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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 > April > 29
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Editorial: Getting a train-building plant won’t be easy
It’s only natural for the Dayton community to think about playing a role in the new age of passenger-rail transportation beyond being a stop on the Cincinnati-Cleveland line. After all, somebody will have to make the train cars that will be used on new lines that are slated for the Midwest and the rest of the country.
Here we have the auto industry coming to a dire juncture just as the feds have put up $8 billion for passenger trains, in the stimulus package. And that isn’t the only money available.
In the regular federal transportation budgets, more emphasis is being put on rail, to the tune of another billion a year for the next five years. (That money, unlike the stimulus money, requires states to put up some of their own funds in matching dollars.)
This community has empty factories and a lot of experienced factory workers looking for work. Most recently available, of course, is the Moraine plant where General Motors used to build sport utility vehicles. It’s big, and it has access to railroad tracks.
Meanwhile, nobody in this country is making passenger rail cars. Substantial parts are being made for subway cars and other rail transit cars, but foreign makers dominate the train market, including a company in Canada.
And yet, there are problems for any community that would like to dive into the train business. For one thing, a lot of communities are on to the opportunities. Many are eyeing them, with thoughts about their own empty plants and idle workers. Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, wants the prospective industry for his state. He’s the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate.
For another, any start-ups — whether new companies or new operations in existing companies — face severe problems. The capital costs of train building — the up-front investments necessary — are enormous. That means that investors would have to expect a lot of business before they decided to spend their money. But how much business there will be is not clear.
Will Americans embrace passenger trains? How much use can the train operators get out of existing cars that were stockpiled when the heyday of train travel ended?
One idea that train enthusiasts play with has a state like Ohio (or perhaps a consortium of Midwestern states) authorizing a particular manufacturing start-up and promising it long-term business if it provides long-term employment. But there are horns on the approach.
A government-backed business? That’s just for cars. And banks. And insurance companies.
Pretty clearly, the train option is not an easy one for Dayton or anyplace else. Fortunately, it certainly isn’t the only option for a plant like Moraine’s. That plant could be suitable for other kinds of manufacturing. It has, in fact, been eyed by some dreamers.
Moraine City Manager Dave Hicks, who has worked hard on finding an occupant, thinks the best bet might be for GM to sell the property — before the automaker ends up in bankruptcy, thus complicating everything — to somebody who will manage and rent it out, if not to one occupant, to several. He says he has had a nibble or two.
Even that might not be easy. There are, after all, lots of empty plants in Ohio, and, at this moment, at least, there are not a lot of enthusiastic investors.
The best bet for putting Dayton’s plants and people back to work is to proceed on several tracks at one time, not to get locked into one possible use.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Local Business, Martin Gottlieb, Transportation
Guest column: Diversity ads might change bad behavior
Jim McCarthy is president/CEO of the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center and chairman of the board of directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance.
Kathleen Parker did a tremendous disservice by manipulating the truth in her April 20 column, “Big Brother says to love thy neighbor — or else.”
The federal Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968 with two purposes: to eliminate housing discrimination and to promote residential integration.
She failed to mention the law’s dual purpose, as supported by Congress twice — first in 1968, when Sens. Walter Mondale, Edward Brooke and Everett Dirksen moved the legislation into law immediately following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and again when President Ronald Reagan signed the Fair Housing Amendments Act in 1988.
Research shows that white families want to live in communities where they and their children have the opportunity to grow up with people from different racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. However, research and investigations continue to prove that some real-estate agents engage in racial steering — a practice that keeps buyers from even viewing homes in neighborhoods where their race does not predominate.
According to an analysis done for the National Fair Housing Alliance, it is estimated that approximately 3.7 million fair housing violations occur annually against African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Pacific Islanders alone. These illegal practices, coupled with data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, show ongoing rental and sales discrimination, rendering invalid Parker’s notion that an “organic process” is the best way to promote diversity.
Not only has the law long been supported by Congress, but it has also been upheld in the Supreme Court.
In 1972, white residents claimed that their racially isolated community deprived them of the opportunities for multicultural and multiracial associations. The court found that when people of color are discouraged or denied the opportunity to live in a neighborhood, all residents, including whites, miss business and professional opportunities and have the stigma of living in a segregated community. (The case was Trafficante vs. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.)
The national media campaign (www.ARicherLife.org) that Parker complains about, and warns against, simply promotes the benefits of residential diversity. I wonder if Parker was also against the “Don’t Be a Litterbug” campaign of my childhood.
What’s wrong with selling a positive message that changes bad behavior?
Jim McCarthy is president/CEO of the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center and chairman of the board of directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Guest Columns
Editorial: Districts should support new STEM school
One of the most interesting education experiments this area has seen has made big strides the past couple months. The Dayton Regional STEM School, which is on track to open this fall, is busy putting together its first class of ninth-graders.
The school’s efforts so far are encouraging.
Student interest has come from near and far across three counties. But making this intensive science high school on Wright State University’s campus work for students will require regional cooperation. If area districts buy in, the STEM school’s success can benefit everyone.
The school — focused on science, technology, engineering and math — is open to students in 30 districts across Montgomery, Greene and Clark counties. It’s partnering with several area colleges and high-tech employers and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Though there are a handful of experimental science high schools starting up around the state, Dayton’s school is the only one that is designed as a regional center.
As such, its leaders have reached out with informational meetings in most area districts. That strategy is paying off. Only seven districts in the region sent no applicants, and those were largely outlying districts in northern Clark and Montgomery counties.
In all, about 160 students applied for 100 spots in the first class. (The plan is to add grades each year until the school has 600 kids in grades 6 to 12.)
The school accepted kids, as best it could, in proportion to the size of the district from which they came. (Acceptance is not selective; applicants don’t have to be high-achievers.) So Dayton schools, with about 13 percent of the kids in the region, won 27 spots — the most of any district.
But the school did well attracting suburban interest, too. Just to name a few examples, there were four Centerville students who applied, four from Kettering, two from Oakwood and four from Sugarcreek. About 45 percent of applicants came from non-public schools or are being home-schooled. About a third of the applicants qualify for free or reduced lunches.
Those are pretty encouraging numbers — a diverse applicant pool regionally and economically. But there are still obstacles to overcome. Area districts can do a lot to minimize them.
One big problem is transportation. The STEM school won’t have buses. In most cases, it will reimburse parents for getting their children to school. School leaders hope to set up carpools. Larger districts may send buses, and could help by working out deals to pick up other kids in the districts they pass through.
Students also will be allowed to participate in clubs and sports in their home districts, a logistically tricky problem that will require flexibility from coaches and advisers in students’ home districts.
Some districts, most notably West Carrollton, Huber Heights, Fairborn and Xenia, embraced the school early. Others have been more wary, fearing the charter school could siphon off top students and state money. That’s the wrong attitude.
The STEM school not only wants to develop young talent and nudge those students toward high-tech careers that are in demand locally, it also is seeking to raise the level of instruction in science in the region. The plan is to share methods and offer mentors to teachers in a three-county area. The school is not big enough to be a threat to anyone.
It has the potential to be a huge regional success story. Local districts should do everything they can to make that happen.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott
