Jeff

I wasn't going to do it, but ended up taking that Third Street Shuttle to Wright-Dunbar tonight, just to see what its "Urban Nights" deal was. And I was impressed. It was quite a bit more lively than downtown. Jazz tent, open galleries (with live music), outdoor barbeque stand, and I ended up at crowded Smokey Joes listening to a jazz combo and eating some chicken and a fish sandwich. The theme was "Strolling the Nickle", sort of a recreation of the old 5th Street scene....and one of the galleries was showing this documentary video on the history and venues of old 5th Street. The old car cruise-in was great. I like old cars so this was up my alley... Some good old "bombes" (lowrider slang for a 40s car), but also this really really sweet late 60s Chevelle with chrome plated engine work..a true show car. And an BMW Isetta...the first Ive seen in real life. This was a great debut for Wright-Dunbar to the Urban Nights crowd.

Its good to see that they are thinking regionally. If local leaders really run with this SW Ohio could become a sort of "illegal immigrant strict enforcement zone." This area is perhaps a bit ahead of the curve in really dealing with the issue as the numbers of illegas appear to be rather low. Im not sure if Mongomery or Greene Counties will follow suit yet. I have heard there are alot of illegals north of here, in Miami County and the New Carlisle area.

I appreciate that...I'd like to know more about it, too.

The Mass. funding concept makes sense for transit...taking transport-related tax and using it for all forms of transport, not just roads.

Yes, but does this study sound right? This study was looking at legislation, it seems. Which is at best an indirect measure of tolerance within civil society (as opposed to the political culture). And, at the municiple level Ohio seems to be somewhat OK on the gay rights issue given the sucess of GLBT ordnances in the larger cities and select college towns.

...reminds me a line from that Monty Python and the Holy Grail Movie... "Help! Help! I'm being opressed!" ;-)

Bias Study Sets Ohio at the Bottom Thursday, May 18, 2006 T.C. Brown Plain Dealer Bureau Columbus - Ohio ranks last in the nation for protecting people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, according to a study released Wednesday by an organization that advocates for those groups. Equality Ohio, a grass-roots group that conducted the study, organized a conference of more than 500 people at the state capital Wednesday with the goal of educating lawmakers about issues of discrimination against gays, lesbians and others. It marked the first "lobby day" for the group, a gathering organizers hope to turn into an annual event. For more info, click link above

The Germans are considering privatizing their rail system. The system has already been develoved somwhat to the states...for example Bavaria runs its internal rail systems via something called Bayern Takt... The Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft in english, if you want to learn more. The Bavarian example is sort of interesting as it is something that could happen in the US, where the state could develope/coordinate a statewide transport system....the Bavarian system goes beyond rail and also looks at supporting and coordinating local transit too, including in rural areas. Bavarian Transport Policy ....and this all pretty interesting as Bavaria is one of the more conservative German states.

Kenosha (and Racine) is sort of similar to Lorain...small lakefront industrial city. The trolly in Kenosha was part of the redevelopment of the old AMC plant (where they made the Pacer), which was right on the lake. The site was redeveloped into condominiums/rowhouses, and also I think some sort of aquarium and marina. The trolly line goes from the lakefront site into downtown and loops back. It sort of 'connects' with the new commuter train thats running to Chicago now. Kenosha is now within the Chicago commuting zone. I always thought Lorain would be a primo site for some water-oriented in-town development along that river that comes into town. That could be a great boat harbor ..have a townhouse and then a dock in back to take yr boat out on to the lake.

Good observation about Dayton "neigborhoods". A number of those names are, I think, made up. And valid neighborhoods, like Ohmer Park, are not really "officially" recognized by the city. The Oregon is a real historic neighborhood name, though. As are South Park & Westwood. Also, toponymy in Dayton is somewhat unstable. Neighborhood names shift, change, or disappear, too, over time. For example, Edgemont used to be Browntown, but started out as Patterson. And historic neighborhood names go out of usage, but then are revived, like Newcom Plain. @@@@@@ And yes this aside was off-topic. As for suburbs having neighborhoods I think there is one in Lakewood like that..the "Birdland" area? The east part of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights reminds me a bit of the Hyde Park/Observatory/Mount Lookout area in Cincinnati...except I think there are more apartments in Cleveland Heights. Also, those close-in Cleveland suburbs remind me a bit of Oak Park, Cicero and Evanston, next to Chicago.

