NCR Moving to Georgia? (Dayton, Louisville: credit, how much, tech job)

[SlingBlade007]

Originally Posted by LMS7689

Apparently it's Rhine McLin. I don't know much about her. When I started typing in her name, I got to "Rhine Mc" when Google suggested I try 1. Rhine McLin or 2. Rhine McLin Glasses. Out of curiosity, I tried the glasses link. Apparently, she wear glasses that have one round lens and one square lens. Here's an interview with her:

A Square Deal for a Well-Rounded Town? MayorTV Sits Down with Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin | DMI Blog

Apparently she's going to have a hard time if she runs again according to this news clip:

Support dropped for Mayor Rhine McLin

McLin is an idiot and only got elected based on her name. She's an embarrassment and hopefully will not be re-elected.

[Billy from Dayton]

For anybody interested, my view:
Are we ready to wake up yet? | Dayton MostMetro

[LMS7689]

Originally Posted by Billy from Dayton

For anybody interested, my view:
Are we ready to wake up yet? | Dayton MostMetro

Why is it that you are putting that out faster than the city leadership? The fact that they haven't made themselves heard other than a few whimpers is, I think, that is a huge sign of a lack of ability from city hall. I hope they learn from it for the city's sake.

[Billy from Dayton]

NCR's departure from Dayton is actually much larger than the city itself and goes right up to the county and state levels. Ohio's Lt. Gov was apparently in the lead and Gov. Strickland himself tried to get involved at various times over the past few years, including his midnight-hour effort to bribe, er I mean "convince" them to stay.

I seriously doubt that Dayton, Montgomery County or even the State of Ohio could have kept NCR here as they seemed hellbent on leaving ever since Nuti took over in 2005, refused to move to Dayton (despite an initial contract clause) and shortly afterward moved the entire executive team to N.Y. The first phone call made by a high-level government official not returned by NCR should have been a strong indication that their ultimate move was inevitable, but it is only now that we are hearing about NCR's refusal to communicate.

[NorthPoleMarathoner]

Originally Posted by Billy from Dayton

For anybody interested, my view:
Are we ready to wake up yet? | Dayton MostMetro

Well said.

[Crew Chief]

Well, here's the view from my air seat as I bounce my way along I-75. I see a beautiful city from I-75 as I make my way through Dayton. I'm impressed by it's history. I've read about and heard about the wonderful parts of Dayton. I read in the DDN that there are people who give a damn about Dayton. But as a fairly-new arrival, here's my opinion (which is probably no better than anyone else's...)

My wife and I have busted our behinds all our lives. We make good money. We're thrilled to live in the Dayton area. But from the first day, we purposely never considered living in the City of Dayton. (Yes, I long for a loft downtown; I hate yard work and I've always considered downtown areas of cities a great place to live.) But we saw so much more to attract us to the township where we now live.

But I look at the city government since we've been here and all I see is ineptitude. I'm sorry, but Mayor Mc Lin seems more interested in providing social services for the too-many constituents that won't provide for themselves than anything else she should be doing as mayor. I'm not sure her administration has ANY clue about how to attract, much less retain business. At the very least, the fashion police should arrest her and lock her up for the rest of her term.

I truly hope that Dayton eventually rises like a Phoenix out of the ashes. But I doubt I'll see it in my lifetime...

[wrightflyer]

I agree with you on almost every point here Crew Chief, especially the one about choosing to live in a suburb and the current Mayor's office.

As far as why my parents (I now live in Columbus 9 months out of the year for school) decided to live in a suburb, it came down to schools, and that was in 1990. They were coming from Dale City, VA and wanted what was there but without the hassle that comes with crowds. NOVA, which is worse now, was crowded and expensive back then. Dayton, or should I say the Dayton suburbs, provided what they couldn't get back in VA, a nice house with a good school district all for under 200K. Does the Dayton region still provide that? I'd like to think so, as people come here from other places for different reasons and most seem to enjoy the Cost and Quality of Living.

As for Dayton proper, there are nice areas that I would love to invest in once I have the money. The question is whether I'll have the job there to accomplish that goal. But the minute I have children, I'd rather not live in Dayton. Even with private schools (and some ok public ones), I would rather not pay tuition on top of taxes before my child reaches college. One thing I see a lack of in Ohio is communication between different government officials. Now that can be between school districts, city officials, county commissioners, and state leaders. Or all of them. That brings me to regionalism.

