Jeff

Reading this really pisses me off because Dayton really does have some large brownfield sites that could be redeveloped into strip centers or convenience retail, particularly in West Dayton, which is really huring for something like that. Yet those sites sit fallow while the city tears down yet more of its 19th and early 20th century building stock.

No kidding...thats what the article says... not just yers truely rattling on about the "suburbanization of Dayton". So they tear down a neighborhood to put in some blah strip center. At least it goes along with the crap on the other three corners of that intersection (gas stations, suburban style drug store, and a Wendys). City Seeks Proposal for Wayne, Wyoming Suburban-style development sought to revitalize neighborhood into a bustling commercial district. By Joanne Huist Smith Staff Writer DAYTON | The city of Dayton wants to bring suburban-style shopping to a neighborhood, with a large anchor store and ample parking. The city's office of economic development issued a request for proposals Thursday to transform 12.25 acres at the northeast corner of Wayne Avenue and Wyoming Street from aging and rundown to bustling commercial district. ... I think there are some threads elsewhere on this site about the Wayne & Wyoming area, including a pix thread by me.

Theres no point in asking us youll get no reply Oh just remenber a dont decide I got no reason its all too much Youll always find us Out to lunch ! Oh were so pretty oh so pretty vacant But now and we dont care Dont ask us to attend cos were not all there Oh dont pretend cos I dont care I dont believe illusions cos too much is real So stop your cheap comment Cos we know what we feel Were pretty pretty vacant Were pretty pretty vay-cunt And we dont care

Beer and Doritos

That string of missions south of downtown is pretty good...architecturally they are better than the Alamo. There are some neat neighborhoods north and just south of downtown. The area south of La Villeta that I recall was called "King William"...a lot of great old victoriana down there. Some interesting areas north of downtown too. Ink, glad to see you made it to the area around the plaza and market, west end of downtown. Thats an interesting little area (I think that was the orginal Spanish plat) and there is an old house from the Mexican era over near the plaza. I took a tour of it when i was in SA.

I used to live in the Bay Area too, and yes, Columbia/Tusculum will remind you a lot of The City and a bit of Sausalito. ColDayMan did some good pix of St Annes Hill there. A bit of Mr Know-It-All (but not really) trivia from me...that building with the Sachs-Pruden Ale faded wall sign...the Sachs-Pruden brewerey was, I think, the current Hauer Music store over on Patterson.

Well, Funky Winkerbean is for sure set in Ohio!

Wow...you are lucky!

I am thinking that was maybe the case in the immediate postwar era, which seems to be more "modern" or future-oriented than today. In our present era I think people are attracted to the "image" of the old, but a certain kind of "old"...that of small town/rural America. The reality of suburbia isn't that, but people are buying into the image (or metaphor) of small town America, the Waynesvilles, Delawares and Hudsons.

If this isnt a "nanny state" issue, I dont know what is. Those annoying petition signers where out in force during the Celtic Festival this weekend. I think those poll numbers are interesting, too. Republicans favor the ban...so much for "getting Govt. off our backs"!

I am certainly looking forward to seeing this! Hopefully there still will be some outside dining and drinking like Rock Bottom brewrey had.

Heavy Machinery. Aside from the crisp beauty of B&W photography using film (can digital equal this yet?) one can be thrilled by the aesthetic of technology here, but it is all overwhelming somehow, too....a puzzlement....appreciating the these machines as aesthetic objects, but also wondering how it all works? As a system?

That would be pretty unusual in North America. I wonder if there are other fachwerke houses in that area, given the heavy German settlment. Driving round there I didn't see any obvious examples, but there is sort of an unusual rural vernacular of brick cottages in the rural areas and even in Minster itself. In central Germany fachwerke framing is usually filled with a sort of wattle and daub filling, with whitewash/plaster on the outside. In northern Germany the infill is in brick. There are also regional variations in framing technique, as well as decorative plastering and woodworking examples. A lot of the German fachwerke was plastered over during the 1930s, 40s, & 50s. With the rise in interest in historic preservation (same as here in the USA) in the 1970s, this stucco finish was taken off and the half-timbering was restored, returing the old medieval/rennaissance appearance to houses, barns, and old inns and commercial buildings. Some of the before and after pix of villages and towns, after restoration, is pretty suprising.

Wow, what a great little neighborhood! There has to be a story behind those doubles and the Olde English type buildings. And how about that corner store with the vintage Barques sign?! Fabulous! Middletown is always full of suprises!

From what I remember the suburbs where fresh and new. Plenty of free parking (which could only be appreicated if one lived in a congested city like Chicago, where parking in the neighborhood shopping districts like Belmont and Central or Six Corners could be tough). Suburbia was an improvement ove city living in a flat or bungalow on a narrow lot. Houses where not that close together, more privacy, lager lawns and lots, more light. Expressways where a new experience and thrill...going fast, without stoplights and traffic jams and dangerous passing on twolane highways. It took less time and hassle getting somewhere. That was the impression...the suburbs where "the future". The architecture back then mirrored that a bit, too.

