Perrysburg Blog

When Perrysburg was designed – and by the way, it is one of only 2 cities in ENTIRE COUNTRY planed by the Federal Government, the other being, of course, Washington D.C – it was designed with walking and horses in mind.

The “Boundary Streets” are each exactly 1 mile long.

They are laid out with the compass.

They “hold” the “numbered” streets and the “tree” streets in a wonderfully designed way.

You can walk just about anywhere “inside the Boundary’s” in about 10 or 15 minutes – depending on where you are starting or what you have to carry or how old your horse was I imagine.

But the automobile changed all that.

You can now live way, way out of town.   And not have a care in the world.

Until gas hit $4 a gallon.

Then you and I cared. We all cared.

I always thought that Riverbend was too far out to be a Perrysburg neighborhood.  Way out on West River Road – Anthony Wayne Schools.   Different phone exchange.  Still Wood County – but not the same schools, police, water/sewer.   In Perrysburg’s orbit, but not in it’s gravity.

At least back when gas was $2.25 a gallon.

Now?   At $4.00 a gallon??????   You are going to run into town for a pizza from Riverbend?  In a SUV?  Really?

I don’t think so.

I think commuting patterns are changing.  I think buyers are changing where they want to buy.  I even am hearing talk of fellow Realtors planning of not giving big free grand tours to maybe, wanna be buyers.  Not unless they sign a contract for buyer representation services BEFORE they hit the road.  Just costs too much GAS MONEY.   There are even markets where buyers pay money for agents to represent them on an hourly basis.  Can’t ever happen here.  Right?

Riverbend?   Too far out?

The bank has taken the ENTIRE subdivision back – the entire thing.  It’s all been foreclosed.  Broken dreams of broken developers and investors and builders lie all over the place.  What was going to be “Wood County’s Biggest Development” has become instead its’ greatest foreclosure.  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5333/is_200402/ai_n21344307

I will have to change the names and places and details to protect the identities of those involved, but the following story you are about to hear is true.

I had to go and inform a man that he had to leave his Wood County home. It was his only home. He and his little dog lived there. As things sometimes happen in life, he had gotten very ill.

This caused him to miss work. This caused him to lose income. This caused him to miss house payments. The nefarious lender that had “helped” him to refinance his house had really and truly taken advantage of him. His house was overleveraged. His equity was who knows where. The whole fabric of his life was torn and tattered just like the tee-shirt he was wearing when he stood on his front porch, and told me his sad story.

Not a friend in the world but his little dog.

And the bank says you have to move out.

Now.

Today.

The Great Man?

He lives in the country club. He drives the fancy foreign car. For many years he has worked in the “financial services industry” helping people to refinance their homes and live out the American Dream.

One night after church three weeks ago, after he avoided all of my calls and attempts to communicate with him, I stopped by HIS house.

It’s a big house.

The lawn service had just been there.

But I had a message from the bank.

You have to move out too.

The little, forgotten man and the great man.

Both ends of the economic and social spectrum.

Both crushed and harmed and defeated by the economic forces roiling the waves of formerly placid Wood County. What is happening to our little County? A cursory examination will show you that many, many people are suffering www.woodcountysheriff.com/showpage.asp?id=7

Hundreds of families.

Why? I suppose it is because of how we are living and how we are treating each other.

The little men have been taken advantage of.

The great men? They need to study a Book. It teaches something about sowing and reaping.

The last time this happen we came “this close” to avoiding a revolution in this country.

I hope some people in the centers of power and “leadership” are paying attention. I really do.