Jeffery

Maybe whats suprising is Pittsburg at 21%. This is based on the official poverty level. In reality there is a varying line above this that is recognized by public policy as more of a defacto poverty line, where people are deemed low-income enough to require assistance. Things like free school lunches, food stamps, EITC eligibility, etc. The eligibility lines for these are probably more indicative of how poor a city or metro area is than the rather low official poverty line.

^ ...and here we think we have problems. . I've read about wage stagnation but dont recall much about poverty.

The L&N either like neo-romanesque limestone architecture or used the same architect becuase the Louisville Union Station looks very similar (but without the big clocktower). I can see why Nashvillians are so up on their town. I visited a few years ago (stayed at an old hotel near the Capital) and saw some of the same areas (including that Arcade and the neighborhood below the capital). But I can tell I missed a lot and a lot of this is newer, too. Did a good job of capturing that low density wasteland between downtown and the Vandy/Elliston Place area.

Or you could look at metro area rankings, which would be more instructive. For the center city question this is why Louisville, Lexington, and Indianapolis are relatively low on this list vis a vis Ohio cities..they have those metro governments.

Source is this Dayton Daily News article: Income drops poverty rises… (which has some indicators based on demand on local food pantrys). The graphs show the decline in median incomes, but even more interesting the uptick in the poverty rate (except for Warren County). This is over the course of the decade, which is quite interesting. Its interesting when considering this in the context of a long term trend in the Dayton region. The following map is derived from the Windows on Urban Poverty website. It shows the % increase or decrease in poverty by tract, from 1970 to 2000, a thirty year horizon, for Dayton and it’s suburbs. What’s remarkable is both the concentrations and how widespread the uptick has been, even if the actual annual percentages are so low (over the course of 30 years) to not be visible in day-to-day life. Yet some suburbs, like Trotwood, Fairborn and Northridge and even Huber Heights and Vandalia, have seen noticeable increases in poverty since the postwar heyday of 1970; 2.0% to 9.9% increase over 30 years. In some tracts it's even higher. Backing off a bit to bring in Xenia, Springfield, and southern Miami County. You can draw your own conclusions as to what’s happened to Springfield. And then dipping down to see maybe the start of a “poverty valley” along the Great Miami between Dayton to south of Middletown; the string of blue collar river towns and the river rat areas between. They all had a uptick in poverty as working class incomes and employment declined since 1970. The repositioning of Springboro as an affluent suburb also becomes quite visible. I know of some anecdotes of the social tensions as this was happening Then picking up Hamilton and the Route 4 corridor heading south toward Cincy. (yet hard to figure whats going on in what looks like the Union Centre area) What does this have to do with the recession? Perhaps the series of recessions since 1970 has eroded incomes and increased poverty, and this one will contribute to that trend, a trend that’s not really visible unless one takes the long view. But it’s interesting to think on this, how this long term increase in poverty (and perhaps declining wages that are above poverty) manifests itself on the landscape. I’m thinking of the dead and marginally occupied shopping centers and retail stuff in Fairborn and Salem Avenue in Trotwood and Dayton, or the hardscrabble vibe of Springfield. This place is turning into one of those sad Springsteen songs. I come from down in the valley where mister when you're young They bring you up to do like your daddy done Me and Mary we met in high school when she was just seventeen We'd ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green We'd go down to the river And into the river we'd dive Oh down to the river we'd ride.... I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy Now all them things that seemed so important Well mister they vanished right into the air Now I just act like I don't remember Mary acts like she don't care… (maybe sort of hokey to have a soundtrack to economics & demographics threads?)

I thought that was the idea behing the FHA to start with, when it started out in the Depression. That the Feds would back or insure the mortgage market

Yeah, the DDN did a good job with that article, actually commissioning a survey on the issue. This is part of their new experiment with more data-driven news reporting. Interesting that over 80% wouldnt visit or would rarely visit a casino, but still support the concept. I heard some casino discussion on WLW today, too (didnt hear the hold show).

Congratulations to Urban Ohio for having three of the top 10.

