Daytonnatian

Sorry to randomly jump in here, but casinos can lead to nothing but good for the center cities (if they build them in the middle of nowhere, though, my support will not follow). For instance, the Arcade in Dayton would make a great casino, although current revitialization efforts have a really good plan, along with a new structure in the Flats, the Banks might be a good spot, and the arena district in C-Bus, along with other locales. Now if we could just hurry up and legalize prostitution, gay marriage, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and anything else that can be easily taxed heavily already!!!! We need the revenue!!!!! (oh yeah, and get rid of concealed carry. That and crack can't be a good mix)

^If the dude in the picture above was holding a can of Miller Lite in his right hand and Lexus keys in his left, that would sum up the social atmosphere.

Yes, Richard Moll's "Public Ivies: A Guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities", published in 1985, was the origin of this title. Moll included 6 other universities and 1 entire university system (the U of Cali system) in the book as worthy of holding this title. It's also interesting to note that the original list that was created by Moll was quite controversial, especially because it was quite scandalous to think that Miami of Ohio and the University of Vermont were at the same level academically as UVA, UNC, and the University of Michigan. This list is still highly disputable even to this day, and although the book wasn't regarded as too credible, it still cleared the way for Miami to call itself "a Public Ivy", a thought it as an institution had already held many years prior, and created some waves in the world of thought about the prestige of colleges. Still, the idea that the school should be reagrded this highly is being slowly chiseled away at by USNWR, which has just recently downgraded Miami's rank by 13 places, a larger drop than any other school in the ranking, and many college guidebooks, which debunk the studnets of Miami as (paraphrased) "a racist, snobby white-kid school", based on Princeton Review rankings and quotes from that guide among with other guides such as Fiske and College Prowler. However, the school has in past and recent years woken up to such criticism, creating living-learning communities, making huge efforts to reach out to minorities and internationals, along with out of state students by new programs, inititaves, and pricing their tuition as that of a private university but including a discount for Ohio students (yeah, just different wording, but it's supposed to work). Paired with significant investment in the school by the State of Ohio, it only looks like Miami U's future can go up from here.

^Yeah, didn't think about that. Hopefully, the average reader will be able to regard the postings as bullsh*t, but if not, there really should be a positive voice. I'll swing by and do some posting when I have some time, and hopefully others will, too :)

A place where I'll likely be spending a few years....

Talking to DDN forumers and expecting a rational answer is the equivelant of taking a leaf blower into a porta-potty, blowing down the hole, and expecting gold to come out. I might check it out if I have time, though :)

Didn't realize something like this happened around here, much less outside of Drexel!!!!! Awesome story, and awesome post.

Thanks for the appreciation, Ink!!! If even a small fraction of the stuff that any of us mentioned was done to the city, it could really shine :)

Very interesting thread, Jeffery. I always wondered what was up with the war-era housing in the area, and now I know. Interesting, but depressing with the collapse of the whole "community" that was here (I guess its basically just another 'burb, so not so depressing), and very well done on the info and pictures. Great Read!!!!!

Oh, thank god! For a second, with that titile you posted, I thought they were going to demolish it or something!!!! Anyways, I hope this works out. We sure as h*ll need it, and I for one am really looking forward to it :)

^Apologies for pathetic grammar at the end of that post. For some reason, the "box" wasn't letting me scroll down, so I was just kind of typing without watching what was coming out.

