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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 > September > 04
Friday, September 4, 2009
Guest column: Heritage Awards recognize work of Shifflers, McCarren
This column was written by Kenneth J. Kuntz, professor emeritus at the University of Dayton and a member of the Dayton History Preservation Advisory Council. Send e-mail to him at kenneth.kuntz@notes.udayton.edu.
This summer, Dayton History presented its annual Heritage Awards. This column was adapted from remarks about the winners. First up: The Kuhns and McCrory buildings.
Kuhns and McCrory buildings
It would be difficult to identify any square block that is more important in the revitalization of downtown Dayton than the one bordered by Fourth, Ludlow, Third and Main streets. That block harbors the Arcade, and it would be difficult to find any corner more central to that revitalization than the corner of Fourth and Main streets.
In 1883, on the corner of Fourth and Main, the Kuhns building, a majestic structure of the Romanesque style, was opened. Over the next many decades, it was home to a wide variety of commercial and office occupants.
In the early 1980s, the building had its first major renovation when the Chemineer company established its headquarters there.
A score of years passed before the building’s second restoration began. With Robert and Nancy Shiffler as developers, the remarkable brickwork of the building, typical of Romanesque architecture, was cleaned and restored.
Inside, the lobby is graced with magnificent murals. The ceiling is adorned with elaborate crown molding and lighted by elegant chandeliers. The restoration continues throughout the upper floors, where workers patiently restored vaulted ceilings, ornate moldings and walnut paneling.
The restoration was done to preserve the architecture of the past, while providing upscale office space like none other available in downtown. The results are stunning, and the building is fully occupied.
When the work of the Kuhns Building was finished, the Shifflers turned their attention to the neighboring McCrory Building that dates to the 1920s and is in the popular Art Deco style of that day. The recent restoration preserves the ceramic facade of the building and stands as an excellent example of the ornate ceramic facades of that era. Someone once said, “There is nothing lonelier than an envelope that has a stamp on it, and no address.”
Nancy and Bob Shiffler found such an envelope, and wrote an address on it — Fourth and Main Streets, Dayton, Ohio 45402 — and then mailed it to future generations.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Lucy McCarren
Harveysburg is a small village 20 miles southeast of Dayton that has a rich history, but requires a person dedicated to preserving its heritage. For Harveysburg, that person is Lucy McCarren.
Lucy’s record for preserving the history of her community is a litany of accomplishments, with the preservation of the Free Black School, the first in Ohio and the Northwest Territory, foremost among them.
On Jan. 2, 1829, the Quaker Village of Harveysburg was established. Important in the development of the village and the history of education in our country were Dr. Jesse Harvey and his wife Elizabeth.
Dr. Harvey set up a medical practice and built a seminary to educate white children. Elizabeth saw a need to educate black children, so together they built a school in 1831 to educate nonwhite children.
The school remained in session for 78 years until 1909, when black children were integrated into the local township school.
In 1976, an effort began to acquire and restore the school house. Through Lucy’s leadership, members of the community signed a bank note for the purchase of the land and building. When the note was retired, energy was focused on restoring the school and converting it to a local museum.
This unpretentious school house in Harveysburg is so much more than just bricks and mortar. It is a strand in the DNA of an entire race that links the passage of that race from addresses like 23 North St., Harveysburg, Ohio, to addresses like 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.
For her many preservation efforts and her firm belief that “a school is a building that has four walls — with tomorrow inside,” Dayton History presented its 2009 Lifetime Achievement Heritage Award to Lucy McCarren.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Guest Columns, Local History
Martin Gottlieb: Can Leitzell pull off a Turner
2009 ELECTION
It’s a little known fact, but true: Dayton is having an election in November. So we are officially in the election season.
Mayor Rhine McLin is being challenged by Southeast Priority Board Chairman Gary Leitzell.
So the question arises: can a first-time candidate — known in certain circles, but lacking a public reputation — who is endorsed by the Republican Party beat an incumbent Democratic mayor in a hugely Democratic city at a time when there’s a lot of public dissatisfaction with the state of things?
The first part of the answer is, of course, Mike Turner. He came out of political no place to do it in 1993. He beat Mayor Richard Clay Dixon.
One difference presents itself immediately, however:
In 1993, a whole slew of people ran for mayor, meaning they actually gathered enough signatures to get on the ballot. When that happens, the city holds a “primary.” The word appears in quotes here, because this kind of primary isn’t about picking a nominee for a party. Party labels don’t appear on ballots in city elections.
Everybody runs against everybody, and the top two finishers meet in November. Well, in ’93, Turner came in second in the spring primary to Dixon. This won him not only name recognition but — more important — a certain credibility. He was no longer just a guy who decided to run for mayor.
A lot of attention focused on him. Having rare abilities, he came to be widely seen as ready for the job. That’s a crucial, tough hurdle for a first-time candidate. Most can’t cross it.
Meanwhile, he didn’t take any positions that detracted from his desire to be seen as a “moderate.” And Dixon ran into embarrassments during the campaign.
Turner’s victory was a big upset. At the beginning of the year, the Montgomery County Republican Party refused to put up a candidate, saying Dayton had become too Democratic. Turner put up himself, and the Republicans endorsed him.