From Buisness First of Buffalo, sourced from the recent American Community Survey, ranking US center cities by urban poverty ...The following are the 75 cities in America with at least 250,000 residents, ranked according to their 2008 poverty rates:...  1. Detroit, 33.3% in poverty  2. Cleveland, 30.5% in poverty  3. Buffalo, 30.3% in poverty  4. Newark, 26.1% in poverty  5. Miami, 25.6% in poverty  6. Fresno, 25.5% in poverty  7. Cincinnati, 25.1% in poverty  8. Toledo, 24.7% in poverty  9. El Paso, 24.3% in poverty  10. Philadelphia, 24.1% in poverty  11. Milwaukee, 23.4% in poverty  12. Memphis, 23.1% in poverty  13. St. Louis, 22.9% in poverty  14. Dallas, 22.6% in poverty  14. New Orleans, 22.6% in poverty  16. Atlanta, 22.4% in poverty  17. Stockton, Calif., 21.6% in poverty  18. Minneapolis, 21.3% in poverty  19. Pittsburgh, 21.2% in poverty  20. Tucson, 20.9% in poverty  21. Chicago, 20.6% in poverty  22. Columbus, Ohio, 20.1% in poverty  23. Long Beach, Calif., 19.8% in poverty  24. Houston, 19.5% in poverty  25. Los Angeles, 19.4% in poverty  26. Baltimore, 19.3% in poverty  27. San Antonio, 19.2% in poverty  28. Phoenix, 18.9% in poverty  29. Boston, 18.7% in poverty  30. Denver, 18.4% in poverty  30. St. Paul, 18.4% in poverty  32. Tulsa, 18.3% in poverty  33. New York City, 18.2% in poverty  34. Tampa, 17.8% in poverty  35. Santa Ana, Calif., 17.6% in poverty  36. Nashville, 17.5% in poverty  36. Oakland, 17.5% in poverty  38. Corpus Christi, Texas, 17.2% in poverty  38. Washington, 17.2% in poverty  40. Austin, 17.0% in poverty  41. Bakersfield, Calif., 16.7% in poverty  42. Fort Worth, 16.6% in poverty  43. Indianapolis, 16.4% in poverty  43. Kansas City, 16.4% in poverty  43. Oklahoma City, 16.4% in poverty  46. Greensboro, 16.2% in poverty  47. Louisville, 16.1% in poverty  47. Sacramento, 16.1% in poverty  49. Lexington, Ky., 15.6% in poverty  50. Aurora, Colo., 15.4% in poverty  51. Albuquerque, 15.0% in poverty  51. Omaha, 15.0% in poverty  53. Portland, Ore., 14.4% in poverty  53. San Diego, 14.4% in poverty  55. Glendale, Ariz., 14.3% in poverty  55. Wichita, 14.3% in poverty  57. Fort Wayne, Ind., 13.5% in poverty  57. Riverside, Calif., 13.5% in poverty  59. Raleigh, 13.3% in poverty  60. Anaheim, Calif., 13.1% in poverty  61. Las Vegas, 12.6% in poverty  62. Charlotte, 12.0% in poverty  63. Jacksonville, 11.9% in poverty  64. Colorado Springs, 11.8% in poverty  64. Lincoln, Neb., 11.8% in poverty  66. Mesa, Ariz., 11.7% in poverty  67. Seattle, 11.6% in poverty  68. Arlington, Texas, 11.3% in poverty  69. San Francisco, 11.0% in poverty  70. Honolulu, 10.8% in poverty  71. San Jose, 8.9% in poverty  72. Henderson, Nev., 7.5% in poverty  73. Plano, Texas, 6.7% in poverty  74. Virginia Beach, 6.5% in poverty  75. Anchorage, 6.4% in poverty

Sure have. Here is a theory on how the Dayton versions evolved, using houses in the Oregon district as an example. except I call them "Urban I-Houses" in the post, not urban farmhouses. This is probably one of the best posts I've made here at UO: The Folk Process in Dayton's Oregon It's pretty long and you might want to scroll past the historical geography stuff at the top of the post. I should also say the ones on Ridge are a lot newer and a much later version of what's in the Oregon The changes came in the 1880s and 1890s..you can see this changeover in neighborhoods like Newcom Plain (post has some compare and contrast stuff) There's versions of it in Chicago.

