Jeffery

If this is to incorporate the Daniel Boone Parkway and the Cumberland Parkway there already are highways on the route. I have to say the Cumberland Parkway is the oddest road to drive on. Four lane divided highway with full grade seperated interchanges. And nary a soul on it.

The Louisville Bridges thing is extremely political. There was always the east end bridge, to connect the beltway through the Indiana suburbs with the outeberlt Gene Synder, thus with I-64 and I-71. It made a lot of sense from a through-traffic POV. But it was strongly opposed by the elite who lived on the fashionable Kentucky side (and their "Riverfields" environmental group, which became their NIMBY pressure group). So this I-65 bridge was added to the plan. Its not stated as such but there is hope that the two bridges would cost way too much, and when the tradeoff comes it will be the East End bridge that gets cut. The riverfront park would be sacrificed so the snobs won't have an interestate crossing in their neighborhood.

But I agree with the thread parents' premise. I've noticed it a lot on the Dayton Daily News comments boards from expat Daytonians who trash their former home with a disturbing glee. Skyscraperpage is a bit more sophisticated in its trash talk....yet, even I (not a big fan of Ohio in general and Dayton in particular) felt the need to defend the state from some of the negatives. You don't see that that much from former Kentuckians, whether from Lexington, Louisville, or out in the state. And of course ex-Chicagoans are quite proud of being from there.

The Dayton Gloom. .

If Kasich can do something to make Ohio more business friendly I'm for him. This NCR/Georgia thing really woke me up on this issue.

Yeah, it was not so much "if" but "where and when". That NCR already had a substantial presence in Georgia probably helped with the decision.

It could be as simple as the CEO not liking Dayton and not wanting to live there, and then wanting to move the entire HQ ops from Dayton. Nuti to Dayton: "You Suck".

That was a great post by PerfectTimeofDay.

Doo-wah-diddy He's the boy from New York City....well, OK, Long Island.... Nuti says "I want to be a winner Bill Nuti, the chairman and CEO of NCR, grew up in a rough neighborhood in New York. He has translated that toughness into the business world, angering Daytonians last week when he announced that NCR would be moving to Atlanta.

Apparently this reporter used to live in Dayton, so an interesting take. Some things I didnt know about Cleveland.... Dayton's Loss a Warning for Cuyahoga County The city of Dayton died Tuesday. It would be foolish for political leaders across Ohio, especially in Greater Cleveland, to ignore that city's demise. We have seldom been more vulnerable.

I sort of like that last sentance, since its already happening for me, personally. I find myself already paying more attention to Cincinnati things, watching Cincy public TV, and posting more on the Cincinnati threads at UO.

A good call to action from the host of the Dayton Most Metro blog Are We Ready to Wake Up Yet? As if being listed as a top-ten dying city last year wasn’t enough of a wake-up call, Dayton’s largest and most famous home-grown company NCR has announced its relocation to Atlanta and sent shock waves throughout the region and up to the state capital. While various city, regional and state leaders spent their media time complaining about NCR’s unwillingness to return phone calls or come to the table, they might have inspired more confidence in our community with the following: “We’d like to thank NCR for the 125 years they’ve been an integral part of the Dayton community. We appreciate the support you’ve shown to our local arts & culture groups and other non-profit organizations over the years, and we will always cherish the rich history that your company has had with Dayton going back to the days of John Patterson. NCR’s departure comes as no surprise to those of us who have been trying to work with the company over the past several months to no avail, and we regret their decision to unceremoniously abandon Dayton. But starting this very minute we will look forward to new opportunities with emerging and growing businesses and remain committed to all of those companies that actually wish to stay and grow in the Dayton Region. We will not dwell on what has been lost, but we will take advantage of this opportunity to make the bold changes necessary that will transform our city and region.” “Dayton’s past represents the era of a few mega corporations that the community relied on in every facet of life, but Dayton’s future represents a brand new environment created to attract and nurture thousands of small and medium-sized businesses that are able to innovate, grow and retain top talent. This new reality will require a completely new way we operate government at the local, regional and state levels, and we are dedicated to making the hard decisions that will get us to where we need to be.” Those are simply words, and words alone will not push our community forward – bold action is required. It seems as though NCR’s ‘sudden’ departure has struck quite a nerve at the highest levels in state government, and it is time to capitalize on the attention we now have from the state. Here are some things I would focus on if I was leading the charge: Transform Tax Structure We must completely overhaul our antiquated tax structure that may have made sense decades ago but is now the single largest force against our region’s ability to work together. The current system forces cities to rely on income tax, the counties to rely on sales tax and townships to rely on property tax. Added to a political climate which pits rural and suburban communities against urban cities, it is no wonder our region is so divided. Change must happen at the state level in order to implement a more equitable tax structure that encourages communities to work together rather than compete against one another. Consolidate, Cut, Streamline, Simplify We must consolidate similar organizations when at all possible, cut every duplicate administrative role possible and streamline our remaining organizations to become as efficient as possible - thereby freeing up more resources that can be invested in our communities and businesses. It is never easy to kill positions, but businesses do it every day in order to survive – we must do it if we are to survive as a region. In addition to cost savings, simplifying our system gives us a better opportunity to speak to businesses with one regional voice – an ability we’ve paid a significant price for lacking all of this time. Change the Culture We must finally transform ourselves away from a series of individual counties and communities competing with one another and into a single region that values the unique identities of our individual communities but that works closely together to ensure that every investment and development decision is made to maximize the benefit to the entire region. Only when the diversity of choices our region offers both residents and businesses alike is considered an asset rather than an “us vs them” argument will we become a unified region. And only when we become a unified region will we become attractive to outside business and investment. Culture change is not easy, but it can happen with true leadership and an effective message to the community at-large. Strengthen the Core Our entire region is seeing the effects of having a weak urban core, as we are seeing our largest businesses flee to regions with strong central cities. While others debate whether or not the city’s current leadership has effectively done its job for the city, those we elect in the future must be able to inspire confidence and speak not just for the city but for the entire region – even if they do not have any official regional power outside of the city’s borders. City government must do a much better job at attracting responsible residents and businesses to the core. And at the same time, the region at large must get over its irrational attitudes and biases against the city and understand once and for all that we’re all in this together. Change is never easy, and the type of change that will be necessary to push the Dayton Region forward will be especially difficult. It will require true leaders who are unified with their mission and message to a region that is now extremely divided. Politics must be set aside, and individual egos and personal agendas that conflict with the greater good must be fully exposed and destroyed. The question is – do we have the will to make Dayton emerge a different yet stronger city and region? Or will we simply become paralyzed by the enormous challenges we face as Dayton sinks further into irrelevance and becomes a far-away exurb to Cincinnati? What do you think?