(That’s what happened in Leitzell’s case, too. However, Leitzell, unlike Turner, is calling himself an Independent.)
One cannot honestly discuss Turner’s victory without mentioning race. He did not make a racial appeal, but he won almost exclusively on the basis of white votes, including some liberals.
That would be harder today. The city now has a larger proportion of non-white voters, and Turner just barely won in 1993 (and finally lost to McLin in 2001).
So Leitzell has less time, tougher demographics and apparently limited money. (At the last deadline for filing his financial report, he had raised so little he didn’t have to report the amount.)
But he does have an unprecedented political situation. The city gets hit by wave after wave of bad news, while under the complete political control of one party. (Party labels don’t appear on the ballot, but they do appear on foreheads.)
Meanwhile, the same party is on the defensive in Columbus and Washington, as the bad news extends across the country.
Make no mistake: the national scene matters. When Turner won in 1993, Republicans also took several other mayoral spots they never take (Los Angeles, New York, Jersey City). That presaged the Democratic debacle of 1994.
Leitzell couldn’t have picked a better time to run.
Whether he’s a good candidate has yet to emerge. As to the issues, he sometimes seems to have the perspective of a community activist, complaining about the city’s unresponsiveness to citizens and businesses. But that sounds like what challengers always say.
The fact that McLin has a challenger who’s been involved in some of the issues of city life is a good thing.
To the degree the Republicans get involved as a party, that’s a good thing, too — if they think they have a qualified candidate.
Notwithstanding the shortage of Republican voters in Dayton, the endorsement of a political party adds a certain credibility to a candidate. And advice to the candidate from people who’ve been around the political track can be useful.
Neither sitting on the sidelines nor supporting a bad candidate is going to help the Republicans live down their reputation for aloofness to inner-city problems. The scene is set for a real election. Now it’s up to the players.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Columns, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics
Editorial: Money counting for too much in state Senate
Warren County is newly represented in the Ohio Senate by Springboro’s Shannon Jones.
She was a staffer to former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, former Congressman Steve Chabot and former state Treasurer Joe Deters, three people whose political careers have not gone as well as hers lately.
In 2006, she was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. This year, after the sitting senator died, she was elevated to the Ohio Senate by Republican senators.
Obviously, she has impressed her colleagues in Columbus. Among her fans is Sen. Jon Husted of Kettering, the former House speaker.
Not getting the Senate nod was, among others, former state Rep. Tom Brinkman, of Mount Lookout. (The Senate district includes eastern Hamilton County.)
Rep. Brinkman, who’s been in the public eye longer and had a reputation as an especially conservative legislator, is complaining that Ms. Jones got the job because of money.
“The bottom line is that they sold it to the highest bidder,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “The criteria was not how many votes you get or whether the public likes you. It was how much money you’ve got.”
More: “Who the heck does she represent? Certainly not the people from this area. It is not even close. She’s bought and paid for.”
Sounds like there might be a primary brewing for next year.
Truth is, Sen. Jones is valued by the Republicans for her ability to raise money. Before the 2008 election, she was part of the party’s House leadership team, and was the only one who wouldn’t be term-limited. She says she felt a responsibility to help the party maintain its majority, without which life in the Legislature is much different.
“I don’t apologize for raising money to help Republicans get elected,” she says. She adds that she “hates every minute” of the task.
She won’t say how much time she spent fundraising, but says it was “a lot.”
But, she insists, “I didn’t sacrifice anything,” in terms of time spent legislating. She points to a substantive record, taking particular pride these days in a booster-seat law that is about to take effect.
Since 2006, she has raised more than $1 million. Of that, she has needed approximately nothing to win in her hugely Republican district. So she has given almost two-thirds of her cash to other Republicans.
The Enquirer and Ohio Citizen Action (a Common Cause-type group) and Mr. Brinkman highlight $230,396 just in the first half of 2009, including $67,000 that essentially traces back to people associated with one utility, FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, of all places.
As a committee vice chair last year, she played a role in ironing out the specifics of complex utilities legislation that was ultimately passed almost unanimously. FirstEnergy acknowledges it was happy with what it got.
If the rules of the political game were different — if money weren’t taken so seriously by the politicians — Rep. Jones might still have been chosen over former Rep. Brinkman. Priding herself on willingness to dig into details, she’s more the type to do well with colleagues from around the state.
Mr. Brinkman, on the other hand, more the ideological warrior, might be at his strongest with Republican activists closer to home.
Nevertheless, let it be said: This business of raising money is one incredibly messed up measure of merit.
Voters seem to have become largely reconciled to the role of money in elections. They know it shows up all across the political spectrum, not just among Republicans. Many know that it is not all-powerful. (The Republicans lost the House, despite Rep. Jones’ money.) Some know that there are big constitutional bars to limiting campaign spending.
Still, if she hates doing it, if she has to spend a lot of time doing it, if her political opponents get to tag her as somebody who is thick with big-money interests, and if the money doesn’t do much good anyway, something is wrong here.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics, Ohio politics