In aviation terms, a steep angle of descent pulling back to a shallower glide slope Sort of the way I use those employment or housing permit numbers. Units not prices.

Yet another bump. ...if yr going to have a rock fest, then have a rock poster show, too....Postertastic show print show returns: Postertastic II

Pretty amazing to read, huh? That this place cancels the bands the day of the show. Just wow. Funny thing Ive been by that place many times and always pass on eating or drinking there, it just looks so....polyester.

Came late to this party: The Hold Steady/ Boys & Girls in America.

We’ve traced the subdivision development of the Northridge area. Now, a closer look at one street. This is the end of Ridge Avenue, Stop 3 on the interurban. We’ll look at some of the early housing here. Stop Three was the location of two early pre-WWI plats, Neff Park and the small Fieldston plat Fieldston was also called the Harshman plat as it was part of the large Harshman property extending to the west toward the Stillwater River. Ridge Avenue as of the 1930s and a modern aerial. The exact location of Stop 3 is unknown (@ Ridge, but either to the north or south of the intersection) It’s pretty clear the southern side of the street was different due to the larger lot sizes. In some cases there are two houses per lot. In others the full lot remains intact. This map also shows some speculation on how Dixie Drive expanded to claim the interurban ROW and frontage road One of the assumptions is that since this was right at a train stop there would be older housing on this block. Apparently this is the case, as most of the housing appears to be pre-Depression (based on style). Now a gallery of houses. This was an early house on the block, perhaps predating subdivision. It’s in that urban farmhouse style common in old Dayton, but nice trim work. And it’s brick. Foursquare and bungalow. Though this is walking distance to the train stop there are no sidewalks. Most of the Northridge plats lack sidewalks curbs and gutters. Very basic subdivisions. Some of the bungalows are pretty nice, somewhat Craftsmanesque. Housing from the Progressive Era? Second pix shows a typical situation in the Northridge plats, mix of prewar and postwar development. (nice privet hedge). And here’s an example of a dollhouse. Northridge has a scattering of “California Dollhouses”. The style was identified by architectural historian David Gebard in his essay “Life in the Dollhouse” (in the book Bay Area Houses). Exaggerated forms, plays with scale, and a certain storybook quality characterize the dollhouse. Ridge Avenue scene illustrating three common Dayton housing typologies. In the foreground the L or T shaped “urban farmhouse” style that developed in 19th century Dayton (and elsewhere), in the middle an early postwar houseform typically found on prewar plats. This typology was apparently developed to take advantage of the deeper lots with narrow frontage found in dead 1920s subdivisions. And, in the background, the popular foursquare; one of the most ubiquitous houseforms in Dayton in the early 20th century. Next a few more posts from Neff Park and maybe other Northridge plats.

bump

A quick look at Chambersburg & the D&T. Chambersburg is, or was, one of the oldest communities in northern Montgomery County. But it doesn’t exist anymore. It was renamed Murlin Heights, after the traffic agent of the D&T, not the Arthurian wizard. And it was mostly eroded away by auto-sprawl. The original plat from the 1875 county atlas: (note the “Negro School” on the west side of the village. Interesting.) …one can see how the line bypassed Chambersburg. There must be a story behind this as usually interurbans defaulted to street running when encountering rural villages (like in Vandalia). Amazingly enough one can still trace this bypass using modern aerial photography. Comparing a plat book map with a modern aerial, the ROW shows up in both. And a few close-ups. Notes are self-explatory Aside from being a neat little exercise in landscape history, this would be an interesting urban design problem, on reintroducing a light rail line onto the same right-of-way and then developing some urban design and architectural strategies to re-urbanized & densify Chambersburg from an auto-strip into a TOD.