The "jobs Americans wont take" rationalization is pretty lame as there is going to be more and more competition for jobs at the bottom of the pay scale as the Ohio economy shifts to services. I know the people who work in the food biz and in hotels here in Dayton are Americans. They might not "want" the jobs but they need the jobs in order to survive. And they don't need illegal aliens undercutting them. That seems to be what is going on in the construction trades...illegals undercutting the wage & benefits scale I agree with Riverviewers remarks, but I also think some very stiff penaltys for employers are in order. Penaltys severe enough to act as a deterrent. both ones that have an economic impact (very hefty fines) and personal impact (jail time and/or loss of a buisness liscense).

Since this year marks the 50th anniversarly of the Interstate System here is a thread exploring the "prehistory" of some of the urban expressways of Dayton through the early and mid 20th century. 1920s and 1930s The story starts in the 1920s, with a proposal to develop crosstown highways as a way of relieving congestion in downtown. "The Relief Plan for Traffic Congestion in the Central Buisness District by means of a Riverside Boulevard System" ...which was sort of interesting as it connected with highways leading into town, such as Troy Pike and Springfield Street, and used the river system as a crosstown traffic alignement. This system of boulevards was not limited access, but more like parkways. Yet it was the first comprehensive plan to deal with the growth of auto traffic through the cityThe plan was under implementation by 1939, when this progress map was made...."The Proposed Marginal River Bouelevards": It is interesting looking at the above map and seeing some familiar roads..Deweese Parkway, probably the closest Dayton had to a true parkway, proposed to connect to Shoup Mill Road. Edwin Moses. Riverside Drive. And a boulevard connecting downtown to Troy Pike along the Greet Miami, which was partially built, but is nothing more than an access road to the ballfields and Deeds Point nowadays (with part of it actually abandonded). Here is a cross section illustrating that the vision was to have true tree lined bouelevards.....with a median. And the downtown portion of the system actually proposed relocation of the Miami River northward somewhat, reuslting in a park area for the boulevard to pass through as it swung by the CBD. The above Marginal River Bouelevard map also shows Patterson Bouelvard, which also functioned as a crosstown route, especially when it was connected from Stewart Street past the (then new) Carillon Park to South Dixie Drive (the old Cinncinnati Pike). This was the route of the cross-country US Route 25, the eastern leg of the old Dixie Higway.. .(hence north and south Dixie Drives)....the Dixie Beeline from the old Dave Macon song.... ..before the US Highway numbered system this road used a special marker, painted on telephone poles and such. ...so as early as the 1920s a cross country auto highway was passing through Dayton. Yet, even in 1939, a true limited access divided highway was not to be found in or into Dayton. And it appears the city was planning on its riverside boulevards as its crosstown traffic system as I did not see any evidence of an expressway system being proposed. Dayton also missed the WPA era construction of four lane divided highways that where sometimes built on the periphery of cities like Louisville and Chicago. That was to change with the coming of WWII and the massive expansion of defense industry in Dayton. World War II Era The first quasi-limited access divided highways with four lanes and a median where built in response to the war effort. These would have been Daytonians first experience, locally, with fairly high-speed highways purpose built for auto traffic. They where not true limited access as major intersections where at grade, though there was access control. The most intact example of this preliminary form of an expressway was the OH Route 4 connection between the Army Air Corps Patterson Field depot mainteance/logistics activity at Fairfield/Osborne with Wright Field and Dayton (via Springfield Street). This highway was designed with a generous median and, since it passed through a military reservation, had de-facto access control due the installation perimeter bounding it on both sides. The highway remains mostly intact today.... The second quasi-limited access highway was a relocation of a portion of US 25 to avoid the early suburban development on the narrow North Dixie Drive. US 25 was relocated to a divided highway, running from US 40 (a major cross-country highway) to a traffic circle at Wagoner Ford Road and North Dixie. This highway connected a defense plant and airfield at Vandalia to Dayton. The best I can tell is that there was at-grade intersections, but some limited access control via frontage roads. Unfortunatly I couldn't find good documenation of this highway...aside from old maps and grainy aerial photos. This traffic circle existed into modern times, even after this stretch of US 25 was incorporated into I-75 and made true limited access. A remanant exists today.... This stretch. 