Anyone from Dayton? (Columbus, Springfield, Kettering: fit in, how much, home)

[lyrasstar]

Here's a link for Daytonians - a new forum specific to the Dayton area where citizens can come together, exchange ideas, and get active...

Revive Dayton: http://jlongfellows.com/revivedayton/ (broken link)

[Fallon3]

Well in that area you are getting to the urban sprawl, it will cost you a bit but if you are willing to live out a ways. I am looking to move down that way from NW Ohio,but have traveled to that area quite a bit. One thing you will have to be tolerant of people of different cultures or you will not make down there. Also to just mind your p's and q's and you will be okay.

[RedeNTired]

Hi,
We'll be retiring to the Dayton area in the next year. Beavercreek looks nice, but has well water (environmentalist hubby won't go there). Kettering is looking pretty good. How's crime in the area though? Being older I'm leary of the some areas.

Neither of us has been there for years and I'm sure a lot has changed. Can anyone recommend a decent area? We're looking for suburban and racially tolerant. We'd like to be near a mall - but not too close. Churches are also important.

We're looking for someplace quiet to spend our twilight years.
Thanks for any help you can give.

[islandFever]

RedeNTired, what is wrong with well water? I'm looking at a few homes and they happen to have well water. Is there anything I should know?

[HomesInDayton]

Dayton has plenty to offer in terms of real estate, affordable living and lifestyle choices: Small towns, historic districts, suburbs, country and farming. I think it's safe to say that any religious affiliation will be represented too.

Montgomery County Sheriff Dept website has information on the Dayton area. www.mcohio.org

The Montgomery County website is www.co.montgomery.oh.us

And you can find information at: (broken link)

[travelin]

Originally Posted by simon

How is living in Dayton?

The Dayton are has to be one of the worst major metropolitan area to live in the country. It's just second behind Detroit in unemployment and foreclosures. Even New Orleans w/ Katrina beats Dayton. Just about any area in the country is better than Dayton, especially if it is out of Ohio.

[JefferyT]

To be fair, if you have a job that even pays a moderate wage, living in the Dayton area is quite comfortable. If you are unemployed, however, you are in a world of hurt.

[travelin]

Originally Posted by JefferyT

To be fair, if you have a job that even pays a moderate wage, living in the Dayton area is quite comfortable. If you are unemployed, however, you are in a world of hurt.

True, but you are also living in a very poor and crime ridden area.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by mnugent

This weekend my neighborhood, South Park, had its Holiday Home Tour. Fifteen historical homes were part of the walking tour. I’ll take a beautiful Victorian home in the City of Dayton over any cookie cutter, vomitous ranch or Mc-mansion that Centerville could offer. I got meet my neighbors. Many of them, architects, doctors, nurses, educators and many other professionals.

It’s a matter of opinion but I feel the prospects for City of Dayton are looking very good. This Spring UD is opening their retail center and student housing. They also purchased a good deal of land for future projects and expansion. Krogers is building a new and bigger supermarket. Clyburn, a huge public housing project is going away. Its rumored to be replaced with market value based homes. And the icing on the cake: serious plans to invest more than 300 million dollars on a retail and residential complex along the river.

Those who condemn the good city of Dayton, I stick my tongue at you!

You're about to get a three-point reputation boost from yours truly for being one of the only Ohioans I've come across on this forum who seems optimistic about the revitalization of your inner-core cities! Granted, the core cities of Toledo, Dayton, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, etc. may all be showing their "rust-beltedness" quite easily, but that doesn't mean that all hope is lost. For example, I can also rattle off quite a number of other rust-belters that have rebounded significantly since 2000, among them Peoria, IL, Collingswood, NJ, Bethlehem, PA, and yes, even my beloved hometowns of Scranton, PA and Wilkes-Barre, PA.

The "crime complex" festers itself into the minds of suburbanites everywhere, not just in Metro Dayton. Here in Scranton, we haven't had a homicide since mid-2005, yet, when our growing number of suburbanites are asked why they won't consider relocating back into the city limits to raise their families in walkable neighborhoods, crime is often cited as being their top concern. Talk about being out of touch with reality! Nevertheless, there is some good news on our horizon though. The Scranton School District is scrambling to increase its capacity; according to the superintendent, 75 new students have already moved into the city since the start of 2007, and more are projected to be on the way, hopefully helping to shift some more "younger blood" into the city again. An elementary school principal interviewed by a local television reporter stated that some of her classrooms were being shared by four teachers at a time due to the growing enrollment! For a city that has been shedding tens of thousands of people for decades (from a peak of 150,000 to 75,000 today), hearing that our population is starting to grow again is phenomenal news!

