Rusty Shackleford

In the National Lampoon in the 1970's there was a comic called "Dirty Duck and Weevil". One of the characters in it was named "Rabbi Birdman" and he ran a filthy, Dickensian nursing home. Being the NatLamp, the plots were sick and quite funny. :evil: A friend in high school pointed out the comic to me just as we were checking my grandma into a local nursing home... :(

Energizecc.com, a worthy project! Does anyone here know if the DHL pullout is affecting the Wilmington Rt. 73 bypass plans yet? I checked the site http://www.wilmingtonbypass.com and it looks like business as usual. (Akshually, it looks like one of those never-updated web sites - the last news item is Oct. 2006.)

Sh*t, it's almost a penny stock (almost). What's the point now? I'm holding onto it.

Put that way, this house almost seems like an architectural "wink" or pun. Thanks for the explanation, very interesting!

Would anyone hazard a guess as to what that silver dome thing is in the last house? Surely it's not a "planet-arium".

Didn't little towns everywhere used to have Greyhound bus stops? I don't think I've seen one for years. How does that one work? Are you supposed to call to reserve a ride or something? Or do you just hang out until the bus shows up? Do you buy a ticket when you get on?

There has been a "Dayton Chinese Christian Church" on Patterson Road in Dayton (Patterson Park area) for at least 15-20 years. There is no significant community of Asians (at least that I know of) near Patterson Park. But this is probably the most suburban part of Dayton, too. Just kind of interesting.

Has anyone determined the hit to all of the little "branch" shops at Wilmington like NFL Films, PC Connection, etc?

I grew up in Dayton but my first 'career' job was in Silicon Valley so I saw that contrast between plentiful land and bounded land first-hand. The Bay Area is an extreme example of this kind of effect. Great weather, great economy and a reputation as "the place you come to make it" all created a a huge population inflow into the valley. But Silicon Valley itself is physically hemmed in by the bay on the north and mountains on all other sides. Similar for the entire peninsula and the east bay. And the Bay Area had the first instance of housing hyper-inflation in the US, well before other coastal areas.

*Bump* (This post is elicited by the comment that this thread didn't receive much comment. Well, here 'tis, and I really should have posted something back when this thread was new.) My "Dayton lifer" take: Newfields may as well have been 50 miles away, as far as middle class consumers in the Dayton area were concerned. The grid of freeways proposed either never happened (I-675 western extension) or were delayed for decades (US 35 expressway and connector to the OH 49 vicinity in '98 or so.) Driving in that direction from downtown was murder in the 1970s, and Daytonians of that time were generally accustomed to drive times of 20 minutes or less. My opinion is that Newfields was about 20-30 years ahead of its time in terms of housing lifestyles (IE, living in far removed exurbs), and was poorly planned and implemented against the transportation system of the era. Also, Daytonians were (are) inherently obsessively conservative about everything. The west side and points near West Dayton had a bad reputation among the middle-class masses. Buying a home in Newfields would require, for a Daytonian, just an amazing leap of faith and sense of adventure, which Daytonians also lack. When we read about Newfields at the time, it seemed like science fiction, like someone was going to wave a magic wand and make a new town from scratch. In my opinion, it is amazing that Newfields got what little critical mass that it did. As always, a fascinating photo-essay, and a reminder of more local stuff that was happening when I was a kid.

Another Utica is in Warren County, near Lebanon. It is a placename at the intersection of Utica Rd and Old Route 122, near US 42. A now defunct railroad once went through 'our' Utica. And the Old Mill in the big Utica is a fun stopover.

Perhaps, but for now, local chamber of commerce bullsh*t. Anecdotally, I have to say that the job market here in Warren sucks and it has to improve. My wife had repeatedly tried to find skilled industrial or clerical work with benefits, to get away from the place she's at now, and everything she found locally were small cheap stupid businesses paying $8-9/hr with no benefits. And this was a few years ago, 2006 or so when the economy seemed good. At least she didn't leave the place she's at now to work at Airborne. (I am in IT and rather specialized - I gave up on the freaking local market 10 years ago.)

"briar art-rock project" - Lol. Yeah, D.D. consistently cracks me up. What is Drexel Dave's connection to the Drexel place name?

Dayton lifer here. Growing up on the east side, I always heard about Drexel in the vein of "there be Morlocks." I didn't know who, or what lived there, nor its skin color (black, white, hillbilly/briar, etc) but it always sounded like this weird unearthly place where you wanted to keep the car doors locked and drive through as fast as possible.

Ah, I just found this, which page has a summary of the Dayton Specialty Machine Company, and quite a few others companies around Dayton, from 1918: http://www.daytonhistorybooks.citymax.com/page/page/4868512.htm (Use the link at the bottom that says "Return to Annual Labor Review Home Page".) I hope this provides some correlation with the subjects of the photo essay above.

I just noticed this thread because it was bumped. What a fantastic essay. My grandfather lived off East 3rd street from the 30s through the 60s and he was a machinist. Likely he worked at many of those places in that strip. In reference to: "Do any of you DAYTONITES recognize the name Dayton Specialty Machine Co.?" - no, sorry. There were many "specialty machine" manufacturers in Dayton at one time. For example, Gem City Engineering on Leo St. builds (or once built) "specialty machines", which are basically manufacturing platforms for manufacturers. For example they built a turntable device that does one particular phase of assembly of hard disk drive heads. As I understand it, building a "specialty machine" is a one at a time custom operation. Re: "limestone quarrying operations" in Belmont and Linden Heights. Anyone have specific information on this? My contribution for this (as such) is the pond next to the Lakewood Apartments tower (http://www.thelakewoods.com/), locally called "Kuntz's Pond". I was told authoritatively when I was a kid in Belmont that it was a spent limestone quarry.