I know regionalism works. It works elsewhere in the United States. It doesn't seem to do anything in Ohio. And it isn't just the poor living off the hard working. The closest thing Ohio seems to have to regionalism is Columbus annexing half of Franklin County. So certain city services are provided to these suburban areas. If we actually had regionalism in Dayton, Crew Chief, I don't think McLin would ever have been voted into office. And I fail to see where easy mortgages comes into the equation?

To tie this back to NCR, I am betting the city and county officials in office now are sweating a little knowing their jobs are probably on the line. They really do need to think about what they are doing and realize that it DOES need fixed. As much as I hate bribing companies to stay here, that seems to be the way the game is played today. Maybe certain marketing strategies between not only Dayton and Montgomery County, but the suburbs, as well as Greene, Miami, and Northern Warren County, needs to be collaborated to attract businesses. Pool the resources. Many fighting together is far greater than one fighting alone.

[Ohioan58]

I have a relatively shallow and unproven theory on the motivation for NCR's move. It just comes from the gut and from intuition.

Georgia basically "bought" the move through tax abatements. It's arguable whether it was worth $60M.

There was no advance warning or discussion because it was already decided internally. Why:

Technology people don't "like" Ohio or rust belt locations. Leading technology companies are not supposed to be located in the rust belt. A "Google" would not be caught dead in Ohio, much less an uncool city like Dayton. IOW, it's a herd mentality thing - the location is part of the corporate image, and "leading" technology companies simply do not stay located in the rust belt.

The executives probably wanted to play golf in the winter. Really. Most company HQs are located near where the executives want to live.

As far as NCR goes, this is mostly a symbolic loss for Dayton and gain for Georgia. NCR has been in free fall decline as a respected name in technology for over three decades and they have been continually divesting their local assets like Sugar Camp. NCR staying around Dayton at this point makes very little difference except symbolically and in terms of their corporate support for non profits.

[Billy from Dayton]

^ good points made by both Crew Chief and wrightflyer. I've said many times before - there is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing to live in the suburbs over the city. Everybody has their own reasons and lifestyles that dictate where they live. But as a city resident (by choice), I will also say that if you're into urban living then there is no reason to discount the City of Dayton. It is difficult for somebody outside of the city to see this, but it is in fact the residents themselves that make several city neighborhoods a positive place to live. Tight communities and neighbors that not only look out for one another but in fact form strong friendships and make for great neighborhood social gatherings. None of this has anything to do with the mayor or city leaders.

Politicians come and go, and elections occur every two years for city commission seats. There are many people working up front and behind the scenes to enact real change in how the city operates. It is an on-going process and change never comes quick or easy. But I'm hopeful that we will see the changes we need soon.

As for regionalism, please don't confuse that term with the idea that we'll all become one big city where affluent people end up paying more in taxes because of the lower income (and no-income) people requiring more aid. Where regionalism has worked (see Louisville and Indianapolis), they have struck an appropriate balance between consolidation and the ability for individual communities to continue to maintain their autonomy and identities. The idea is for the entire region to act as one voice when it comes to attracting businesses and investment, for neighboring communites to work together as opposed to compete with each other, and for more strategic planning when it comes to development and investment, and what makes sense for the whole region as opposed to individual jurisdictions. It all does start with changing the current tax structure, but not in terms of rich vs poor but in terms of eliminating the zero sum game in which businesses play neighboring communities off of each other in search of the biggest tax breaks.

More on this soon - I hope I can engage you and others into the conversation. We need to take the lead as citizens rather than allow politicians to dictate the direction based on their own personal and political agendas.

[JefferyT]

NCR staying around Dayton at this point makes very little difference except symbolically and in terms of their corporate support for non profits.

The corporate philanthropy will be the big hit here. I knew NCR gave, but wasn't aware until the recent news that they were the top contributor to CulturWorks..even during the post AT&T era. Losing this is going to hurt.

Another example is Lexis Nexis, which sponsors the Cityfolk Fesitval. If L/N goes away (which has been rumored) one wonders if that festival will survive.

Thats where corporate philantrhopy touches the entire community, by raising the quality-of-life via cultural contributions.

The question now is whether what remains of the local economy can still support the full range of visual and peforming arts things that used to happen here.