We need more people like you, Nugent, across the country! I'm following in your footsteps---After graduate school, I hope to settle in an urban, walkable neighborhood in Scranton or Wilkes-Barre to raise my family and open my own business. I like the thought of actually getting to know my neighbors, as opposed to just waving to them absent-mindedly while driving past each other, as we do here in yuppiecentric suburbia. Dayton won't rise from the ashes until you suburbanites give it a chance. New boutiques, galleries, restaurants, etc. have sprung up all across Scranton since 2000, and they're all thriving thanks to patronage from suburbanites who are becoming inspired in the city core again. Even the once-feared "Hill Section" has been transformed from ghetto to "chic", and this neighborhood which once housed drug dealers is now home to a growing population of accountants, attorneys, physicians, pharmacists, teachers, professors, nurses, engineers, artists, musicians, politicians, etc. along with rising property values.

Scranton only rebounded in the past few years because the suburbanites were willing to embrace new ideas for private investment. From the looks of things in Dayton, where the suburbanites unanimously have a "boo-hiss" attitude towards the city limits, you have a tough battle ahead in revitalization efforts. Folks, your metropolitan area (which includes your cul-de-sacs) is only as healthy and vibrant as your core city. If your core city is declining rapidly, then that speaks volumes about the area as a whole to potential new residents, prospective college students, tourists, possible new high-caliber employers, etc. When Dayton looks bad, those of you in Kettering, Beavercreek, and everywhere else look bad also! Just keep that in mind the next time you bash your fair city.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by happycow

Crime-ridden neighborhoods tend to stay crime-ridden neighborhoods no matter what is built.

I must respectfully disagree with you here. In both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, crime-ridden neighborhoods that once drew the ire of concerned residents at city council meetings have rebounded greatly as a direct result of a mixture of public and private investment. For example,
the Hill Section of East Scranton used to be home to wealthy entrepreneurs who built elegant Victorian mansions back in the city's heyday within walking distance to Center City. As the city's economy fell into deep decline with the collapse of anthracite mining and the steel industry, the Hill Section imploded into one heck of a rough neighborhood with violent crime. Now, it's becoming an address of distinction once again and is home to many attorneys, physicians, architects, engineers, politicians, teachers, professors, pharmacists, and even a growing community of artists. The Hill Section is sandwiched between Center City (and the University of Scranton campus), as well as Nay Aug Park. Now that Nay Aug Park has undergone major renovations to make it a popular destination for suburbanites, and now that downtown has been bouncing back with boutiques, restaurants, and loft housing, the Hill Section has also been able to cling to being in the middle of this positive growth which has radiated downhill from Nay Aug Park and uphill from Center City.

Similarly, Wilkes-Barre was nearly-100% uninhabitable, in my opinion, as recently as 2000. In just the past two years alone, the downtown has created a new "Entertainment District", home to a new theater, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, night clubs, a billiards hall, condos, etc., and now that same positive growth is starting to radiate outward as well to help gentrify surrounding neighborhoods. Dayton's neighborhoods could similarly rebound if a "catalyst" were put into place. For Wilkes-Barre, it was increasing foot traffic from a new nightlife district. For Scranton, it was a blend of restoring a massive city park and rebuilding the downtown that helped to reinvigorate the Hill Section. For Dayton, perhaps a new mixed-use project with a big, nationally-recognized, family-friendly anchor (Dave & Buster's? Border's?), along with loft housing overhead on the fringes of downtown would help to spread an increase in civic pride throughout surrounding neighborhoods?

Daytonians, the worst thing you could possibly do to hurt Dayton itself is what you've been doing---trashing it mercilessly. Yes, Dayton has crime problems, but what city doesn't? Would it hurt any of you suburbanites to say even one kind thing about the city proper? Are there cultural amenities downtown that you all enjoy partaking in? What about a favorite ethnic restaurant? Is there a cute, funky little coffeeshop in one of Dayton's neighborhoods that you've always driven by and wanted to stop in? Why not try it? As a suburbanite myself, I'm tiring of endless cul-de-sacs and traffic congestion, and I know many of my college-aged peers feel the same way and are planning to surge into both Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in the upcoming years to help move each city forward with their own renaissances fueled by young professionals. Dayton will experience the same someday---we just have an unfair advantage over Dayton in my area because we're so close to NYC. Where's your civic pride? Do I tell people "Scranton Sucks" left and right? Nope. Perhaps if more of you appreciated the finer qualities your city had to offer, others would be enticed to move in and help gentrify it as well, seeing potential? I've admittedly never been to Dayton, but I envision it as being no better or worse than Youngstown, Akron, Erie, Scranton, or any other Rust Belt city that sank into a deep decline for many years and is now faced with the difficult task of "bouncing back." If places such as Bethlehem, Scranton, Collingswood, and Peoria can do it, then why can't Dayton?!