1940s-era US 25 was pretty radically altered over the years by grade seperation interchanges and widening projects related to I-75, though the alingment is the same. Although I don't have the documentation I think a safe assumption could be made that US 25 south of town was also improved by the transforming the old Dayton and Suburban Railroad (formerly the C&LE interurban) ROW in Southern Hills into a northbound lane for US25 1944 Also in the 1940s the very first study for a limited access highway through Dayton was made, by the predecessor to ODOT. The copy at the library did not xerox well, but it was a study of various alingments of a true limited acess expressway with medians and interchanges, running from the Traffic Circle to Stewart Street, where it connected with Patterson Boulevard. The study considered routing this expressway along the alignment of Patterson Boulevard, east of downtown, but rejected this due to too much industrial and buisness relocation being necessar. Of course now there is not much industry at all along Patterson Blvd downtown! Here is a xerox of an old van dyke print showing the proposed relocation through the center of the city (this is a 'dot map' showing population density). Apparently the vision here was still to efficiently conduct through traffic through the city, connecting to divided highway and quasi-limited access roads north and south. Yet, the study mentions that this was done with an interregional system in mind, referencing 1941 and 1944 federal highway legislation (predecessors of the interstate system?)...and the study did contain some fascinating statewide flow diagrams, showing that the traffic planners where thinking of this as part of a future long-distance system. (as this map isn't too good I drew the alignment in red) After the war planning began to accelerate. In this map the city of Dayton proposes an inner city connector or feeder leading to the proposed expressway...this is perhaps the forrunner of the widened Keowee Street. Also, a bridge across the river at Salem Avenue, and extention of Riverside Drive across the river. Interchanges shown in red... 1948 The 1944 plan was elaborated four years later in a 1948 study by ODOT to further refine the freeway plan. Also, an alternative surfaced that would have changed the alingment to the west of the river. ODOT pretty much followed the path of least resistance along the alignment of one of the proposed riverside boulevards, but the new alternative (developed by consultant Harlan Bartholomew, who was under contract at the time to develope a compreshensive plan for Dayton) would have connected with US 25 in "Moraine City", and passed through Edgemont and quite a bit of the western and northern parts of downtown. As part of the planning reports a number of traffic studies were presented, based on work done by the city of Dayton. Particularly interesting are these desire line diagrams showing the directin of traffic between "zones" in the city and surroundings. and through traffic diagrams, which pretty much indicate the need for some high-volume highways to conduct traffic through the city. The alignements of todays I-75, US-35, and OH-4 are suggested here.... The two alternative routings through Dayton (north is to the right on these maps) And a band diagram showing future traffic flows on the two alternatives. ODOTs preferred alternative was the riverside alignement, and a number of aeriel photomontages where prepared showing how this expressway would pass through the city. The Stewart Street interchange & connection to Patterson Blvd. Recall that at this time nearby NCR was a major traffic generator as it had 10,000 employees on-site Washington Street interchange. Note the dense residential area across the river. This neighborhwood would eventually be obliterated by the US35-I75 interchange and St Elizabeth Hospital expansion as well as deterioration and abandonment. The US 25 Expressway passing through downtown, leaving a little residential "island" next to the river. Note the below-grade proposal. According to the text preliminary hydrological studies indicated this would be possible without pumping of groundwater. 1948-1949 As part of the ongoing highway planning ODOT started to look at other highway needs. Here is a proposed crosstown highway to conduct US 35 across the city: Starting out with through traffic flows Volume of traffic on city streets: And the desire-line diagrams, showing a some strong east-west travel preferences: ODOT generated three alternatives, which they overlayed on maps showing employment concentrations (of the late 1940s) and a population dot map. The preferred alternatve was then developed. In this early scheme the US 35 Expressway was not that, more of a quasi-expressway with some access control, at grade intersections at minor street, and grade seperation at major iintersections More of a wide four-lane inner city highway rather than a true expressway. An interesting aspect of this map is that it shows all the buisness/commercial locations on Third out in the neighborhoods, so perhaps this highway was seen as an alternative, quicker way to get to points on Third; a crosstown highway for city people wanting to get from the east to the west sides. The ODOT planners did know that a US 25 expressway was being proposed, an "H Interchange" for the US 25- US 35 