We’ve taken a historical drive on the US 25 Super-Highway. Weve visited Marianne Country Estates and Outing Park. Now for the main course, the development out along the “New Troy Pike”, AKA North Dixie Drive, known today as Northridge. The study area will be the areas immediately along North Dixie Drive. Yeah, today it’s North Dixie. Back then it was the New Troy Pike. But where was old Troy Pike? Before there was Troy there was Staunton, the first settlement in Miami County and seat of the first county court. The first two roads north of Dayton headed up there, following the Great Miami River. The first road was probably the “River Road”, ancestor to todays Wagner Ford Road. After statehood the Ohio legislature established a “3% Fund” for roadbuilding, and the Staunton Road was built from that fund. Note there is no National Road yet, no Vandalia and no Englewood. In fact the central part of Butler Township, along the county line, was still virgin timber, not purchased from the government until 1830s. Settlement followed better drained lands along the river and stream margins. The first settlements north were Chambersburg, Union, and Little York. Troy replaced Staunton as the county seat and the road became the “old” Troy Pike. The New Troy Pike was a more direct route and was probably built (maybe on an older road) during the turnpike boom of the 1830s. As one can see from this close up there was a number of turnpikes radiating from Dayton, including Frederick Pike to the west and north connecting south central Miami County into Dayton. (the study area outlined in red) By the mid 1830s things havn’t changed much, except the Miami & Erie canal has been extended north to Piqua. One sees the names of the various property owners on this map, some of who would continue farming here until the suburban era. By the 1850s Dayton Township has been divided into Harrison, Mad River, and Van Buren townships, and the study area is now in Harrison Twp. The ancestor of Needmore road appears on this map, as does Shoup Mill Road (and the mill, too, on the Stillwater) Note the cluster of Neff’s; John Neff, Ab. Neff, B Neff and Widow Neff. This family would continue to own land in the area until the time of subdivision. One of the pioneer Neff houses still stands, hidden away on a deep lot. The 1875 county atlas shows property lines, and one can see some new names, such as Harshman (a major landowner and miller in Mad Rive Township). By 1860 the Dayton & Michigan Railroad had come through on the eastern edge of the study area, but didn’t stop until further north, near Chambersburg. Two of the landowners are associated with the 19th century Rom or Roma community, what used to by called Gypsies. Dayton was a rendezvous point for 19th century Roma, who owned these and perhaps other properties and held community meetings and marriage festivals here. This particular group of Roma had (based on some quick google research) emigrated from England to Connecticut and then west, and specialized in horse trading. Also shown are an inn (the Four Mile House), a toll house, schoolhouse and the Ebenezer church. Ebenezer was the first congregation in this area, organizing around the time of the War of 1812. Another feature is the pattern of land subdivision. One sees the expected larger quarter section farms and other large farms in the 90 to 100 + acres but there are quite a few smallholdings in the vicinity of Needmore Road and along New Troy Pike. By 1895 Ridge Avenue appears, and the Roma farms are still mostly intact. Interestingly a new landowner appears on the point at the confluence of the Great Miami and Stillwater rivers, OE Mead, perhaps of the Mead paper company. Perhaps an industrial future for this area or just a country get-away? A property just to the east is labled “Idylwild”, impying some sort of estate or maybe picnic grove? Around the turn of the century a proper topographic map was made of the area. By the time of this map the interurban railroad was built north of Dayton along New Troy Pike. The map has some modern roads, like Benson, Timber, etc, appearing. But the land apparently was still mostly open country, farmland. Ebenezer appears as a place name on this map, as a crossroads settlement at the intersection of Frederick and New Troy Pike Since this is a topo map showing landforms and streams, one can overlay some landscape interpretation. Areas of steeper slopes are in brown, and one can see the ridge of Ridge Avenue, between New Troy Pike and the Stillwater. The edge of the Great Miami River valley is laced with little ravines and hollows draining onto a bench or third bottom before the land finally drops to the flood plain. The river bottomlands or flood plains are in light green. Wagner Ford Road is a testament to the sensitivity of the early settlers to the lay of the land as it follows the Great Miami, but on the very edge of the floodplain. Some oxbows of the Great Miami appear as well, indicating the variable course of the river within the floodplain. This is an interesting landscape since the bluff & valley aspect of it is not that evident. It seems flatter than it really is to the casual traveler passing through on North Dixie or I-75 Ebenezer Believe it or not some of the old Ebenezer things survive, the church and school, which are now businesses. Here is the church in the background (interurban station with signboard and signal in the foreground) Same scene today. Church now “Auto Corral” Another view of the church (note the telltale tall windows), with Frederick Pike heading off to the northwest. Interurban station is long gone. The old school (?) The Ebenezer Methodist congregation still exists, but under a different name. The congregation was expanding as this area was becoming suburban, so a new structure was built around the end of WWI. With the new building came a new name, Victory Methodist church. Though one