Neither Trump, Clinton shows concern for seniors

Opinion: October 9, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

I have listened intent- ly to rhetoric from both of the presidential candidates and, to date, I have not heard a single word appealing to seniors.

I have not heard either of them indicate that they will ever attempt to give yearly Cost Of Living Adjustments to Social Security recipients. No mention is made of creating a new formula which would be used each year for COLA’s. Services and products become more expensive every year for all consumers, but seniors are continually ignored regarding that extra burden in the Social Security check. Emphasis has been placed on helping many groups financially during this campaign – but not seniors.

Personally, I always vote, but this is the first presidential election I shall not vote for this office.

Politicians need to wake up to the large senior population and we need to stand up and force recognition.

Georgie Arkwright, Youngstown

Land grab by mayor, council is disappointing

I am very disappointed with the mayor and city council for being so heartless as to resort to take away property from the elderly and others for possible industries that haven’t committed to purchase the land.

Why is it that money is more important then human lives? If the city would offer decent compensation for the homes, I could live with that. There is no way anyone can buy a decent house for $15,000 or less. How would they feel if someone offered them that same amount for their homes?

I have lived in my home 56 years and would be devastated if this would happen to me. I for one would fight until the end, win or lose. My heart goes out to everyone that is facing this crisis.

Olla L. Tate, Youngstown

Republicans should vote Clinton, GOP in other races

Donald Trump has crossed the line so many times that it’s not possible to list them here. However, when he says take the guns away from Hillary Clinton’s bodyguards and see what happens, that shows how completely reckless he is. Putting aside the fact that Clinton has never suggested taking away our guns, no responsible person has ever suggested taking guns away from police and other enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service.

Hillary Clinton is flawed and it is disappointing that she has not directly dealt with her baggage. I have memory of 14 presidential elections and I don’t know of anyone less suited and qualified to be president than Donald Trump. The only thing this man cares about, except maybe his family, is Donald Trump, spelled in all capital letters.

He has hijacked the Republican Party for his personal and egotistical ends. He panders to various constituents with respect to guns, abortion, and morality, but we don’t really know what he believes.

He’s woefully ignorant of foreign issues and other important issues and doesn’t seem to care.

He won’t release his tax forms, certainly not because they are being audited.

Trump scares the hell out of me. As I said, Clinton has her flaws but she has had experience across the spectrum of public office and she has a record of being able to work with Republicans. I’m neither Democrat nor Republican but if I were a Republican I would vote for Hillary Clinton, and work very hard to get down ballot Republicans elected. By doing this I would mitigate damage to both the Republican Party and more importantly to the country.

Edward Alleman, New Castle, Pa.

Dems have long taken Valley voters for granted

I grew up in Youngs- town, and lived there for 45 years. I have been a registered Democrat until last December, when I switched over to Republican to vote for Donald Trump. I’m also a Navy veteran.

As long as I could remember (starting with John F. Kennedy), Democratic candidates and incumbent U.S. presidents have come to the Mahoning Valley to campaign. Every one of them made big promises. Once they got in office or won re-election, they all forgot our Valley.

The Mahoning Valley has been taken for granted by Democrat politicians because they assume they will always carry the vote here. Since the steel mills closed in the late ’70s, I haven’t seen one thing that any of those politicians have done to help the Valley.

It’s time the people of the Mahoning Valley wake up and stop supporting these politicians solely because they have a D next to their name. We need jobs, good jobs – not talk. Even though I moved, I will always consider Youngstown my home.

Jim Pastore, Estero, Fla.

Authorities should reject tax abatement for hotel

The residents of Youngstown seem a little unsettled about the request by the NYO Property Group for a 100 percent property-tax abatement for its proposed downtown DoubleTree Hotel in the Stambaugh Building. They should.

Abatements, attractive as a tool to secure large-scale development projects, show mixed success. Often, wages earned are not high enough to offset the property tax loss, and the school district principally suffers.

As a small-businessman in Youngstown, I raise the issue of fairness. If larger development projects don’t pay their fair share of taxes, that is troublesome for the small business that has to carry the larger tax burden despite lower revenue and profit margin.

The NYO group is not a small business. It is based in downtown Youngstown, but two of its four partners are from New York City and it owns numerous buildings. The tenant for the proposed hotel is the DoubleTree Corp., which can certainly afford to pay taxes, property or other.

I suggest to the NYO group that they ask DoubleTree to reimburse their company for the tax payments. Certainly, the hotel chain can afford the reimbursement and deserves to incur the cost since the company will be making the most profit from the hotel enterprise once established.

For strength of our school district, fairness to small business, and other avenues of compensation, I urge the Youngstown School Board and Youngstown City Council to deny property tax abatement to NYO property group.

Jim Villani, Boardman

As winter nears, homeless here need serious attention

I am concerned about the displaced, homeless people who used to live in the “tent city” near downtown Youngstown. While not condoning or advocating for homeless people to live in these tent cities, I wonder what, if anything, has been done to relocate or help them since everything under the bridges was cleared out.

I wonder to where these homeless people have dispersed. More than ever before, they can be seen on the streets, at intersections and by the freeway exits, asking for money. They are pretty much everywhere.

With the coming cold weather, where will these people go to survive the elements? Certainly, there are some places like the Rescue Mission, but these places can accommodate only a certain number.

I have a lot of questions regarding this situation. Perhaps an update of what is going on would be very helpful. Sometimes extreme situations and circumstances force people to live like this. And, yes, there are many who just do not want the responsibility of providing for themselves.

Like it or not, as a humane society, we need to reach out and help these people. Just giving them money, food, etc. ,is not enough. We need to bring them back into society so that they can learn to fend for themselves. Our local, state and federal officials need to take a serious look at this issue.

Cali E. Gialousis, Youngstown