intersection. Not a particularly well though-out plan at this point, as the concept here was to justify a crosstown highway and an alignment, no detailed design yet. Finally the US 35 Expressway (preferred alternative) is shown on the city thoroughfare plan. The plan also shows an OH 4 highway, but I have not been able to find any information on early planning for OH 4 from the 1940s. 1953: Pulling it All Togther In the early 1950s Dayton apparently hired a consulting firm out of NYC, Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendorff, to develope an arterial highway plan for the city. The consultants pulled together the various ODOT studies and studies conducted by the plan board and their consultant, Harlan Bartholomew, and generated an arterial highway plan with recommended alignments. This plan was pretty much what was built (with some changes in alignement and design). The plan, and as this is a weak xerox, the plan showing the arterials in red As in the other plans the studies looked at existing traffic volumes, like this one showing traffic in Dayton and suburbs. Still quite a bit of traffic heading into town back then, but also quite a bit of reverse commuting out to the giant Frigidaire plant in Moraine and to the Air Force Base. I assume the source is late 40s/very early 50s data, at the very beginnings of the big suburban boom Traffic to the CBD And this very ineresting map of major (100 and over) industrial employers (including the Air Force Base) And a close up of the inner city showing the big industrial employment centers in West Dayton, Edgemont, NCR, and Webster Station. At that time many of these places where unionized, mostly paying good wages. Almost all of this is gone today: Traffic to the Air Force Base (to justify OH 4). Back then Wright-Patterson had a large urban workforce, with Five Oaks/Grafton Hill/Salem Avenue apparently a particularly popular residential location. The consultants again addressed the southern extension of the US 25 expressway as a special issue in regards to preferred alignemnet, concurring with Harlan Bartholomews "west of the river" alignment. The consultants proposed two notional expressways. One followed the ODOT preferred riverside alignment, but extnded this alignement, replacing and paralling South Dixie Drive through Southern Hills. The other (consultant preferred) alignment passed through open country south of the city, but cut through the Edgemont neighborhood. Traffic bands..two funnel clouds of traffic extending south of the city: And an aerial perspective showing the competing alignments A blowup showing the Moraine City area. Note that the consultants had stubbed off the expressway closer to Springboro Pike. crossing the river into Edgemont, near the present site of Welcome Stadium/UD Arena. ...and then the alignement chopping up Edgemont. Note that in this illustration the US 35 expressway was really an improved Washington Street. The consultants did a series of alignment photomontages, showing how the US 25 Expressway would wind its way through the city. Here are a few. Starting from the south working north.... Moraine City. The concept here was that the expressway would eventually extend south, but closer to Springboro Pike than it is now. That bizarre interchange into West Carollton must have come later in the 1950s. The present-day alignment of I-75 is also closer to the river than in this scheme. Passing through downtown and vicinity. A closeup of the alignment downtown. Note that once again this is a depressed highway, like Fort Washington Way in Cincinnati or the Dan Ryan just outside of the Loop in Chicago. Also note that it was fitted in closer to downtown, preserving more the neighborhood to the west, along the river, and on a more right-angles alignment with downtown streets, not the sort of diagonal/curve that was built In some ways this alignment is similar to that shown in Harlan Bartholomews downtown plan of around the same time: US 25 Expressway connecting to the WWII-era US 25 divided highway in the vicinity of the traffic circle. The remnants of the never-completed river boulevard along the Great Miami is also somewhat visible. US 35. From west to east. Connecting to West 3rd in the vicinity of Residence Park and the VA. The modern US 35 expressway swings south of the VA and connects with US 35 in Drexel, but extends north to Salem Road. Also note the old minor league baseball diamond. This is perhaps where the Dayton Ducks played. There where two ballfields in West Dayton, this one and one run by the Dayton Gym Club near Wolf Creek @ Wolf Creek Pike. The Gym Club diamond was where the Dayton Marcos played...one of the teams of the 1920s Negro Leagues. Cutting through West Dayton, interchange with US 25. Remarkable photo of the dense urban fabric of West Dayton, showing the interchange and the US 35 alignment right on top of Washington Street (it was built just to the south, and existing interchange is considerably more elaborate) East Dayton at the edge of town. The highway dies off into Xenia Road. The four lane US 35 into Xenia apparenlty lay in the future. ....finally, the consultants vision of the future for Dayton motorists via a cross section diagram: Three years later, 1956, the interstate highway system went under construction.

