DaytonDailyNews.com

Excuse me, Forbes

.com, but what has Dayton ever done to you? Did we hack your Web site? Ban your magazine? Did the Flyers beat your favorite basketball team? What, exactly, do you have against us?

First, you come out last August with a list that includes us as one of America's fastest-dying cities. Now, this month, you're calling us the fifth emptiest city in the country. What's next, a story listing Dayton as one of the cities most likely to be descended upon by a plague of locusts? You're treating us as if we were just another Cleveland.

I'm sure you stand by your statistics, although, if you think numbers don't lie, check out Bobby Bonds' home run total. And, I'll have to admit, you're receiving support from some people who live here. Or used to live here.

When the piece about being empty appeared on this newspaper's Web site, plenty of readers posted messages that agreed with what you are saying. Several of them blamed the mayor, citing her decisions and her wardrobe. But I'm pretty sure that she didn't have a great deal to do with General Motors leaving town. And, when executives of major companies meet to decide where to relocate, I doubt that the conversation goes:

"How about moving to Dayton, Ohio? According to our research, it has plenty of skilled labor, high tech resources, convenient interstate access, a terrific water supply, wonderful arts programs and terrific restaurants."

"Yeah, but have you seen the mayor's hats?"

Still, as an angry reader once informed me years ago, "Just because something is the truth, you don't have to print it." We have enough issues without out-of-towners who probably couldn't even find Needmore-Shoup Mill-Turner Road passing judgment on us. Besides, if you think this city is empty, try landing a table at the Pine Club or getting out of the parking lot after a University of Dayton basketball game.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, here. It may be true that bad press is better than none at all. And our Chamber of Commerce is doing what it can to take advantage of the free publicity you're giving us, but "Dayton's not dead, it's just empty" doesn't seem to be catching on.

Anyway, what's wrong with being empty? I've been in lots of full cities and they're not all that great, either. Traffic jams, packed subways, no parking spaces. People who work in New York City have to live in New Jersey or Connecticut. I have friends in Los Angeles who can't get from one side of the city to the other in less than three hours at certain times of day. Cincinnati is so full, it had to put its airport in a different state.

We don't have problems like that. People who work in downtown Dayton can get there quickly. And dozens of them do. Those of us who live in Dayton can reach our airport from just about anywhere in half an hour or so. And, once we get there, we can board planes that will take us nonstop to any major American city named Charlotte or Atlanta.

So those of us who still live and breathe here certainly would appreciate it if you'd ease up on the Dayton-bashing. And, if you promise to stop writing stories like those, I'll promise to hold up on my story about Forbes being America's fifth most-overrated magazine.

Contact this writer at dlstew_2000@yahoo.com.