How Long We Gonna Keep Talking About Downtown Hagerstown's Potential?

I've heard people talk about downtown Hagerstown's potential for damn near as long as I can remember. And don't get me wrong, I see it too. But at some point, how long are we gonna keep talking about what downtown could be instead of what it actually is?

Mayor Bill McIntire has discussed efforts to give the city more authority to address vacant and blighted properties, including buildings owned by people who don't live around here. That deserves a real conversation, because the owner might live somewhere else, but the people who actually live in Hagerstown gotta look at the consequences every day.

Property rights matter. So does the damn neighborhood.

Businesses are trying to attract customers. Residents want a downtown they can feel proud of. And then you've got properties just sitting there. I'm not saying the government should be able to take somebody's building because it doesn't like how it looks. Property rights matter. But so does the community around that property. Where's the line between owning something and letting it rot while everybody else deals with it?

The mayor also discussed roughly $888,000 in annual city credit-card processing costs. Almost $900,000 just to process payments is a hell of a number. That doesn't automatically mean there's an easy fix, and it sure doesn't mean any new customer fee has been approved. But residents deserve to know what alternatives are being considered before more costs get passed down to them.

I want progress, not another speech.

I want new businesses, better buildings, more people walking around and more reasons for somebody to spend money here. But I don't want improvement to become another excuse to make everything more expensive for the people who already live here.

My take? Hagerstown doesn't need another twenty years of talking about potential. We need actual progress, fair enforcement, respect for property owners' rights and a plan that benefits the people who stayed here—not just the people who might move here once everything looks nicer.