Daytonians must be a bunch of parrotheads, given their preference for Florida

 

Since the employment numbers here were so dismal I decided to check on out-migration based on this website hosted by a Charlotte, NC newspaper, based on IRS tax return data.  This is a great little site permitting you to run the numbers on in- and out-migration by county for 2000 thru 2005.

 

This is really good as it covers the period of big job loss here in the Dayton region, so one can see people wanting to leave the area. 

 

Looking at Montgomery county, at net migration (people moving in minus people moving out), one can see the obvious popularity of  counties surrounding Dayton, but also people moving to Columbus (Franklin County). 

 

 

 

But what’s really noticeable is the big out of state migration, with Florida leading by far, followed by the South.  The only region that actually had a net out-migration to Dayton was the Northeast. .

 

Net in & out-migration flows by state, with the states getting the most people from Montgomery County at the top, then counting down through the flip to net in-migration, with Pennsylvania brining up the bottom,  sending the most folks to Dayton.

 

 

 

Then mapping it out by region, state, and number of migrants.  Noticeable the Upper South, Texas, and California lead.  And also ironic that Kentucky is one of the big destinations.  Most of the Kentucky flows are to the metro areas and larger communities, so its not a move back to the mountains: the era of big population transfers between Appalachian Kentucky and Dayton is over.

 

 

 

Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville

 

Florida is such a special case I looked at it separate. 

 

Here is a list of counties that significant migrant flow  to and from Montgomery County, with the most largest net out-migration from Dayton at the top.  The only county that lost people to Dayton was Leon County (Tallahassee). 

 

 

Then mapping it out showing intensity of net in-migration.  It seems the Gulf Coast is pretty popular, with the  Sarasota, Fort Myers, and Tampa/Saint Pete areas  being big destinations, followed by the Cape Canaveral/Titusville and Jacksonville areas. 

 

 

There’s also a concentration in the Orlando/Lakeland/Ocala area too, mid Florida. 

 

One has to wonder how much of this is retiree moves.  I think that a lot of this is also people moving down for work, too.  I guess they know the state was booming from word-of-mouth or vacations, and moved down for work when they couldn’t find any in the Dayton area. 

 

I have to say working in social services/child welfare, criminal justice etc, when the snow begain to fly we always had the the ohio influx who did most unwholesome things to man, woman, and child.  Of the new transplants, some were from Indiana, but most Ohio. I used to wonder what in the heck was going on up there. Then I moved here and I sort of get it. But jokes aside, a lot of people with problems relocate to FL to try and find a new life and then revert to deviant ways once they get there.

Oy.

The main thing I found in growing up in Dayton is that everyone conforms or else - it's a social structure thing, and nobody has much of an imagination. Daytonians consider anything "southern" Godly, and the more, southern the better. Florida is considered by the average born and bred Daytonian to be at the right hand of God.

 

IE, all anyone in Dayton seems to want to do is vacation at Wally World Orlando.

 

So while I enjoy your detailed analysis of the cold figures, I pretty much could have guessed that the vast majority of Daytonians looking for a fresh start will head to the Sunshine state. I would have been shocked by any other answer. Daytonians, by and large, totally romanticize the south and think it's Shangri-La.

 

When I graduated from college eons ago I told high school friends in Dayton that I was taking a job on the west coast. They acted like I needed a special government issued travel pass to do that.

 

And you can't tell anyone in Dayton that you decided to move to, say, the east coast. They believe in the medieval map concept of the flat earth with dragons past the edge.

 

Sorry if I sound condescending towards Daytonians, I grew up there and I just know exactly how they tend to think about certain things, it's very predictable.  :|

I was kind of curious about this "conform or else" thing because I sort of picked up on that just by my limited experience in the gay world here and at work. 

 

I wasn't sure if it was "me" or whether others had a similar impression.

 

Florida, however, is a very popular destination for Louisvillians and Cincinnatians, too (I ran the numbers for those citys (actually, Jefferson and Hamilton county) out of curiosity due to a discussion over at City-Data), but it Florida seems more popular for Dayton.

 

 

 

 

I lived in SW Florida, and Tampa (also gulf coast) . Midwesterners LOVED S.W. Florida places like Sarasota, Naples and Ft. Myers. More recently they have populated the interior due to higher coastal prices.

 

With midwestern predictably, they often relocated in clusters to certain parts, even specific subdivisions in FL.  East coasters like myself did not go to the Gulf coast as much as East Coast.  Nothing against Jersey, but Ft. Lauderdale was a nightmare.

 

Coastal FL is not southern in culture at all. The panhandle ("Alabama")and to some degree,the interior ("Georgia"), are. I have met far more racist people (of both races) in Cleveland that I ever did in FL.

 

^

Back in the 1960s, when I was a kid, there was this development firm, Mackle Brothers, that used to run these colorful Sunday supplements in the Chicago newspapers for their developments on the gulf coast.  One I recall was Marco Island, which I think was south of Naples.  So there was certainly an attempt to market the Gulf Coast to Chicagoans at least.

 

 

@@@

 

One of the things I fogot to mention about this Dayton migration is that there are military connections with those Panhandle counties and Brevard County on the Atlantic Coast, so I think there is population interchange due to military-related transfers.

 

 

As far as Florida in-migration patterns, like attracts like. I worked in Boca Raton for a while. That whole South Florida strip from WPB to Miami is extremely East Coastish and heavily urban and Jewish. I mean, even I-95 runs down through the center of the south FL metro area.

