What are the problems in your region of the country North-South-West-East

I want to know what are the problems that are facing your region of the country or even your state. What issues do you think are key issues that have been ignored by your politicians locally?

For example, here in PA we have seen many of our young people leave the state for more prosperous areas. While biomedical interests are growing, many other areas have not caught on. Even with Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh,...etc the Western side of PA has not become the Silicon Valley of the East.
Personally it is kind of weird that it hasn't because housing is cheap, PA is a beautiful state and we have good airports...etc. all kinds of things that facilitate business.
Rural and some suburban schools are in trouble and we are seeing more of the same old thing in government.

Now Rendell is our new Governor and I have high hopes for him but we have a Repub controlled Assembly and so far they have tied Rendell's hands. In a state that lost two electoral votes due to the last census...we really can't afford to have a gridlocked government.

Generally I think Northern States need a lot of infrastructure clean up. More mass transit, attention to improving those schools which need help because unlike what republicans like to say there are a lot of good Northern school districts, healthcare improvements at state level, and and overhaul of local and state governments. For example PA has 203 state congresspeople and 50 senators...seems like a lot doesn't it? In fact one of our local state senators has said that it would benefit us if we were to consolidate but of course that would be a mammoth political battle.

So tell me what the problems are in your area... are all regions suffering the same problems? What can we do to get the wheels of change moving?

JEB.

High cost of living vs. low pay rate and jobs leaving. Many older people, education on the top level but costly for higher education. High property and income tax but needed for interstructure.Alot of things to do and places to go that are near so roads busy. As you get near big city Boston and NYC pay goes up and so does all the other problems.A note. Alaska had all the same problems with little people and very high wages. Made it much easier to live.

What a depressing day. I worked as much as I could for the state gov candidate (Musgrove) and the Lt Gov ( Blackmon) and both lost decisively. The sad thing was how little they had me do no phone bank work no picking up voters but holding up a sign outside my local polling place. I am becoming quite disillusioned with local democratic party it does not seem to want to BE the democratic party anymore. We have many of the same problems down here. Now we have Haley Barbour,a former GOP head as governor who also runs a sleazy consulting biz (who also owns a company that is advising american companys how about the biz oppertunitys in Iraq).Musgrove brought all this up but somehow it did not stick and was accused of slinging mud. Add to that Bush Cheney Guilani and every other repub came out of the woodwork for Barbour and nary a national demo showed up for Musgrove (his choice I think) add to that Barbour pulled a reverse race card by pointing out that Musgrove supported an inititive to change our state flag (getting rid of those pesky stars and bars) which failed so there were ton of Keep the Flag Dump the Guv signs. The Lt Gov Amy Tuck is a turncoat former democrat who easily beat another senator runnning for her position. There big economic plan? Tort reform thats it nothing else oh and protect our remaing armed service bases. Education will take a back seat which scares me considering I have a two year old daughter and and school teacher for a wife. At best they will find easier ways of getting rid of the "trouble makers" thus rasing test scores. Meanwhile both candidates ignored making an issue about raising taxes on the casinos (we have em both on our river and coast). Currently Mississippi tax rates are more than half what other surrounding states are (like Lousiana)and it is such a blight on our society that it should be taxed appropriatly. My main problem is with the local democratic party it is all but non existent and defintely unaffective. SIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.....
Well enough moping I am off to play with my kid.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

I have watched my husband lose hours, lose benefits, all because his company cannot (a second tier supplier) get the jobs in. They "used to" do a lot of prototype for the military before Bushco. Something has got to be done, this area is suffering so much already.

Agri-business is poisoning our lakes, rivers, and streams. Not to mention destroying family owned farms. Soon my state will be one giant freaking hog lot.

Our Democratic governor would rather hand out wads of money to agri-business to "bring jobs to the state" (never mind that it won't and if it does it will be very low wage jobs) than to foster small business growth and keep family farmers and their kids here.

:dem: :dem:

Jobs, the tanking farm economy, rising health-care costs, export of manufacturing jobs, growing numbers of working-poor and food-insecure families, increasing financial burdens on state and local governments in a time of plummeting revenues, education...

If it's bad, it's happening here.