Belmont area college days memories... Back in prehistory... 1970s... a bar at that location was called "The Lion's Den" and was a UD bar. Around the corner, where Taggart's Pub is, was originally "The Iron Boar", another UD bar. Which became Wiley's Comedy Club in the 80s, until it became Taggart's. And Taggarts' moved across the intersection from Wilmington and Colwick, when new development took it out. Taggart's *there* was called "Bruns Bar". North up the street on Wilmington was "Don Riner's Piano Bar", an old geezer place where a guy played a piano. It was torn down in the 90s. At one time you could literally drink your way across that part of Belmont. :)

What, the zombie problem there?

Here's a good resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_Route_4 My southern Ohio picks: Fairfield: Jungle Jim's as noted. LeSourdesville, near jct. SR 63: the ruins of Americana Amusement Park/Fantasy Farm. Middletown, southern approach on SR 4: see vistas of decaying Section 8 housing in an iron ore setting. :) In fact, an entire city in an iron ore setting. Germantown, at jct SR 725: proceed west (left) 3 mi or so to Germantown Reserve, one of the most scenic reserves in the Dayton Metroparks system. Northeast Dayton: WPAFB and AF Museum nearby. Personally, I think long sections of SR 4 would either drag and be boring as poo, or would be aggravating sections of high density traffic or lengthy 2 lane segments. I can think of much more scenic roadtrips and for that alignment I would personally opt for I-75 most of the way and cut across at Findlay. But whatever floats your boat.

I am one of those kids of the 70s, and AFAIK, *all* college educable kids in my Aerosmith and Bachman-Turner-Overdrive worshipping cohort :-D flew the Dayton coop. One guy I know is a salesman in Columbus, which seems to attract the opportunity-minded regionally. The ones who remain are either stupid like me, deeply blue-collar in culture and too xenophobic to move, or (like the comment about about Western NY becoming an educational haven) are in teaching or in nursing. As I ranted in a recent thread, WPAFB increases the net size of the Dayton area simply by being here, and probably has fostered a non value added service economy that supports the people who are based there are work there, but it's truly a sort of enclave. Most job skills and credentials in the commercial sector are not readily transferable in or out of the base. IE: the base doesn't keep East Dayton or Old North Dayton from getting nastier over time. And those areas are adjacent to the base.

Ugh. The thing is a ghastly and ugly display of over-the-top *unearned nouveau wealth. Good to know that my gas dollars are being used to 1) fund Bin Laden and 2) build planetary-class ostentation like this. * Exploited, mined, drilled, pumped wealth, sure... earned, as in innovating and creating value... no.

Jeffrey, great job, again. Your key point was a bit dissipated across several complex graphics, and it's dense reading. However, I persevered, and your central point is the subject line: The Dayton MSA is indeed producing "people for export" and deaths will outstrip births in 10 years or so (by your figuring). I'll make another of my sweeping anecdotal statements not backed by numbers: Dayton is becoming "ghettoized", and this population leakage is a key reason. Those people who are leaving are the ones who have a choice - either educated professionals, or skilled tradespeople. The ones who stay in the area are the ones who are stuck who don't have the resources nor the vocational reason to move. The overall quality of the human stock is declining, and the symptoms of this are the gutted out once-suburban fringe districts. The Dayton area creates a surface appearance of prosperity and progressivism by dumping wasteful new developments like The Greene and the new Austin Rd development area a suitable distance out from the unfashionably old inner areas. Demographically, this is horrible. Centerville and Miami Twp will be the Kettering or Page Manor of 2020, no doubt.

Downright Orwellian in that corn-fed Ohioan way. :evil:

Has anyone done a breakdown of the proportion of the lost jobs that are part-time or otherwise secondary? Or is this literally 8000 full time 40 hr/week positions? Regardless, one certain impact will be an absolute cratering of the local real estate market. You won't be able to give a Clinton County house away, and the housing market impact will probably be felt in Greene, eastern Warren, and other local counties. Those workers aren't all going to stay around there and find jobs at Speedway stations or start Ebay businesses. I guess this would constitute a great opportunity for anyone into the "preparedness"/survivalist mentality to pick up a small farmette around there dirt cheap after the layoff happens.

"Falling Down" could have been filmed in spots here. It *is* a poor market. What I observed when I was in college here 30+ years ago was that technical people here seem to be considered dime-a-dozen and being an engineer or programmer around here has been considered a loser & nerd track for as long as I can remember. I grew up here, graduated and moved out, moved around the country in the 80s, and moved back for personal reasons in the late 80s. All I can do is contrast how engineering job candidates and working engineers (and other "creative" technical types like programmers) are treated and regarded in this region compared to other areas. You never, ever see new product development roles around here in Ohio. It's almost always insurance or business application stuff for end users. For all the hype the local chambers give to their vaunted success stories, most of the "opportunity" here is in areas like technology services bodyshops that rent people out for hourly $. I believe that there has always been a tremendous glut of technical talent and "program/design for fun" types in this region. Probably due to the large number of technical programs in the region: all of the engineering schools, plus the 2 year technical institutes, and also a fair number of technically capable base personnel who settle here when they leave the military. I think the glut of engineers here nominally on the market cheapens our image.