DowntownDYT

I say Dominic's should move to the old Rockwell's building just accross the river from downtown. Awesome skyline view from there, and close to a lot of stuff (Dayton Art Institute, 5/3 Field, Schuster Ctr.). I can't believe that some restaurant is not prospering at that site with it's awesome view and location. I'd go there to eat!! If not Dominic's moving there, then someone else!!!!

From the Sept. 28 DDN: (there's a link to the map at the bottom) UD master plan envisions a large, walkable community The university hopes to make Brown Street a pedestrian-friendly college avenue. By Stephanie Gottschlich Staff Writer Friday, September 28, 2007 DAYTON — The University of Dayton's master plan is in flux, but the goal — to create a campus of three parts, all integrated with similar architecture and establishing a large, walkable community for the public and students — is not. "From one end of the campus to the other, we want people to know that they've arrived at the University of Dayton," Campus Planner Rick Perales said Thursday. http://www.daytondailynews.com/m/content/oh/media/news/local/udmap/map.html

From the Dayton Daily News website. I just hope that if they do re-open somewhere else, it will still be IN the city...... ______________________________________________________ Dominic's restaurant closes, could reopen elsewhere By Mark Fisher Staff Writer Friday, July 06, 2007 DAYTON — Dominic's Italian and American Restaurant has closed for repairs, and the restaurant's owner said she may reopen in a different location. For more, click the link: Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2258 or [email protected].

Billy, Just to add a bit of info to your post.... I certainly agree that many of the high-dollar residential properties in the City of Dayton are in the CBD/Webster Station area (Performance Place, Ice Av. Lofts, Cooper Lofts, etc.). The other main area would be in the far northeast off of Kitridge Rd. New houses there are going in the 250,000-300,000+ range. Incidently (and unfortunately), a lot of the builders in those Northeast housing plats actually market themsleves as Huber Heights, althougth they're actually City of Dayton. Some other City high-dollar homes also exist along the Dayton/Oakwood/Kettering borders in south Dayton. As far as low income housing downtown, in addition to the Biltmore, we also have the Holden House at 211 S. Wilkinson, and Wilkinson Plaza at 126 W. Fifth. A few other smaller low-income buildings also exist. All of these, of course, are renter-occupied though.

Not sure if this is the best thread for this or not, but hey, I started this topic, so I might as well bump it up again.... The Dayton Dragons (Class A Reds Affiliate) were ranked by some Sports Illustrated story as one of the Top 10 "Hottest Tickets" in sports. By the way, that's not minor-league sports, not baseball, not Ohio...... That's ALL OF SPORTS..... PERIOD. I thought that way pretty interesting, and speaks quite well for Dayton sports fans. I know the popularity of the Dragons has never been questioned, but I still thought some might appreciate the story. So here it is: __________________________________________________________________________ Dragons Named as One of Sports Hottest Tickets 04/21/2007 3:41 PM DAYTON, OH – At first glance Minor League Baseball’s Dayton Dragons may not have much in common with the National Football League’s Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos, or the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. There are no real parallels with the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings or Colorado Avalanche, or the following associated with Duke Blue Devils basketball. So what do the Dragons have in common with these “Big Boys” of major professional and college sports? Sports Illustrated CNN.com has linked Dayton with these seven teams and two others as one of the “Ten Hottest Tickets” in all of sports. The listing of the Dayton Dragons has them as the only minor league team in any sport to be mentioned. The Dragons have sold out every game at Fifth Third Field in the franchise’s existence since the stadium opened on April 27, 2000. Dayton ran the longest sellout current streak in professional baseball at any level to 500 on April 17, 2007 and with three overflow sellout crowds since, the streak now sits at 503. “It is a great honor to be recognized by Sports Illustrated and to have our name mentioned with such great franchises in the sporting world,” said Dragons President Robert Murphy. “This is a testament to the great fans of the Dayton Region and truly shows their loyalty and passion for sports.” The Dragons have placed among the top 10 teams in minor league attendance (160 teams) in each of its first seven seasons in existence, regardless of classification. Dayton has averaged over 580,000 fans per season at Fifth Third Field for a seven-year average of 8,375 per game, filling the park to 116% capacity. The Dragons have been the top Class “A” franchise for all of the seven seasons, and have set and re-broke the “A” attendance mark three times. The list, online at: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0704/gallery.hottest.tickets/content.10.html has the Dragons grouped with some of the biggest and best known names in the sporting world, all from the four major professional sports or Division I college athletics. Sports Illustrated CNN.com Ten Hottest Tickets in Sports 1. Detroit Red Wings - NHL 2. Boston Red Sox – MLB 3. Duke Blue Devils – NCAA Basketball 4. Nebraska Cornhuskers – NCAA Football 5. Washington Redskins – NFL 6. Denver Broncos – NFL 7. Sacramento Kings – NBA 8. Dallas Mavericks – NBA 9. Colorado Avalanche – NHL 10. Dayton Dragons – Minor League Baseball (Class “A” affiliate, Midwest League) ___________________________________________________________________________

Just for the record: The UD home game Saturday night drew over 13,000 while the WSU home game at Nutter drew over 9,000. The games were being played at the same time. So that's over 22,000 people watching basketball in Dayton at once..... Obviously the region couldn't turn out these numbers every night, but I think 22,000 is quite a crowd at a lot of pro sports events.....