^ Thats a real good analogy..the NCR/Xerox/Kodak compariosn. For IBM, Tom Watson was a former NCR manager here in Dayton. Also, another Dayton connection: the company that was the ancestor to IBM, the Computing, Tabulating, and Recording comapny, was formed from three companies. One of these was the Dayton Recording Scale company. Their old factory still stands in East Dayton.

hah..guess what, there old manufacturin site in Dayton (a couple of city blocks worth of empty fields as they tore it all down way back in the 1970s) IS contaminated. But there was some sort of deal worked out to where they managed to donate or sell it very cheap to University of Dayton, with the understanding that it didnt have to be remediated as the contamination was at some low level so it didn pose a serious health risk. Or something like that (ColDayMan might have the details).

So it's fortunate Cincinnati is close by as that city isnt seeing the same kind of threat to its philanthropic base.

Lexis Nexis is a big supporter of the Cityfolk Festival they have downtown every year. They are a sponsor and their people work the beer trucks and tickets as volunteers. Losing them could well mean the end of this festival. The loss of this corporate presence means the loss of corporate philanthropy. This supports cultural things like the performing arts, festivals, museums, etc. So a city that loses these things becomes more provincial and diminished, and the quality of life degrades a bit more.

Is it time for one of my periodic "Warren County monthly housing permit" graphs?

Ironically there was a lot of speculation that Terradata was a likely prospect for relocating to Atlanta. Yet they are staying put for now. Locally, the rumor mill has it that Lexis Nexis or Reynolds & Reynolds are the next likely suspects to leave...the buzz more around Lexis Nexis. Looks like Dayton will be end up with a set of vacant corporate campuses to add to its collection of vacant factories.

...and thank you for contributing!

Remember this isnt Ohio in general, this is Dayton Ohio. I think things would be different in Columbus or Cincinnati. To give you an idea of what a turn-off Dayton is over at City-Data I run across posts by people transferring here to work for the military or defense contractors (about the only thing brining in white collar work in this area), who are looking to live in either Cincy or Cols and commute in because they want to avoid the Dayton area. This towns' rep is that bad.

Georgia spending $60M to lure NCR, jobs State gives money in tax breaks, incentives to attract maker of cash registers, ATMs By Christian Boone, Dan Chapman The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday, June 01, 2009 Lured by $60 million in tax incentives, Fortune 500 technology firm NCR spurned its home state of Ohio to relocate its heardquarters to Duluth, the company confirmed Tuesday. this sounds like a smart tax break move by Georgia, but I think the overall lower taxes, Altanta being a huge talent magnet, business connections to the SE, and the international air connections probably made the decision. I'd say $60M will pay for a new corporate HQ and relocation costs for sure

The Dream of Atlanta Ever More lives the dream of Atlanta Ever more Her eternal Pride Strong and sure is the dream of Atlanta When Her Brothers are unified And the sound of Her voice is clearer When Her People are proud and free Not a star to the sky could be nearer Than my heart is, Atlanta, to Thee! (from "Parade")

Duluth is just an odd name for a Georgia place.

....and the DDN just reported that Strickland offered a cool $30M + to stay in Ohio. Oh well.

NCR collapsed in the early 1970s, and pretty much shut down here except for their corporate HQ and training center. I dont think Dayton ever recovered, psychologically speaking, from losing a 15,000s in three years. That was the first big closure. The company stayed here for 20 years after that before AT&T took it over. Then there was that spin-off. I never was that interested in NCR. It was history for me..this little remnant operation of an industrial behmoth. But for a lot of locals the citys identity was wrapped up in NCR (and Delco a bit). So there is a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Another rumor floating around is that Lexis-Nexis might be leaving. ....after NCR did the big shutdown here and tore down ther industrial complex they built a nice new HQ building in a sort of parklike suburban setting, practically next to Oakwood. So they dont really have an urban or downtown location.