Fiore, Scharfenberger, Sentembrino, Murray and Massell -- of the all Republican Township Committee were elected to make Middletown a "better" place to live; a quality place to live and raise a family. The five of them, and the Republican affiliated majority that has managed this town, has taken this town from the 50th best place to live to not on the list of one of the top 100 places to live. So, by a quality of life measurement Middletown hasn't gotten better it has seen at least a 50% DECLINE in its former standing as a quality town to live in.
Its not that the Republican Party is a 'bad' party, its that the very tight knit local power brokers (Peter Carton and Brian Nelson) of the Republican Party have controlled the Township for over thiry years and have put people in office who they can control through manipulation and deception. In turn these elected officials deceive and manipulate the taxpayers and voters in Middletown. So, the "sheep" here are the local elected officials. They are part of the local political flock who prefer having the wool cover their eyes.
Anon 7:20,
Take the time to go online and check out Peter Carton's (Republican Party Municipal Chairman, Middletown) tax appeals over the last five years. Between his appeals and the "reassessment needed to correct all the inequities in the re-evaluation" (Anon 12:42 PM) he has seen a significant reduction in his taxes. To help you get started go to the Monmouth County tax records and he lives on Wigwam Road in Locust with a beautiful view of the Navesink that may not have been figured into his assessment.
Anon 7:20 AM,
Like yourself I'm concerned with my taxes, particularly my property taxes. Unlike yourself I think and say that the members of the Republican controlled Township Committee -- Massell, who is up for re-election; Scharfenberger who said he acquired his financial education via "osmosis"; Sentembrino, architech of the plan to raid the Middletown Library funds; Murray, who seems to be following the Scharfenberger approach to finance; and Fiore, who crows about keeping under the 2% cap without mentioning borrowing over $750,000 from the sewerage authority and his further plundering of library treasure -- do not do a great job of suppressing the rise in our taxes, mostly because they do a very poor job of managing spending and designing budgets that work with the revenue our property taxes raise.
All committee members say that their top priority is maintaing and improving the quality-of-life in Middletown. Unfortunately for the shrinking resident and commercial taxpayers the Township Committee membership isn't and hasn't be able to back-up their talk.
Over the course of six years, the independent non-partisan best places to live surveys found that our community has moved from being ranked as number 50 in this quality-of-survey to no longer being mentioned. The trend has been obvious and clear: an initial rank of 50 to 86 to 89 to no longer ranked in Money Magazine Top 100 Places to live in the United States.
So, Anon 7:20 AM do you think you are better off than you were six years ago? You may be of the opinion that you are -- that your taxes are supporting and improving your quality-of-life as a taxpayer in Middletown. My opinion supported by an independent quality-of-survey is that I'm NOT better off. I'm now waiting to hear Mayor 'Rooster' Fiore crow about Middletown's quality-of-life and 'Silent' Steve Massel chirp about how he intends to turn this quality-of-life slide around if he is elected for another term on the Township Committee. I'm also very curious what prescription Dr. Scharfenberger's newly formed Economic Development Committee recommends to improve revenue generation and business conditions in the Township that will, hopefully, have an impact two years from now on our standing in a best places to live survey. I hope Dr. Scharfenberger doesn't prescribe improvement by "osmosis".
Scharfenberger is an "empty suit" that occupies an "empty chair" and the only one has ever worked for was Gerard Scharfenberger !
In the last 4 years, the leadership in middletown has made my life better.
The leadership in DC has made my life HELL!!!
Hey Mike,
After looking closer at the list, albiet Middletown is not on it, it is noteworthy that of the four towns in NJ that did make the list, three of the four are under republican controled government. Just thought it was interesting point to share...
Maybe they are doing something right?
And just what has the leadership in Middletown done for you,anonymous 7:01 ?
Gotten you a political appointment?
And what has Wash.D.C. done to you?
Anything you did not deserve or that G.W.Bush wasn't really responsible for and not this president? Hard to believe Washington was gunning for anyone in Middletown !!!
As Bill Clinton said,"it takes brass ones to blame someone for what you did!"
Anon 7:36
It's nice to know you were paying attention in grammar school when your teachers were teaching you how to do research.