I heard about the Subway back when I was still living in California. It is sort of old school "dive bar" which was probably pretty hot at one time, but has declined. Whenever I went it was usually pretty empty, but I did see some amusing amature drag there, which is probably the only time the place has any clientele. Good jukebox, though. And I like the downtown location, which used to be even more funky before they built Aranoff. As it is, the area around it has sort of "gentrified", while the Subway is sort of a holdout from the olden days. There used to be an even scuzzier dive bar in the alley...The Side Door. This was before Nicholsons and all that. That place was a hoot. It was rumored there was some sort of passageway between the two bars via the basement of that big apartment building they were in.

^ ...so are the people who shop there.

This could have an impact on that proposal to partially demolish the Wayne & Wyoming interesection in Dayton for a new Kroger. (and that pix Dfly posted..wow! Its been a long time since I've been to Joeseph-Beth, apparently!)

This six foot rule. Who is going to enforce this? Is someone going to go around with a tape measure or something? A lot of this just seems like nuisance regulation. Why not just ban this stuff outright, like they did gay marriage?

Some favorite Dayton parking wastelands Sort of a "planned parking wasteland" at the Mall at Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek The University as Shopping Mall...parking wasteland surrounding WSU and the nearby Nutter Center Bellbrook strip parking wasteland showing clear layering...first tier is a phalanx of themed franchise food places with their dedicated parking, then a layer of "shared" parking lots, then the layer of of strip centers and big-box retail.

There where mounds all around Dayton. There was a "mound city" type of enclosure around where Woodys was...around the intersection of Alex-Bell and Alex Roads...

I could see this being the case. See what deal Georgia and Atlanta is willing give them and come back to officials in Dayton and threaten to leave if they don't match Atlanta's incentives. I don't like it, but I guess that's just how companies do business today. Way back during the Patterson era, Patterson did something like this..threaten to take the company out of Dayton if the city didnt shape up.

An immodest proposal is to turn the space into a regional/city history museum. Sort of like the Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center (which is a real good museum:link), or the historical museum in the Ciny Union Terminal (another white elephant building), or even that Youngstown museum. The big rotunda space would be a great place to hang a replica of one of the Wright Flyers, and the spaces around could be the exhibition spaces for permanent, changing and touring exhibits. On the ground floor there could be a museum shop and restaurant and even some other types of smaller retail (maybe bring back the food court or some sort of market, but in the arcade area off of Third, reserving the rotunda and adjacent spaces for the museum itself). And, yeah, this is about as likely as the Arcade complex being torn down for parking. But I'm a history freak so I like the idea. Too late: Sacred Heart is now home to a Vietnamese RC congregation (at least they where there last summer).

Oy Vey! Link NCR considering moving world headquarters to Atlanta Dayton may be about to loose another major employer and this time it’s the company founded by one of Dayton’s great community leaders. Word on the street is that NCR is looking at options to move its corporate operations to other cities, with serious consideration being given to the Atlanta area. This is a dramatic shift in NCR’s strategy which just two years ago, before Mark Hurd left to take the helm at HP, was considering consolidating operations in Dayton. This would be another mighty blow to the Dayton region. What are the economic development experts doing about this one? I’ll give you one guess! ...Ok, so its a rumor. But that would leave yet another corporate HQ vacant in the region.

Yeah, that is one of the characteristics of downtown Dayton..large blocks of empty space or large institutional or buisness uses, with very wide streets...with some isolated retail holdouts and bars. It has a very void feel to it. It is close to being "suburban" already. It didn't work for retail, but transforming a downtown into a sort of office park maybe is a way to go. Or , even more radical, why have a downtown at all?. Downtowns where the result of concentrations of buisness due to transportation lines, but that technological reason has went away, so downtowns go away too. What value do abandoned buildings have? Less than none. Parking is more functional. Trees and grass are less functional, but its more pleasant to look at it, not so much a value thing as an aesthetic improvement. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Well, it has been fun playing around with this idea, but the reality of the Arcade going away antytime soon is pretty remote. Yet for all intents and purposes the building is already "gone" as a downtown place. How many of you ever been in it, or used it? For many people, particularly younger people or suburbanities, its just an empty block and no one is aware of what's inside, or they just saw pix of it somewhere. It's just a memory for some, an eyesore for others. As for the future, the builidng will most likely be taken over by the county from Brownfield Charities for delinquent taxes and then...well? Well it could be simply sold at the sheriffs sale. Or, more likely, the final foreclosure on the Arcade will be the kick in the rear for the city and county to get serious on what to do with the building.