I have a lot of flexibility in my schedule. So I beat the rush by arriving at work between 5:30 and 6:00 AM. Home by 3:30. The interstate in the morning, and the surface streets, are nearly clear of traffic...a relaxing drive to work listening to classical music on the radio and watching the sky brighten in the east. The afternoon the traffic is already building, but I manage to avoid the bad backups that usually occur south of Dayton..if I have to work later the trafffic is noticeably worse, both on the interstate and esp. on the exit ramps and surface roads.

That is surprising as Kettering is basically a shorter clone of National City in Louisville. I'm shocked the same architects didn't build them.p Yeah, I thought so too...that maybe Lorenz and Williams was the local architect of record., and H-A actually did the design. But then the National City in Louisville has a lot better detailing, more minimalist and cleaner, and is set off by a little plaza and fountain in front, which is sort of like the Fiberglass Tower (I think it also has a plaza and fountain). (National City also had a "Top of the Tower" restaurant when it first opened, also closed). Kettering Tower (or the Winters Bank Tower when it was built) is more clunky in design and detailing..particularly the lobby floor. And that annex facing Main Street...the less said the better. That used to be called the Dubois Tower, I think. Fifth/Third sort of ruined the purity of the design by putting that big sign on the top.

I recall in Chicago the same street name carried through for miles and miles...just the opposite of the situation in Dayton. As an example, Madison Avenue in Chicago, which starts in the Loop and runs through the west side, is carried on as a street name all the way into the Western Surburbs, into Dupage County...even though these streets are not continuous into the Madison Avenue in Chicaog.

Who where they. It suprised me to find out, but a local firm, Lorenz & Williams, did the Kettering Tower. The First National in Louisville was designed by a well-known (at that time) NYC firm, Harrison and Abramowitz (one of the principles, Wallace Harrison, did the UN Secretariat tower). I think when I was in Toledo last I stayed in the hotel next to the Hotel Seagate.

Anniversy of Kent State tomorrow. I was in the 6th grade I think, or 5th, when this happened (living in Chicago at the time). This was one of the first times I ever heard of Ohio. (The arrows indicate the route the Guard took on campus that day. The spray of lighter lines indicates the direction of the shots.) Apparenlty events of that day never have been adequately explained, leading to rise of conspiracy theories... From the Free Times The Kent State Conspiracies "he gunfire has just ended, almost as abruptly as it began. Student Harold Reid maneuvers his way up Blanket Hill among some of the casualties, perhaps a couple hundred feet from the National Guardsmen. That's when he notices a young man pointing a handgun in the direction of another man who is lying on the ground. The armed man obviously is not a member of the National Guard; he's wearing a light sports jacket and tan trousers, and a camera and a gas mask hang around his neck. When the man sees Reid, he begins to run. "Stop that man, he has a weapon!" shouts Reid, chasing after him. That man — Terrence Brookes Norman — has never stopped running. He has avoided attention for 36 years, perhaps for good reason. He was an FBI informant in 1970, and some believe he fired the first shot at Kent State that day in May, instigating the National Guard to fire on protestors. Norman's role and long silence are not the only factors fueling conspiracy theories surrounding the events of May 4, 1970. Although the lives of everyone present were profoundly affected by the 13 seconds they shared, few agree on many specifics. Questions remain. Cover-ups are alleged. And only one thing is clear: Someone has to be lying..."

