Not enough room on facebook to vent.

I decided to start this blog because facebook did not allow me enough space.

Today, while training with the fire department, one of the firefighters commented on how nice one of the homes we were training at probably was several years ago. I agreed with him and really started looking around. There were some beautiful homes in the area that had fallen into a state of disrepair. I remembered visiting some of these homes as a child as some of my relatives had lived in the area. It was heart breaking to see the condition of some of these buildings.

As we drove to our next evolution we passed by the house that belonged many years ago to my fathers Aunt Eileen. I couldn't believe it! It was very well kept! Right next door however, was a vacant house in very bad condition. Why is it that some people take pride in their homes and others do not. You could blame the economy. The economy could possibly be blamed for not undertaking some major repairs. The bad economy doesn't explain refuse of all kind strewn everywhere.

Arriving at home this evening, I looked at the newspaper. On the front page was an article regarding unemployment in Waterbury. The unemployment rate was 10.9%!! The seven town Waterbury area labor market had the worst unemployment rate in the State for the 105th time in the last 106 months.

Is there a connection, other than economic, between unemployment and the deteriorating infrastructure of our city? I believe there is. If we developed a sense of pride and cleaned up our neighborhoods we might attract some new businesses to the area. New businesses mean new jobs. Come on people, lets make the Brass City great again!!