thinks of victory over sin the name was chosen in part to celebrate the US victory in WWI. One can see the Craftsman/Bungalow aesthetic in what is an English Gothic design, with the heavy rubble stone exterior. As the area grew, so did the congregation, expanding using the same style Another view, also giving a taste of the housing in the area The school also was replaced in the 1920s with this large school The original part was, I think, in the center, and wings were added later. After the turn of the century the interurban kicked off a real estate boom in this part of Harrison Township. The following set of maps charts the transformation from farm country to suburbia. The maps show the new subdivisions and land apparently held in speculation by real estate companies or investors. The first plats, before WWI, were the big Garden City plat, in two parts, separated by Neff Park and the small Fieldston plat In 1920 the old Roma farms go under speculation and development fills in toward the Great Miami. The first Needmore plat appears One should note that during this era auto ownership was becoming widespread, so the viability of these plats may have had as much to do with automobility as with access via interurban. By the middle of the Roaring Twentys the area is in the middle of a boom. Notable developments are the old Roma farms become Dixie Heights (with streets named “Gypsy” and “Nomad”), a large quarter section farm is platted as Woodland Hills, and Harrison Terrace extents development nearly up to Stop 8 Road. In 1926 New Troy Pike became the Dixie Highway. By the time of the Crash the area adds a few smaller subdivisions (we’ve already seen Outing Park). This is about it for new development until the 1940s, as development went on hiatus during the Depression years. As one can see this is a real grab bag of little subdivisions, all in the Ebenezer school district. The new suburbanites thought that Ebenezer sounded too old-timey, and held a contest for the school kids to pick a name, which would be voted on at a big school assembly. The name that was chosen was Northridge. The schoolgirl who picked the name received a box of chocolates as prize. Northridge also became the catch-all unofficial name for this collection of plats strung out along the Dixie Highway. One should note that during this era property became more and more fragmented into ribbon development along Dixie and the country roads, and as smaller farms and land speculations, perhaps reflecting the impact of automobility permitting dispersed settlement, foreshadowing modern-day exurbia. In the following, the yellow lines are the 1895 property lines drawn on a 1920s map. Recapping, land platted as of 1930, showing a fairly consistent corridor of development extending north of the city. …and how it looked on a street map, the Wagner Map. The interurban was still running at this time, but barely. A bridge collapse in the early 1930s would put the line out of business. One can see that this area was perhaps seen as a set of individual suburbs at the time, rather than “Northridge” The red circles show the interurban stops. Stop Eight Road was at te 8th stop out from the city. Stop One was McCook Field (later to be Parkside Homes), not on the map. Dayton & Troy: “The Lima Route” This was the interurban. It did run up to Lima and eventually on to Toledo and connections to Fort Wayne. This was an unusually well-built line, with long stretches of double track, yet oddly enough this double track sections weren’t in Northridge. The line apparently ran a suburban service as far as Chambersburg, which was renamed Murlen Heights, after the traffic director of the line. The alpha and omega of passenger equipment. Fist passenger equipment was built (in wood) by the Barney & Smith Company of Dayton, which was right on the line as it entered Dayton. They looked like motorized passenger cars. The last were the spiffy somewhat streamlined steel coaches by Cincinnati Car Company, which are closer to streetcars in design. Color scheme was bright orange with a maroon band on top. Nice. (most of these pix are from the Dave’s Railpix site0 The D&T wasn’t really a rapid-transit line but a shortline railroad powered by electricity. So it ran freight, too. Actually a lot of freight via an early version of just-in-time delivery. They ran “box motors” (sort of a self propelled boxcars) and custom-built trailer box ears. The freight house in Dayton is still standing in the Webster Station neighborhood, and there are reports that the line had an even larger freight terminal in North Dayton somewhere. The funky cowcatcher in front looks like a version of the man-catchers they had on some California interurbans. Some more passenger equipment. The very large steel sheathed car is a bit unusual, but a car like this was implicated in a fatal accident, where a northbound express missed a train order and crashed into a stopped wood-body local car somewhere between Needmore and the river, telescoping the car. Not good for business. The lower pix shows how the powered cars pulled regular passenger cars. In this case the cars were acquired from the New Haven railroad. This line had a run of 30 years or so, before operations were terminated by a bridge collapse caused by a freight. Ten years later the super-highway would be open. What’s a bit fascinating was that the line operated at the same time autos where coming into use. So this suburban area experienced true multi-modal transit in the early days…automobiles and local rail service. The street system reflects this, as streets and subdivisions were laid out to accommodate the interurban, reserving medians and providing frontage roads so the line could continue to operate without conflicting with auto traffic, as shown in this map of the early plats. (there might have been one more stop here, too) We’ll take a closer look at this area in another post.