Well, well, well..... Turns out this thread has generated a decent amount of dicussion. Thanks to everyone for your opinions. All very interesting and informative. As far as Tony Capezzi goes, I'm sure as heck glad he fought as hard as he did, because Minor-League Baseball has been wildly popular here, as everyone knows. I do think that as the Dayton/Cincy metro areas grow closer and closer, the idea of some type of sports stadium or arena for NHL, MLS, or NBA located along I-75 somewhere would be possible and could draw from both markets well. But I cringe at the thought of a new arena or stadium being built outside of a cool downtown area. And a note for the Wright State bashers: They sold out Nutter the other night for the Butler game. And even won!!

I agree they stick out a bit, but I believe it's simply that they're newer windows. All the others have been in place since the tower was built in the 70's.

To reply to a comment posted earlier in this thread about the tower's "boarded windows" after the recent fire: Just for the record, they were never "boarded." They removed a few windows in specific spots on multiple floors after the fire and there were what looked like some kind of air-filtration devices in the window spaces (presumably to filter any remaining contaminants after the fire). And all of those have since gone and the glass returned as usual. The lobby renovation seems to be coming along well, too. Does anybody else think that for the tallest tower in Dayton, they could maybe do a little something to light up the tower at night. It's the basically the centerpiece of the skyline, and unless a bunch of office windows are still left on amongst the various floors, you'd barely know the thing was there. Any opinions or ideas??

This has probably been discussed somewhere on these forums before, but does anyone have an opinion on Dayton as a top-tier sports city (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL, MLS)??? I just wondered what some of the opinions out there are.... Here are my thoughts: -The Dayton metro region (including Springfield) is the fourth largest in Ohio, with over 1 million people. Montgomery County alone is over 500,000. -As far as Daytonians interest in sports, University of Dayton basketball consistently draws 12,000+ and Dayton Dragons minor-league baseball continues to sell-out every game. -On the other hand, attendance for the Dayton Bombers minor-league hockey and Wright State University basketball isn't quite as impressive, but both are steadily improving. So if Dayton were to pick up an expansion team in one of the big-time sports, what or who could it be?? Is the Dayton market too small to be a major-league city??? Is Ohio already saturated with professional sports??? The only thing that jumps out at me would maybe be basketball. Neither Cincy or Columbus have an NBA team, and the nearest is in Cleveland. With Dayton's proven track record of supporting basketball at the college level, could that translate to the pros?? As far as NFL, MLB, MLS, or NHL, I think the proximity to Columbus and Cincy kinda knock those out. But maybe not.... I'm certainly not an expert on all this stuff and I'm honestly curious about some insight from all of you urban/city/market-size knowledgeable-type folks...... And in addition, what's up with Columbus only having an NHL and MLS franshise anyway?? I doubt there would be much argument that NHL and MLS are the bottom-level of top-tier pro sports, so how does a city the size of C-bus (like 15th in the nation or thereabouts) play second-fiddle to Cincy and Cleveland for the "Big 3" sports?? Just wondering..... Thanks in advance for everyone's thoughts.......

Well I'm also glad I'm not the only one that has noticed this.... I actually e-mailed someone at the Downtown Dayton Partnership about this, and was told that although the DDP agrees and they continue to encourage the building owners to leave their lights on, the reasons for the buildings not doing so are obviously financial. I would think though, that the building owners would realize that having an attractive building on the nighttime skyline would certainly help attract attention and potentially more occupants. Seems like lighting would be a decent investment to me.... Some highlights in my humble opinion, however, are the blue neon rim on 40 W 4th., and the top-tier lights on Liberty Tower. Some lights up the Side of 10 W. 2nd (Mead) and a lit-up crown on 5/3rd would definitely make a huge difference to the skyline, though. On a side note, does anyone else think we should steal some tricks from the Columbus skyline? LeVeque Tower in C-Bus lights up its top tiers with different lights for different occasions and it looks superb. Green/Red for the Christmas season, Red/White/Blue around 4th of July, etc., etc. I think this concept could work perfectly on Liberty Tower (Hulman Bldg.). Anybody agree?? And another is that they spell out "Happy Holidays" with office windows at night in the 40-story One Nationwide Plaza. And I certainly think something similar could work with Kettering Tower..... Just some ideas..... The downtown skyline is good, but some better lighting on the existing buildings could make it great.