Yes, on top of the Nationwide Tower in Cols there is "One Nation", which serves a Midwestern take on California Novelle Cuisine. I had dinner there once, during one of my CommFest vists, in the late afternoon as the sun was sinking. Spectacular...Columbus the city of the plain. I thought Dayton's Raquet Club was a private club w. restaurant...that it wasn't open to the public. Kettering Tower used to have a restaurant on the ground floor..no view at all...first it was the relocated King Kole, then when that closed it was Olivias (which had a similar cuisne as One Nation). The Fiberglas Tower looks so much like a r of other buildings in the region that opened around the same time....Erieview Tower in Cleveland, Kettering Tower in Dayton, First National Bank (renamed now) in Louisville

Developer's marina plan draws criticism Port Clinton News Herald, 4/28/06 A developer's plans to remove wetlands and add a marina to his township housing subdivision has drawn criticism and concern from a neighboring developer and an environmental advocate. Scott Prephan, developer of Harbor Bay Estates off Bayshore Road, began his marina project at least three years ago and removed 2.28 acres of wetlands without permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, corps biologist Mark Scalabrino said. Prephan's company, Soccorman Ltd. of Perrysburg, is asking the two agencies for a retroactive permit allowing the already-removed wetlands and permission to take out 2.65 more acres, Scalabrino said. During construction of the marina's breakwater, Prephan would release 7,500 cubic yards of rip-rap, stones and other debris, into the Sandusky Bay, according to OEPA.

I found this online. It is a map showing urban sprawl, based on satellite imagery, for the period 1976 to 1992. So it misses the last 10 years or so. It is based on this study Sprawl Maps I zoomed the Cincinnati/Dayton/Indianapolis/Columbus area and the Cleveland/Pittsburgh area. The growth areas are colored red or pinkish-red.... This time frame--1976 to 1992---was probably not a good snapshot as I seem to recall the 1990s was the big suburban boom era here in SW Ohio. Also, a question on how granular this is, as this resolution could miss a lot of ribbon development on country roads or smallish subdivisions..which is really how this area seems to sprawl.

I am really liking Mike From Daytons intel on the boom years in Dayton. There was another discount store (I think) called Rightmayers (sp?) or Rightmeyers...in Kettering off at Stroop and Marshall. This would have been the 1960s. Arlans was in Louisville too. They had a good art supply section, oddly enough. They also used these big supergraphics to spice up the blank store wall that had a more public face (like facing a freeway). Topps was elsewhere in the Midwest as well..they where in Chicago and in Louisville, during the 1960s. I think they went under in 1970 or a bit later. I think with the advent of K-Mart there was a big boom in the 1960s of other companies getting into the early big-box discount store market. Although Wal-Mart is whats big now, the concept of the suburban big-box retail store dated back to the 1960s at least.

I think the Imperial House South actually predated the Dayton Mall. I think it was one of the first things up at that intersection, and from old pix that Ive seen it had some very '60s-era "lounge" styling, orginally.

Has anyone visited the Piatt Castles before? Or even heard of them? I've been to both of them, the smaller maybe three or four times now, the larger one once. They are good day-trip destinations from Dayton, maybe more for older people and architecture/history buffs. The smaller one is quite interesting for the neogothic panellng and library. The tours are pretty interesting as the guides have all sorts of interesting anecdotes about the familiy, who where one of the ealry influential families in the state, and even achieve national importance. One of the Piatts was a very close friend of the famous (in the 19th Century) Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley, who stayed at the castles quite a bit, and wrote a poem honoring his host. The original Piatt house was actually log, and still stands, converted into a crafts shop. Worth a look, even if one is not a crafts aficionado.

Well, since I'm a Republican this was a big primary for me. They had electronic machines in my precinct in Washington Twp, so this was my first try. It was pretty foolproof...touch screens, vote, hit the green key to keep moving on, then the thing has some sort of printout that it runs, sort of like a cash register roll, which I guess is the paper record of the electronic vote. When its finished, I just take my card and give to the precinct worker. The only glitch I could see here is if that paper record thing gets jammed somehow. That could be a real goat rope during an election with a heavy turnout.

They probably mean they are at the Miami River crossing, for their suburban market down in Maineville....