Dayton bizarre/weird/messed up/&@?! news thread

[hensleya1]

Time to bring this thread back up to the top:

Dayton Regionalism Efforts Thwarted - By Dayton

Dayton annexed land in Greene County primarily to block a proposal to merge the city and Montgomery County and prevent what Mayor Nan Whaley called a “hostile takeover.”

Dayton Together — the group that worked on a charter that would combine the city and county governments — withdrew the proposal Tuesday night. Dayton Together leaders said the plan became unfeasible after the city’s annexation of 25 acres in Bath Twp. in Greene County. Merging cities that cross multiple county boundaries is extremely difficult under state law [because] a city that spans multiple counties would have to detach itself from the areas located in other counties to be part of a county merger... detachment would require property owners in the proposed detachment area to lead a petition drive or put a measure on the ballot.

The annexation purposefully created a roadblock.

My thoughts: My number one fear has always been that the city would reach out to the suburbs - because that's where all the jobs and the taxpayers have fled over the past several decades. After all, it's what's happened in a number of cities across the country.

Here, we seem to have an odd semi-reversal of roles: here, the city is working to protect itself from the county (even though many in the county view the city as something that's toxic and to be avoided at all costs).

Only in Backassward Dayton...

***

That all said, Dayton Together was doomed from the start. It proposed merging the city with the unincorporated townships and replacing many elected officials with appointed ones. Once that was complete, the option of expanding the merger to other cities would open up.

There's a few problems with that proposal, though, and I'll hit on a few:

1) Miami and Washington Townships would incorporate as discrete entities if even a whiff of annexation came out of Dayton City Hall. When Centerville tried to force the merger issue (2008?), they were crushed at the ballot box by a 10-1 margin. Butler Township, with its shopping district along Miller Lane, would be a tempting target for annexation by Dayton too - and probably equally as likely to incorporate as a discrete entity.

Think it won't happen? Ask yourself how Kettering and Moraine were created. Dayton wanted to annex the new suburban development then known as the Southern Hills. The residents would have none of it though, and decided to incorporate all of Van Buren Township before Dayton could get its hands on them. Ditto Mad River Township (Riverside), Wayne Township (Huber Heights), and Madison Township (Trotwood).

2) What prevents the other suburbs from conveniently annexing a single parcel of land in another county in order to ensure that they're never annexed or merged with Dayton? A hypothetical "Washington, Ohio" consisting of the former Washington Township could annex a single parcel of land in Warren County and thus ensure it's never merged... the same way Dayton annexed a parcel of land it's owned for decades in order to make sure it's not merged, either.

2a) Oddly enough, it's not the rich portions of the county that would be subject to merger - if you exclude Huber, Kettering, and Centerville - in addition to the townships I've discussed above - what does that leave you with? Oakwood? A suburb of eight thousand does not a prosperous county government make. A few blue collar neighborhoods get merged with the region's bantustan.

[weatherphotographer]

Well played Nan! For a change, she got her head out of her posterior!