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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > February > 08
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Ellen Belcher: Dayton’s comeback will happen
Here’s a contrarian thought: It could be worse in Dayton.
As awful as it has been to lose so many manufacturing jobs, and to get hit so hard by predatory lenders, Dayton and the region are still standing, still fighting, still picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves off, as President Barack Obama might say.
Long before the rest of the country started getting hammered, this community was showing remarkable resilience in the face of wrenching economic news that only lately has gone national and global. The job losses that the national media are writing about every day are not new here. We’ve been feeling the drip, drip, drip, gush, gush, gush of bad news of disappearing jobs for years.
The problems are, of course, still coming, but isn’t it a fact worth noting that Dayton has weathered an economic storm that hasn’t really quit in a very long time?
In spite of the battering, think about the good things that have happened in the last two decades:
• A fabulous ball park got built.
• An even more fabulous — a world-class — performing arts center was constructed.
• A community college that is the envy of anyone who understands the importance of helping people of all ages and all educational abilities to better themselves has grown phenomenally in size and quality.
• The community has again and again stepped up to pay for a local safety net for down-and-out people. Though far from perfect, the system attracts others from around the country who ask, “How did you do it?”
• There’s been a huge investment in preserving the community’s internationally significant contributions to the history of aviation — in the form of a national park and other projects — that are an enduring statement about the community’s ingenuity.
• The local community invented a protection plan to make sure its drinking water will be safe for generations, and people around the world are modeling it.
• Though its work force is smaller, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base’s place in the military’s orbit has been protected (if not advanced), even as the military was closing a lot of other bases.
For sure, too few new jobs have replaced the ones that have been lost. But the point is: Like companies that have been forced to downsize, the area has adapted and held on to a quality of life that is amazing for a place of this size. And all of this occurred over a period when the economic forces have been nothing short of violent.
The Chinese have a saying that wealth only lasts for three generations. It’s meant to be a warning about how our children’s children can fritter away their advantages.
But economies, too, only last for so long, and Dayton and the Midwest did very well in an industrialized economy that continued for longer than three life cycles. While the days of prospering under that order are over and the transition to something more demanding has been ugly, the investments here haven’t stopped.
For example:
• The collection of universities Dayton has nurtured financially and in other ways has grown into a remarkable asset. Believing that R&D is the future, the University of Dayton is especially driving that train hard.
• Wright-Patterson’s place has never fallen off the radar, and the broad group of current and former military people who advocate for it — because they like Dayton — is a measure of something powerful and unusual.
• This region has kept arts groups alive that would have died elsewhere, all the while celebrating them with passion. It’s also kept up its parks, expanded its bikeways and cleaned up its rivers (though not developed them). Its museums (the Art Institute, the Boonshoft, Sunwatch, Dayton History, the Air Force museum) are amazing for a mid-sized community, and they have been heartily supported even as companies and individuals were buffeted.
• Not so noticed is an array of local public schools, some of which are turning out truly gifted young scholars. The energy that’s going into places like the new STEM high school at Wright State University, Stivers School for the Arts, the Dayton Early College Academy and others is all about changing lives one student at a time.
The Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, is working with cities in the Midwest trying to help them bounce back. It’s operating partly on the theory that everything is cyclical and that the Heartland’s comeback has to happen if only because investors always find opportunities in someone else’s misery. (My words, not theirs.)
When things do pick up, outsiders will see that Dayton has not sunk as far as we sometimes think.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Economy, Ellen Belcher
Editorial: No need to ‘do the time’ for minor crimes
It’s hard to be against getting criminals off the street or requiring those who do the crime to “do the time.” But there is another factor to consider, one that nobody likes to think about when it comes to law enforcement — costs.
That’s not to suggest that Daytonians should have to accept policing on the cheap. They shouldn’t. But consider the controversy of the last couple weeks about Dayton Municipal Court’s new policy instructing police officers not to arrest people for warrants issued for very minor crimes.
Dayton’s municipal judges are seeking a middle road. Their argument makes sense, provided the rules don’t handcuff officers in the rare cases when arresting people for small crimes is the right thing to do. The new policy could save the city money, get more court fines paid and avoid jailing people unnecessarily. It’s an approach that already works well in other local courts.
We’re not talking about serious crimes here. Judges cannot, by law, order jail time for minor misdemeanors like jaywalking, littering and minor traffic violations. But when offenders skip out on paying their fines or don’t show up for court, judges routinely issue a warrant for their arrest, should an officer come in contact with them.
For the vast majority of those arrested on these warrants, their jail visit is brief. They are given the option to sign a waiver that ends their case if they agree to spend eight hours in the jail. Those who agree are not issued jail clothing or assigned a bed. Holding someone for a few hours costs less than putting them up for the night.
Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer said that the 3,450 such arrests in Dayton last year were not a problem for the county jail, which has been holding about 750 inmates a day. That census is well below just a couple years ago when the jail exceeded its 960-inmate capacity routinely and was paying other counties to take prisoners. But managing the jail population still requires work, so not keeping the few people arrested for these minor crimes every day has financial meaning.
The sheriff charged Dayton about $237,000 last year for holding minor offenders. That’s money the city could use for something else at a time when officials are still scrambling to close a multimillion-dollar deficit.
And this doesn’t mean the offenders will get off scot-free. Judges want officers to issue offenders a summons to court in lieu of making arrests. If the offenders don’t show up for court, a block will be placed on their driver’s licenses or state identification cards, preventing a renewal until fines are paid.
Dayton Court Administrator Jacquelyn Jackson said the hope is more fines will be paid.
Some suburban courts already do what Dayton is proposing. In Miamisburg, for instance, the municipal court issues a block on an offender’s driver’s license instead of an arrest warrant. If offenders don’t pay, the court turns their names over to collection agencies.
“We’d rather get the money to settle out the case,” said Cynthia Coffey, clerk of Miamisburg court. “It’s an important source of income.”
Of course, Dayton is not Miamisburg and the problems Dayton officers face are more challenging.
Lt. Randy Beane, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said urban officers need more tools. They stop a lot of suspicious characters at all hours who can’t explain why they are hanging around, he said. Taking them to jail for minor misdemeanor warrants can send a message.
“They learn to stay out of this neighborhood,” he said. “I’m sure burglaries have been averted.”
Lt. Beane has a point that exceptions have to be allowed. And the court is reconsidering ways to give officers flexibility.
In general, officers shouldn’t be wasting patrol time taking people to jail for the most minor crimes. Fewer of these arrests means fewer people in the jail, less city money spent and more fines collected. Dayton’s financial interests and law enforcement’s needs can overlap.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Law Enforcement and Public Safety, Scott Elliott
