Dayton and Montgomery County leaders alike have welcomed a collaborative approach while also calling on a reimagining of how the city approaches public safety. City commissioners had their first reading Wednesday of a resolution recommended by the work group.
“This is, in fact, an opportunity for the city to view it as a model,” said Dayton Mayor Shenise Turner-Sloss, who started her first term this month. “We want to work in partnership to make sure we are identifying those various different means of addressing social elements of all we’re dealing with, the root causes of crime itself.”
Youssef Elzein said he feels a tale of two cities has been spun: one of danger, and one where thousands of residents work and spend time with their families.
“If downtown was dangerous, as it’s being smeared to be, would we see hundreds and thousands of people gathering on the lawns of the Levitt Pavilion during the summer season?” Elzein asked.
Elzein said he and other Dayton residents understand the importance of safety measures, but he feels efforts to increase police presence and enforcement feel “like a disingenuous attempt to sanitize downtown for corporate interests.”
Dayton resident Joseph Abrams said any city’s downtown core has crime, but he called the idea of a crime epidemic in downtown Dayton “laughable.”
“Where has Mike Turner been to just suddenly appear here in town with this security commission, and expect the city to just go ahead and abide by whatever they’ve decided here in private?” asked Abrams.
Mary Sue Gmeiner said she does not feel unsafe in downtown Dayton, but city leaders hearing the recommendations of an ad hoc group “makes sense.” She said other community-led initiatives, like the Community Engagement Committee, are hoping to garner more citizen participation.
“I hope that you would offer similar support to any citizen, ad hoc group that reaches out to you. All citizens are the right people,” said Gmeiner.
City Commissioner Chris Shaw, who was a member of Turner’s working group, said downtown Dayton is safe — and “probably our safest neighborhood.”
But a “perception issue” exists around downtown Dayton, Shaw said.
“This is about talking about some of the policy prescriptions that we’ve put into place,” he said. “The value that I saw in this, for the most part, was bringing collaboration to the table. I saw this as an opportunity to have the conversation, agreeing that there’s more work to do, that we can always be safer.”
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