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Dayton can’t demolish its way to prosperity

Dayton Can't Demolish its way to prosperity. Run down property in the non-historic part of south park

This article was submitted to the Dayton Daily news for publication as an “Other Voices” column. Or should I say, over a month later, a “Anyone other than David Esrati voices” column. Nick Hrkman, the editor, was hurt by my response to his last rejection. It’s ok, because, they don’t buy ink by the barrel anymore, and I have a platform to publish that’s been in operation since 2005, with over 3500 posts and more comments by at least 10x that number. This blog, really doesn’t belong to me- it belongs to the community. Here’s what the Dayton Daily doesn’t want you to read:

The only winners in Dayton’s quest to demolish vacant homes and buildings are the demolition companies, the landfill owners and the previous owners who somehow escape liability for their criminal negligence in letting their properties decompose before our eyes.

While you may be a homeowner next to one of these vacant and decrepit eyesores, the vacant lot you will have next to you, will for the most part, just sit there, underutilized for decades.

There are no advertising campaigns trying to sell Ohio’s most vacant neighborhoods- or incentives to either move there, build there or invest there. You’ve just had the taxpayers fund your homes further devaluation.

That’s why we should be much more strategic with demolition dollars and look at what they could do instead.

Sometimes the first problem is how you frame the question. We know that these blighted homes decrease the value of our neighborhoods, but, the real question is what will increase the value of our neighborhoods?

The first analysis needs to assess which are our most vacant neighborhoods. They are a cost to our community- in terms of streets to pave, street lamps to light, police to patrol, etc. If you are the only occupied home on the block, you may be stuck forever, never being able to sell for enough to get you back into a viable vibrant community. Your insurance premiums (if you can get a policy) will be sky high, banks won’t lend in vacant neighborhoods, and more than likely, you have a few blights on your block. Instead of spending $17K per home to demolish, maybe, we should be buying your home, moving you into a viable neighborhood, and just fencing off the whole mess until we’re ready to address it?

While housing enforcement failed these neighborhoods the first time, let’s not allow more homes in any neighborhood degrade into future tear downs. Let’s invest in making sure roofs don’t leak, gutters work, and occupancy is re-established quickly. Vacant homes are the enemy of a vibrant community and the blights best friend. If we want to raise tax dollars- we should tax vacant properties higher- forcing the owners to sell, fix up, or occupy these community assets.

Sprawl is another factor playing into real estate valuation. The Miami Valley hasn’t really changed in population in the last 40 years, yet, we’ve continued to build new communities farther away from the city- and forcing us all to underwrite infrastructure to support these new communities. If we set a cap on residential square footage, forcing developers to take out blighted square footage in order to build new- we wouldn’t see the negative impact of the blight- because it would be in high demand to allow new construction. While it sounds costly, when you consider the costs of extending sewers, gas lines, water lines, roads, schools, police, fire and the loss of farmland to feed us all, this property swap would be much more affordable.

When I moved into the South Park neighborhood [1] in 1986, I believed I was moving into a blighted neighborhood. I only looked at 2 homes, one had been on the market for 2 years, starting at $22,900 and was currently $17,900. The other, was $14,500. There were no comparisons between the two other than they both cost about the same as a new economy car. I used a bargaining strategy with the Realtor: I’m buying a home, I don’t care which one, and I have $14,500 cash (It had to be cash, because no bank would lend on a home for less than $25K in those days). I bought a 2 story, frame Victorian with a garage, fenced in yard and about 1900 sq feet. It had plenty wrong with it, but it was habitable. The other, was a bunker like brick cottage, cut into a hillside, with no way to get from upstairs to downstairs without going outside. It was half the square footage and was uninhabitable at the time.

I had no idea the neighborhood was a historic district- and promptly got in trouble with the city for installing “The wrong kind of garage door.” The purpose of historic zoning is to preserve the character of the neighborhood. It’s worked, although people still don’t know about the restrictive zoning and run afoul of it- thanks to incompetent leadership in city hall, who refuse to put restrictive covenants in the deeds of these properties so all new owners are informed.

Now, South Park homes are selling like hotcakes from $200K to $400K, while the neighboring Twin Towers neighborhood still has homes selling under $25K. That house I used as a bargaining chip? It just sold for $200K! There is value in protecting neighborhoods from the wrecking ball, proven by the values in Dayton’s Historic Districts.

There are other practices we could initiate that would make investment in our community more desirable. Our current way of assessing property taxes penalizes people for fixing up their home with higher property taxes. It even raises your taxes if your neighbor does the same. This is an unfair policy to the working class, whose largest investment is often their home. If a rich person puts $200K in the stock market, they aren’t taxed on the rise in value until they sell. The same principle, especially for those who invest in risky neighborhoods, should apply.

My elderly neighbor who hadn’t done anything to her home since I moved in back in 1986, when her home was the only one on the block that looked well kept, had her tax value raised from $45,960 in 1999 to $ 157,680 in 2020. She recently died, the house is in foreclosure and back taxes in arrears. Why are we penalizing those who invested early and kept their property up?

Everyone should get the valuation fixed at their purchase price for their primary homestead, no exceptions. Rentals, investments, depending on the strength and vacancy rates of the neighborhood could also be flexed to encourage investment and repairs.