It doesn't matter to me one way or the other who is charge of a town, Republican or Democrat, as long as they make good, sound decisions that aren't rooted in partisan politics, which is something that Middletown lacks.
Anon 7:36,
The republicans in those other towns are not driven self serving halfwits like it is in Middletown. Those committee people seem to care about their towns and their people more than Middletown's TC,who only care about party and self.
Funny Mike, you and Baum never seem to come off that way. In one breath, you same you support "good, sound decisions that aren't rooted in partisan politics", but in the next breath, if a TC member makes that point you go on the defensive and say it's a bad idea.
Anon 12:13
Name me one, just one, example of the current (within the past several years)TC making a decision that wasn't rooted in partisan politics.
There hasn't been.
Anon 7:36 PM,
Deflection and red herrings have entered the 'conversation'; Gerry Scharfenberger must be close by.
In 2006 Mayor Scharfenberger when back-peddling on an issue (may have been the sell-off of an ongoing source of revenue that the cell towers brought in for a one time payment that has since been spent and borrowed many times over) during a Township Committee meeting, he brought up the Township's Money Magazine national ranking of Best Places to live based on a quality-of-life survey, which at that time was 50 of 100.
In 2008 Middletown's life quality standing eroded to 86, which was and still is a 36% decline in the township's national quality-of-life standing. Again, this happened on Scharfenberger's watch. Fiore was elected to office in 2008 and Middletown's standing in Money Magazine's national survey declined to 89 which reflected a 38% DROP since Dr. Scharfenberger put the survey on the public record during the comments portion of Township Committee meeting.
Since 2010, with both Scharfenberger and Fiore on the roster and attempting to provide leadership by alternating in the role of mayor, good people of Middletown, 68,000 of them, have witnessed and more importantly EXPERIENCED AN ADDITIONAL DECLINE in their quality-of-life standing of at least 12%: for a grand total of at least a 51% decline in their quality-of-life as residents of Middletown.
Since 2006 every Republican that has run for re-election or election in Middletown has run on the PROMISE of maintaining and IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE in Middletown and puting TAXPAYERS FIRST. According to Money Magazine the Republican Party in Middletown most recently represented by Scharfenberger, Fiore, Brightbill, Massell, Senttembrino and Murray have not kept their promises to at least protect the quality-of-life for the families of Middletown.
I include Murray because as Fiore's proxy she has followed his direction and inflicted financial damage upon the workings of our public library, whose resources influence the life quality experienced by our community. During this time period Tom Wilkins and Tom Hall, as part of the Republican Party bench, contributed to the decline of life quality in Middletown, as well.
So Anon 7:36 PM, there are three towns of the four towns in New Jersey that made the national list that are managed by Republicans: I acknowledge their accoplisment; and, none of them are Middletown. Are you implying or inferring that by hanging out with the elected leadership of these three towns Middletown could do better and get back into the Top 100 Best Places to Live by "osmosis"? I live in Middletown and the elected leadership in other towns does not have a direct impact upon the quality-of-life that I expect and experience here.
Years ago Gerry Scharfenberger and his fellow Republicans used the Money Magazine survey as evidence to support that they were keeping a promise to protect life quality in Middletown. Well, that same survey evidence doesn't support that claim any longer. They have to live with it; or, like an other Republican Party member prominent in national politics, Fiore, Massell, Scharfenberger, Settembrino and Murray can change their postion on the significance of the national survey and blame the change in their position on 'flip-flop flu'.
All I am saying is that if a democrat run government would be so great, wouldn't more be on the list? Statisticly speaking, of the 4 towns in NJ on the list, 3 of the 4 are republican run. There are alot of democrat controlled towns in NJ, where are all the others???
Thats all I am saying - nothing more, nothing less. Simple facts. That is it.
Anon 7:47,
So this isn't about Middletown not being on the list and the decline in quality-of-life that not being on the list reflects? It isn't about Scharfenberger and Fiore crowing about how being on the list reflected how great a job they were doing providing the quality of life Middletown residents deserved? It is about three other towns managed by Republicans being on the survey list and just one town managed by Democrats. And, the point about Middletown that you are trying to make with "Simple facts" is what?
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