Should Cincinnati absorb Dayton (Columbus, Hamilton: schools, college, taxes)

[sljenkins1967]

Should metro Cincinnati extend all the way to Dayton, Ohio?.....Many for years have suggested that the City of Cincinnati needs to flex its muscle and extend its city limits all the way to, and possibly beyond, Dayton, Ohio.

By doing this, Cincinnati would become the 6th or 7th largest city in the nation and the economic benefits would be extroidinary for all. From downtown Cincinnati to Dayton there would be one city government and the people who reside within the new Cincinnati/Dayton metropolitan area would see drastic reductions in taxes and more in-pocket dollars which would make the area one of the most attractive economically in the country.

Should this happen or should both cities continue to suffer economically?

[Crew Chief]

Sljenkins, I'm not sure that's even anywhere near being on the table. BOTH cities (inside city limits) have plenty of problems on their own without even considering something like that (Besides, there's too many suburbs between to even see that as practical) I do believe more regional solutions for problems SW Ohio face is LONG overdue; sprawl, transportation infrastructure, emergency management and more... We're pretty much a HUGE regional area, not unlike many in the Northeast. Whether much regional cooperation will be achieved remains to be seen You've heard of the Banks Project in Downtown Cincinnati (It ain't the acronym for "Bickering As Northern Kentucky Succeeds" for nothing, you know...)

Not to be smarmy, but I live in a suburb of Dayton. My suburb has a fiscally conservative township government, excellent schools and if you live here, you've worked hard and done well for yourself. Why in the world would I want to be jumbled in with two large cities who can't mange their resources well or attract enough residents like me?? I drive past both Cincy and Dayton on I-75 and think they are both attractive cities. But both have a long way to go. They're trying and I know regionally they need our help. But sometimes those of us in between feel like you can only have limited success trying to bail out a large sinking ship with a bunch of buckets. Until serious repairs are made to the "ships", they will continue to sink...

[Ohiogirl81]

Cincinnati has no muscle to flex. Cincinnati (and Dayton, for that matter) can't handle its own problems, let alone the 75 or so square miles of territory between the two cities.

The two cities are night and day and have their own separate identities. The townships, villages and cities between them also have forged their separate identities. The opposition would be deafening.

There's already too much entrenched municipal identity between the two cities for regional government to work. Look at Columbus. Still "cow town" (or a government/college town, if you will) in the late 70s, it annexed everything that couldn't run away (and I'm sure it tried to annex Bexley, etc. anyway), but at that time there were few incorporated villages or cities, or strong, populous townships like West Chester, in the way. So now Columbus is the state's largest city because it annexed everything in sight, and courted the development to fill in the farmland between I-270 and the parts of the city already developed.

It's much, much too late for that to happen in Cincinnati. Most of the people in the outlying 'burbs moved there to escape the city's taxes, government, bureacracy, etc.

[Pathwalker]

It'll NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER HAPPEN.

Cincinnati and Hamilton county can't even agree on stuff regarding development, much less join forces and merge into a unified government. It IS what this area needs, but see my opening comment in this post......

You're much more likely to see Northern Kentucky unify before Cincinnati and Dayton ever will.

[JoeP]

You are talking about two cities that are not remotely close to each other.

[Pathwalker]

^Right. Not to mention, there are two counties between them, and that would complicate jurisdictions.

[dayton_ohio]

There could be a "de facto" economic merger as Warren County fills in from the south (Mason) and north (Springboro), but never a real merger. Since when did a government official choose to give up their job?

[LancasterNative]

The closest thing to this you'd ever see happen might be some private sector-driven "economic partnership" initiative...like a SW Ohio regional chamber of commerce, or some such thing. Whatever form it took, the impetus would be from companies seeking to make more efficient use of the region's capital, labor, etc.

Merging the two political entities—the City of Cincinnati and the City of Dayton—will never happen. There's no reason for it, and all the other communities/localities potentially affected would never go for it. And why should they?

I'm in agreement with what Ohiogirl81 said, that "Most of the people in the outlying 'burbs moved there to escape the city's taxes, government, bureacracy, etc."

[JefferyT]

^
yeah that is what is really happening. Economic integration via cross commuting and so forth from Warren & Butler county. A good sign of this was the Dayton paper locating its printing plant in a proiminent location I --75, in Warren County, moving south with the advancing wave of suburbia from Dayton into Springboro.

There will neve be any meaningfull regional goverment or coordination, unless it comes to highway and maybe utility planning.

[Pathwalker]

There most likely WILL be a Cincinnati-Dayton in which there will be no visible way of telling when you've left one municipality and entered the other. Much like Dallas-Fort Worth. But this place simply isn't progressive-minded enough to consider how beneficial it would be to merge the cities with their respective counties.