 

Personally I found South Florida to be a diverse and stimulating area and filled with interesting people and very cosmopolitan - I'm a geek and yet I was invited to parties all the time. I just don't like the heat.

 

But my experience is that lifetime Daytonian's heads will explode off their shoulders if they are exposed to any real diversity. So they move to one of these highly suburbanized tropical swamp settings where they won't be challenged by anything. (OK, I'm feeling mean today.  :whip:) If you talk to anyone back in Ohio and it's always gotta be either Orlando, Daytona, or Tampa. Always.

 

As far as social ills being transported to FL, I remember some brilliant pothead guy from my high school class who knocked up his girlfriend. I ran into him at a gas station in the neighborhood and he was telling me earnestly how he was getting away from all the bullsh*t and moving to Florida where everything would be perfect. The guy was working in a gas station and had no degree or training. So multiply that by a few hundred thousand...

 

PS: +++military out-migration. WPAFB is a dispatch point for other military towns. Probably 1 out of 3 (or more) professionals in Dayton have a tie to the Air Force. Great point.

I don't miss much about FL, but there was much more acceptance of diversity for sure. In Cleveland (probably much less so though than Dayton) it is like pick your team and stick to it : ie suburban housewife, good/bad former school boy, Gay or Lesbian, Black, eastsider, westsider, what have you.

 

Regarding the moving to Florida to fufill your dreams and take away your problems, I am sure it is the same theory as California or bust is for places further west. These places chew up and spit out people who move there to take away problems ("how bad can life be if you can go to the beach every day?" mentality). Saw it happen all the time.

gas stations guys chances are WORSE. They will lose what ever family support/safety net they may have had to help them with that baby. Cost of living is higher. The social services there are very lacking as well. If you are very hard working or wealthy or lucky or educated AND healthy (preferably all) you can make it work. I actually did with some of those attributes, but until I got out I did not realize how hard my life was. Although compared to DC it was easier.

^

Franklin has a reputation as a good place to live and place with jobs. So the most economically healthy metro in the state would attract people from other parts of the state. I also know queer folks here move there as its better for gays (I also know a few who moved to Cali, too). 

 

I guess the problem gay people would take away by moving from Dayton is called "homophobia", which why you don't see many 20 & & early 30 something gays here, though I dont think this is a big migration stream, numerically.

 

am sure it is the same theory as California or bust is for places further west. These places chew up and spit out people who move there to take away problems

 

The numbers show a lot moving to California, too, but that is a higher cost area.  I used to live in California and would move back in a minute if I lost my job here.

 

I've been to Florida a few times,  mostly on business but twice on vacation (years ago) and really did not like the place, off the beach. 

 

$$$$$

 

With no education, I doubt your chances are better in Florida than Ohio. We're probably talking the same type of service sector jobs.

 

I think the problem here in Dayton area even those service sector jobs are shrinking.  That was the suprise when I ran those unemployment numbers (posted elsewhere on this subforum), so moving to Florida for unskilled people means maybe more jobs for unskilled workers than here. 

 

 

 

    You can follow the I-75 south all the way to the gulf coast of Florida. Maybe that has something to do with it. Cincinnati and  southwest Ohio was always tied economically to the South.

 

  There's a Skyline Chili in Fort Myers, Florida. How about that?

I loved that Skyline- I was introduced the product there. It tasted better there than in Cleveland. Either that or my taste has evolved. I wonder if it is best in Cincinnati.

^It's not.  There are better chili parlors in the city.

I might be in Cincinnatti for a a day-Maybe in Oct. You all will have to let me know where the best is, as I will want to try it.

I'll have to add the nearly all of my kin that went to Florida came to fit the very definition of white trash (a little bit when they were in OH and completely once they got sucked into the god-forsaken hell-hole otherwise known as Florida).

^double housing costs will make a large chunk of people living close to the line, go fully to the dark side. Check Pinellas Park nest time you are in the Tampa Bay area. Renting a ratty trailer with crusty carpet in a park full of sex offenders, probably cost as much as a tidy little bungalow with white picket fence in any of our OH towns.

Almost any place with a hot economy will have higher cost of living and higher housing costs. It's just supply and demand. I think maybe only someplace like Texas (large supply of land for building, IE, most cities not "land locked") has both a hot economy and "affordable" housing.

 

Yes, the housing costs may be 1/2 or 2/3 in Ohio what they are in Florida, but you may have to drive 100 mi. round trip in some parts of Ohio for a good paying industrial or service job. I think the fact may be that *survival* is easier someplace like Florida or California, even if the housing situation sucks, because at least you can find a job.

 

This logic, of course, only applies in normal economic times, not now when a state like California is laying off masses of guv workers!

The earlier comment about moving to Marco Island from Dayton made me smile.  I know a person that left Montgomery county (OH) for Marco.  You better have a 100k job lined up before you get there or you will starve.  A community filled with retired CEOs and fat investors.  Nowhere reasonably priced to live and I should mention "no trailer parks."

^

no one made a comment about moving to Marco Island from Dayton.

 

I was using the promotion of Marco Island to the Chicago) market as an example of how the Gulf Coast was being sold to Midwesterners.

 

 

_{no one made a comment about moving to Marco Island from Dayton.}

 

my bad... Before moving to the Dayton area in '94 I was always amazed by the number of OHIO lisence plates in our little town on the coast of South Carolina.  There were even more up the road at Myrtle Beach.  I think they too market heavily in this area.