I've tried to avoid posting on this thread, mainly because of the sheer "gloom and doom" mood that it has, but I have got to say that it is downright pathetic when I have to viciously defend the city of Dayton on Urban Ohio from some of you UO posters out there like I was trying to preach the virtues of joining Al-Qaeda or something. However, I think a lot of the reasoning behind the negative attitudes is because of the feeling of a lack of accomplishment by the city, its corporations, and its leaders, paired with the fact that the healthy Columbus and Cincinnati Metros are right up the street, and also the less-noted fact that the City of Dayton actually looks pretty good from the street. Personally I get frustrated a lot because of the feeling that despite the fact that Dayton seems to have all the right things, right assets, and seems to make all the right moves, we continually get kicked to the curb, belittled, defamed, ridiculed, and flat out hated on by people who have no experience what so ever with the city, such as Bill Nuti, CEO of NCR (who hopefully will pull a "Madoff" soon and defame his own @ss.) Still, I know that Dayton will probably never be the power player it was 100, 50, or even 30, years ago in my lifetime (and I'm still in High School). But, we need to face the facts, look at our assets in a realistic light, cut loose the old, tired, and inefficient businesses and practices we prop up or try and recruit, and diversify. We need to get those regional hubs for SW Ohio and effectively compete against the 3C's, along with the south, west, China, or whatever. We need to make businesses love us, through Liberal or Conservative methods, and we need to focus on Entrepreneurship Believe it or not, entrepreneurship is probably the most "natural" way for Dayton to take to ensure economic success in its (our and my) future, since it does host the nation's second-largest tooling-and-machining community (all of which are pretty much small businesses), an extensive heritage of entrepreneurship from the brothers Wright to the "barn gang", Patterson, Rike, Mead, Huber, and more, and now hosts the Aileron Institute in the metro area, which is rapidly growing into one of our community's most valuable assets. We also need to partner with our universities like the University of Dayton, with its #4 in the country entrepreneurship program, and make Dayton once again a hub for innovation through the power of our youth (including myself :-) ). We also have Sinclair, a top 25 commnity college in the nation, and Wright State, which can do some great things with further funding (although I will admit it's the nicest fourth-tier school I think I've ever seen), and a crazy amount of branch campuses, along with easy access to places like Miami U, Antioch, Central State, Wittenberg, Earlham, and Ceaderville. Also, I think that we need to get past our attitude of "all hel's broke loose" snce maybe we don't have the greatest areas in town, ormaybe our downtown business community is a little lacking. But heck, we still have a sizable downtown business community, gerat neighborhoods, architecture to easily rival most cities (and leave the new "sprawl-burbs" in the dust)(. We have quality housing, reasonable prices, great people, andfor the most part, a great attitude.If e make sure more of our local populace has easy access to higher education (you can't get much easier than Sinclair), great assets to keep them in town (we need to work on this), and strong support systems for entrepreneurs, along with an extremely small business-friendly climate (we're part of the way there, and fortunatley, this is an area where we are actually progressing...) We could be back on track. Heck, Portland did it. So did Pittsburgh and Cleveland and almost all of the south, and Scranton, Rochester, and Milwaukee doing it right now. Why can't Dayton?

Wonderful section of Cleveland and its metro.... wouldn't mind living there myself :) Now if I could just scrape up about $1 mil or so.... ;)

Yeah, this Akron stuff is great. I love what the University of Akron has done in recent years to expand and grow in the central city (still, taking over Quaker Square was kinda uncool, but whatever...)

Buffalo's good in my book. Great city actually, and a great future for it, since many that wish to stay in the Empire State without the Princely price-tag may find it to be a suitable alternative.

^I've heard there's still a Rax in Lancaster.

Shouldn't this be in the political forum?

^LOL (Fricker's is better, anyways, which actually might be what you are referring to, since they put a new one in there, but I don't know of any Rooster's locations there.) Anyways, yeah, Oregon District/Webster Station is your best bet for sure. Lots of good stuff there. Catching a show at the Neon indie movie theater might be a cool idea too, or if you're into it, a play at the Schuster, Victoria, or Loft theaters.

Yeah, a lot of those weren't TOO bad (like Dairy Queen to White Castle in Middletown), but the dentist ofice in the Wendy's grosses me out, too. Throw Ponderosa in Tipp City to Hickory River BBQ on there, along with a bank by Towne Mall to Boston Market to Fazoli's to National City Bank to PNC Bank and Red Barn in Huber to a Check-and-Cash, too. I'll post some others I think of later, too.

Wow, sorry I missed this thread. Good stuff, but some of the first shots looked like tagging (not that it can't be artful). Good stuff.

Akron, as always, needs WAY more recognition around this borad. Nice to see a photo thread on it.

^Congratulations!!!!!

Man, I can't wait until Wal-Mart dies. Then this arguement will end.

Cool. Too bad about the market, though.

Wow, what a great building. It's most likely where I'll be spending a few years....