Letters to the Editor: July 30, 2022

As I was driving to work one day, I noticed the familiar person standing at the side of road holding up a sign asking for money. I have been noticing more people every day, which leads me to be concerned about the amount of poverty in Dayton. Due to recent inflation and impacts of COVID-19 that led to people being out of work for a while, people have been left homeless and unable to care for themselves. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Dayton’s current poverty rate is 29.6%, which rose in 2019 for the first time in years. Dayton is also currently ranked in the top 15 out of around 250 cities in terms of the highest poverty rate.

Dayton’s poverty rate has hovered around 30% for years now. While there are many organizations attempting to help those in need such as homeless shelters like St. Vincent de Paul Gateway Shelter as well as community centers like East End Community Services, I believe that more individuals should be concerned with addressing the issue of poverty. Even though during these hard times there is a need to focus on one’s own survival, I believe that people living in communities such as Dayton should always keep an open mind to helping others. There are plenty of ways to downsize poverty in Dayton such as volunteering one’s time at local shelters and nonprofit.

- Tara Boehringer, Troy

I have watched the steady decline of passenger service over the last 4-6 years from our Dayton International Airport. I read the two recent stories which outlined the abject failure of City leadership as it relates to passenger service at our airport. The citizenry is now left with a high cost of travel, poor flight offerings and decreased flight frequency.

It wasn’t more than four to six years ago that I’d field two or three calls a year from out-of-town friends who were opting to fly out of Dayton versus their home airports of Cincinnati or Columbus. “Can you give me directions to the airport? or “I got a really great fare out of Dayton!” My phone has stopped ringing.

I watched as Terry Slaybaugh (former Airport Director) positioned the Dayton Airport area as a “hub for logistics, manufacturing and distribution”; the current director Gil Turner has jumped on the same bandwagon. The City Manager and Commission seem content with this direction or are at best “directionless” as it relates to passenger service. This single-focus airport vision must stop.

Personally, I don’t have a need for a pair of Crocs (they have a distribution facility at the airport) and I don’t have a dog, so the Purina distribution facility doesn’t help me, either. I am thankful for these and similar facilities that employ many from the Miami Valley. That being said, let’s get some real passenger service in here — something that works, is sufficient and cost competitive. We’ve all watched you build these warehouses, now give us something we can really use. My suggestion is to get someone to head up our airport operations that is “world class” to rebuild our facilities at “The Birthplace of Aviation.”

- Jeff Peterson, Dayton

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