In fact, if your neighborhood is over 50% vacant, we shouldn’t be charging property taxes at all. Not until there are banks willing to finance the sale of your devalued home or your neighbors vacant one. Homes should be for people and families- not just investors and demolition companies.

With work from home becoming a legitimate share of the workforce, our low cost of living and temperate climate should be able to be leveraged to increase our population. If we invested in targeted neighborhoods offering money to rehab homes as primary residences, income tax breaks for high earners willing to help repopulate vacant neighborhoods, free high quality child care for people who live and work in the city, improved schools, neighborhood police officers, we’d be well on our way to stopping the decay- and the costs that have mounted from it.

Spending money on demolition is just a money pit. It gives zero return on investment, while repairing Wayne Avenue, more police, a safe jail, faster courts, housing enforcement, lead free water distribution, and consolidating our community into our viable neighborhoods would be much better investments.

It wouldn’t hurt to also implement some of the creative solutions outlined above. Or we can just smash and crash the houses as well as our communities. The suburbs love Dayton, because we make them look awesome in comparison. But, we all end up paying the price of blight eventually.

note: if you think Hrkman made a mistake, and should have run this- tell him: [email protected] [2]

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Mary Sue Gmeiner

Interesting ideas. Since you’re running for Dayton City Commissioner, it would be helpful if you would designate which of these ideas are controlled at the city level vs. multiple jurisdictions vs. the state. Property valuation, for example, is state law.

jonathan r brazelton

Hi, Mary Sue, that petition I signed for you to give us fairer voting districts didn’t work as it should have. The next petition should have some teeth: people should go to jail for not fixing the gerrymandering.
Great ideas, David.

WYSO mad bro

This is some NIMBY stuff right here. The white hipster gentrified and neighborhoods of East Dayton (South Park, St Anne’s, OD, etc) would implode if they had an influx of residents relocate from the other side of the river. However, it’s easy to say because you know it will never, ever happen, and your Airbnb investments will be safe.

Dave C.

Hmmmm……Based on little more than driving past some of the abandoned houses in Dayton, it look like some can be saved, but some are too far gone. Ditto larger buildings.
Save what can be saved, and demo the rest. It’s past time for Dayton to finally take decisive action to end this multi-decade problem. 

woody wodring

Good ideas forth most part. I disagree with your comment about taxing vacant lots higher. One of my tenants burned down my 4 unit buildings and nows it’s a vacant lot. I cant even give to the city because they don’t want it. The cost of building something back is not feasible unless it’s tiny houses. I think that is where you missed the mark a bit. Have the city buy the desirable vacant lots and put or finance tiny houses on them for low income folks. I don’t want the vacant lot. It’s worthless to me and honestly I’m done investing in Dayton for all the reasons you stated. There is no incentive to put my money there when it can be used better and more productively elsewhere. Yes the editor should have filed this.

kristina Lewis

some structures are too far gone, just harboring wildlife and squatters, They need to go. Others used to be available on lot links, but the city decided it wasn’t a viable program,,it was a viable program just very poorly run. I think it is a balance. Would 5 people have died in a fire last week if the property owner had taken responsibility for their property and boarded it up and watched to see if squatters were living there? There was never an intention of fixing that building up. Currently investors are buying all of the cheap properties not doing anything and upping the price. Could the demo money be used more wisely? Always, but there is no one who takes the time to look at each property and evaluate it to see if it is fixable.. then offer it for sale to responsible investors/. Much easier to just destroy. hrkman is leaving my fb friends list.

Tammy Murphy

David – you have a perspective that is rooted in the community and therefore not what the politicos want (however, very much what the people need). Sometimes your manner in making a point may be harsh – but I get it. What is difficult to see – from my perspective – having grown up in Dayton and having a sense of that community still, representing investors and home owners – it is SAD to see that the City has always been quick to sacrifice the heart of what makes the neighborhoods for their gain. And this subject of demolition and revitalization is NOT NEW – and in 2010 when Dayton was “pushing” for better, getting over $8 Million in Federal Grant MONEY to put back into the neighborhoods by removing blighted properties, and allowing for vacant lots to be bought by neighboring owners for $100 to expand their lot size and create greater appeal… I was at those neighborhood priority board meetings, I was on the blocks where homes stood vacant and failing maintenance and I was meeting with home owners for 20+ years who were saddened to see their voices were unanswered as to their concerns of house value / burden of property taxes and UPKEEP from what debris came from those delinquent homes! The unbelievable thing is – there was SO MUCH rhetoric from the City as to what they were having to “put into” determining what homes needed to be demo’d, to find the high cost of abatement became their “issue” and so they started removing GARAGES as “structures” instead of HOUSES and ate up the bulk of that federal money without really having progress to show for it! NOW WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD I BELEIVE THEY THINK THEY CAN DO BETTER NOW? Some of the very same houses that should have been demolished in 2010 are STILL STANDING DELINQUENT (WORSE PERHAPS). ALL Investors are not the problem – just like not ALL City Politicians are the problem; but until the realization of “the people” and the best needs of the City with a unified plan… Read more »