Anyone from Dayton? (love)

[willabee]

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

Re: Willabee ...

Dayton needs employment for the masses, who populate neighborhoods and who create the tax base for the city. My point was that this is too large scale a need to expect grass roots efforts to provide a base of support.

I agree. Grass roots efforts are only a smaller piece of the puzzle and seem to contribute to quality of life improvements. To me Dayton's future is tied to small business growth. For that to happen, Dayton needs to market itself to the country and world for that matter, make a more small business friendly environment where businesses can thrive and grow, have more responsive city hall, the list could go on. There's a lot of work to be done. This would be a small start.

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

Rhine McLin yapping about a "boutique city" is just pathetic. The city has to be regarded as "cool" first.

Yep, makes me ill, among other things.

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

Incubators are always far reaching efforts. They pay off (maybe) in 10, 20 years and involve new forms of business and new technologies. And they are uncertain - a kind of economic lottery.

I am not that familiar with them. I appreciate the perspective. It's a positive development that does show some promise. Although, not the areas savior. Maybe in time, if it materializes, it will be a building block. Time will tell.

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

The high tech incubators won't solve Dayton's economic problems anyway. High tech employs too small a base of workers to be a general lift to the regional economy. WPAFB and its spinoff firms are kind of a big "economic clique" that generally just benefit AF people, scientists and engineers. The defense stuff is a closed community, even if you're an engineer - you need the right background already plus an existing security clearance.

Interesting insight in the business environment surrounding WPAFB, thanks for sharing it. Again, I agree with you here. Technology jobs can only be a part of Dayton's economic recovery. They have been touted as Dayton's future and when I hear that I can't help but wonder what happens to all the former factory workers and other general labor workers in the area. I think Dayton's survival will depend on it's ability to re-invent itself and diversify away from one strong job sector. Manufacturing for example - we see where things have gone since manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas and the economy tanked. It will take some time. Dayton's problems took years to develop and it will take years to solve them. To me there are a lot of positive developments in the works.

Dayton MostMetro

There is a groundswell underway from citizens and the business community alike that city hall will not be able to ignore much longer. We'll see where it all goes.

[nickolaseposter]

I think people that want to eliminate the idea of big business into Dayton don't know how to attract business here. We CAN get big business, still while growing small business as well. We just need to filter out the oversaturation of Walmarts, Strip joints, and now...casinoes.

[Daytonnatian]

But my personal problem (and its just me) with Dayton is that I find the layout confusing and am constantly getting lost. Even my GPS (which I broke down and bought here) seems to get lost. Its probably got something to do with the rivers and railroads.
I find I-75 through town terrifying. So I don't go downtown though I often get curious and think about it. I even quit volunteering at the Humane Society because I hated the drive. Hey I'm just a big wimp.
I came here from Omaha. Like many "western" cities it is built on a big ol north south east west grid. Look at an address in the phone book and go right to it. It was great, I was never lost. The older downtown was a little more confusing but traffic and construction weren't too bad so I got along ok.

Hmmm......

Dayton's street grid is something that I always thought of as an ASSET, because it was so easy to navigate, and traffic is not too bad unless you're talking about Malfucntion Junction, which can be rough at times.

Heck, just take Salem to go NW, 202/201 to go NE, 75, Dixie or Patterson to go North/South, 35 to go West/East, 4 to go SW, and Wilmington to go SE. From there, it's pretty grid-like.

[willabee]

Originally Posted by Daytonnatian

Hmmm......

Dayton's street grid is something that I always thought of as an ASSET, because it was so easy to navigate, and traffic is not too bad unless you're talking about Malfucntion Junction, which can be rough at times.

Heck, just take Salem to go NW, 202/201 to go NE, 75, Dixie or Patterson to go North/South, 35 to go West/East, 4 to go SW, and Wilmington to go SE. From there, it's pretty grid-like.

For me I should specify that Dayton proper is o.k. and mostly grid like. I have problems in the burbs. I've gone in circles in Trotwood on more than one occasion...lol

[willabee]

Thought I would post this. It's good news for the metro area.

Miamisburg firm gets $1.9M for battery research

[Ilovetheinternet]

I grew up in west Dayton, it was a nightmare Crime was terrible and still is. My mom still lives there and she says its still high crime. It has been on the worst places to raise your kids list. For it to be a small city, the crime is as bad as bigger cities such as Detroit MI, New Orleans LA, ect. Employment is so low here, my friends were taking jobs in fields they didn't want to do nor went to college for. I relocated 3 years ago from there and I can honestly say that I've made the best decision in my life.

[willabee]

riiight.

[malachai23]

So, if someone lived in a city they hated, and moved to a city they loved, why in the world wouldn't they direct their energy toward repping the city they loved, and leave the city they hated to the people who actually live there and love it? ...just wondering.

[willabee]

Originally Posted by malachai23

So, if someone lived in a city they hated, and moved to a city they loved, why in the world wouldn't they direct their energy toward repping the city they loved, and leave the city they hated to the people who actually live there and love it? ...just wondering.

IMO...one of our many trolls looking to get us all stirred up.

[malachai23]

Originally Posted by willabee

IMO...one of our many trolls looking to get us all stirred up.

Yah, probably so. Or they are not liking their new diggs quite as much as they are letting on. LOL!! In any event, I would like to take this opportunity to say, "I LOVE DAYTON!!!!!!"