WASHINGTON — Former Dayton City Commissioner Idotha Bootsie Neal on Wednesday credited federal programs with helping to revitalize the Wright-Dunbar Village, rebuilding a section of Dayton that was mostly vacant and dilapidated.

Neal, now the president of Wright Dunbar Inc., testified before a congressional subcommittee chaired by Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville. She said Wright Dunbar Inc. and the city relied on $2.9 million in federal funding to buy and stabilize nine historic properties in the area and used Community Development Block Grant money and federal tax credits to rebuild an area that's now thriving.

"People are now coming back to the community and feeling good about being there," she said.

Neal's argument dovetailed with Turner's assertion that historic preservation not only rehabilitates housing stock but "has been increasingly recognized as a powerful tool for neighborhood revitalization and economic development."

Turner is chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census, which this year is studying historic preservation.

Other witnesses Wednesday hearing backed legislation introduced by Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., that would tweak historic preservation tax credits in hopes of making them more applicable to community revitalization, housing and smaller "main street" preservation projects. Turner is a co-sponsor.

Neal said restoring the neighborhood also preserved a key piece of Dayton's identity.

"There's a neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio — a Midwestern city — where three geniuses ... helped to change the world," she said, referring to Orville and Wilbur Wright, inventors of flight, and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, who lived in the area that now bears their names," Neal said.

"Those three individuals, even though they are no longer here, continue to impact the kind of world we live in."

Contact this reporter at (202) 887-8328 or jwehrman@coxnews.com

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