^ Except that the tax rates for casino are exceptionally high comapred to other forms of entertainment. So the same amount of money is floating around an entertainment sector, but it's taxed higher in the gambling subsector.

I think conservatives call that "throwing money at social problems". This does bring up an interesting issue. The pitch is to bring gambling in-state since the money is not being taxed in Ohio (plus the jobs argument). The assumption is that there is a fixed amount of gamblers that are in Ohio and they leave the state to gamble ("billions leaving Ohio"). What hasnt been discussed is if the proximity of casinos will increase the pool of gamblers, inducing new customers to try out the casinos and maybe keep coming back. Would that be economic development? There is a theory that says it would not. The concept is that gambling is a form of entertainment or recreation. It is like going to bar or going to a movie or going bowling or playing minature golf. Having a casino nearby adds to the menue of entertainment options, and will drain some money & time from other options. So you are not adding money to a local economy just re-allocating money within the entertainment/recreation sector. This is already happening in Ohio for gamblers who leave the state. However if you increase the pool of gamblers, inducing more Ohioans to gamble and increasing money going to casinos you will reduce the money going to already existing entertainment options in the state or locality. This the zero-sum argument. That there is a finite amount of discretionary income. In reality people could just reallocate their household budgets to spend more on entertainment to to cover adding casino gambling to their menu of recreational/entertainment options.

Based on 2004 numbers the average numbers of jobs per casino: Michigan: 2,524 Illinois: 958 Indiana: 1,737 ...so you'd be talking about a fairly sizable workforce increase. Adding one good-sized factory. For example GM's Moraine plant employed 4,000.

Which is why the local and state political/governmental establishments are supporting this. It's a new source of revenue. This would also be a tax benefit for property taxes and local income taxes, as well as employment.

Another issue is that the benefits of casinos are narrowly focused on the 3-C Circle Jerk (plus a few other places). If one wants the benefit of returned revenue the opportunity for this benefit should be spread throughout the state. Or if one really wants to see this as a job generator for depressed areas (like, say Wisconsin Indian reservations), to magnify this benefit, the casinos should be limited to places like Youngstown, Steubenville, and Appalachian Ohio.

The billions of dollars in earnings from gambling goes to the casinos. Some percentage is taxed in various ways, some percentage goes to payroll. The money that is taxed and goes for wages goes to other states. The rest goes to the casino owners to pay for overhead and as profit. So the issue here is the billions of dollars will not be coming "back to Ohio". What's coming back to Ohio are the taxes/fees paid by casinos and whatever payroll the casinos have. And the gamblers themselves. So I guess there's that savings on gas and wear and tear on gamblers cars since they dont have to travel so far.

3C Passenger Rail & the C & LE Interurban. Neither one makes it to downtown Cincinnati, ending at some distance from downtown propert. C&LE at Winton Place, 3C in either Sharonville or Lunken. I have to say this is looking like the train to nowhere. Reminds me of the old South Shore Line. Starts in the heart of Chicago, station accessible right of Michigan Avenue. Station in front of downton Gary. Street running in downtown Michigan City, but ending (at the time) at a small station in the western suburbs of South Bend. So 3C will have a station on the lake in donwtown Cleveland, a station at the convention center in Columbus, in the middle of the hot Arena District/Short North area, a station in downtown Dayton somewhere, and,, for Cincinnati, pffffft....Sharonville! Or Lunken Field! Yay!