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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 > Entry
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
Comments
By bobby
February 8, 2009 5:42 PM | Link to this
Your column is a nice reminder of many of the positives of our region. They may be the foundation for the revitalization of our community, but without private sector growth, many of these institutions will be hard pressed to maintain services.Private sector job growth will not improve significantly without a more business friendly state tax code…By Mary
February 9, 2009 9:50 AM | Link to this
If the area would have invested in basics and infrastructure instead of ballparks and entertainment centers, maybe things would have been different. Speaking so glowingly about the quality of life in Dayton probably sounds a little like Marie Antoinette(?)when she said “let them eat cake”, especially to the people without homes, jobs, or incomes. It is not okay to tax everyone else and ignore basic infrastructure so the better off have a place to entertain themselves.By davidss2
February 9, 2009 7:31 PM | Link to this
The giant sucking sound is the ineptitude of the Dayton City mayor, manager, council, acting for social purposes rather than bringing in business to make jobs. A new ball park—big deal. How many jobs have left the area while the mayor has worn hats and glasses. Even the city manager should have been picked for experience. No. It’s not happening folks. We keep pouring money into pet ideas, can you say garden on the roof?, that helps friends, but we need to be making ourselfs an area that brings in business and jobs, not more government. It’s also amusing how the idea of regional development comes from the lips of “leaders” and newspaper columnists when Dayton wants something for it’s fun and games, but never when the REGION would benefit from Dayton actually helping bring companies to the area instead of within the city limits. How many companies refuse to consider Dayton after looking at the track record of the City of Dayton, the school system, and the entitlement thinking of too many of its population. Last let’s be clear about the ballpark and Shuster. How much money went into them from public coffers? The ball park could have been near Hara and at no cost to the local people—it would hae been, surprise, a business rather than a subsidized business. Imagine having built the Schutster in Butler Township or Randolph township in a pastoral setting, rather than a crime and danger setting like itself and the ballpark. Even the Montgomery County library isn’t safe as a location at night, or day for that matter.By Jackie
February 10, 2009 9:28 PM | Link to this
Now this article sounds nice and up lifting but here’s what facts are presented. Hamilton’s jobless rate increased from 7 percent to 7.6 percent; and Middletown had one of the highest rates in southwest Ohio at 8.2 percent, up from 7.7 percent in November. About 300 more people were unemployed last month in Warren County, which reported a 6.2 percent unemployment rate compared to 5.9 percent in November, according to the state Now what’s wrong with that picture. On one hand things are going great, but the unemployment rate is climbing higher every day. I guess the few that are doing ok don’t see the millions who are struggling.