Today’s front page headline really bugged me. “Residents leaving Dayton in droves” was total bullshit. What the hell is a “drove” anyway? Define it? What’s a “big crowd”?
Everything is relative. In case you haven’t been paying attention- Beavercreek and Springboro can’t keep up with their population growth- with school overcrowding becoming a huge problem. Like it or not, those suburbs are part of “Dayton”- and what we have is population shifts- according to our silly, old-fashioned and provincial multitude of jurisdictions. In fact Oakwood lost more people by percentage than Dayton – even with their amazing schools! But that wasn’t the headline, was it?
Dayton, suburbs among population losers [1]
Eighteen cities with a population of more than 5,000 in the eight-county region have lost residents so far this decade, while 19 cities have gained.
And although Dayton lost 5.7 percent of its population from 2000 through July 1, 2006, Oakwood topped that figure.
So, in their continuing efforts to make Dayton a ghost town, the Dayton Daily News fudged the figures a bit in an effort to “sell papers.”
Here is a dirty little secret about the Dayton Daily News- for the last three years, I’ve been paying about $2 a week for the rag. That’s right, half of what their big ad campaign says. I let my 20+ year annual subscription lapse- and they called and offered it at half price to keep their circulation numbers up. And, so, I’m still a subscriber. Place a bet, anyone who wants the newspaper for $2 a week could probably get it- because they are losing subscribers in droves. Big droves.
Maybe it’s because they like sensationalizing things that really aren’t news- like people are shifting around the area due to the natural progression of sprawl- not because of anything the City of Dayton did wrong- but because of lack of foresight of the region of Dayton. Had we shifted to Unigov, and made our city limits extend to the full metropolitan area- we wouldn’t have a population loss at all- in fact, we’d have growth.
Too bad the Dayton Daily News can’t say that about their subscriber base.
“noun 1. a number of oxen, sheep, or swine driven in a group; herd; flock.
2. Usually, droves. a large crowd of human beings, esp. in motion: They came to Yankee Stadium in droves. ”
Why are you picking on Oakwood? I thought you used to live there, with all the movers and shakers. I guess those movers and shakers are movin’ out of town (to McMansionVille!)
People will continue to leave Dayton b/c nobody sets up shop in and around the Downtown area and nobody makes it easy to do so. If i worked in Centerville, I’d live in Springboro. So on and so forth. I remember Jay of Jay’s seafood commenting that lunch used to be great (mid 70’s) and now there are at least 20,000 less people working downtown so it is just not possible.
I dont think there is a Unigov in sight….there never was one………there never will be……. who would agree to that……… and all of Dayton’s problems………
Dayton: The next Ghost Town in Ohio – Visit it before its gone.
No you would not have growth, as a metropolitian entity, say a merged Montgomery County/Dayton, would still have experienced population loss.
And the entire metropolitan area…Greene and Miami Counties and Preble County, would have seen growth of less than 1%, in other words, stagnation. Maybe this stat would have improved somewhat if one counts the three northern townships of Warren County (ie Springboro and Waynesville), as suburban sprawl from Dayton. But probably not too much.
The reality is that the Dayton metro area has had very slow growth since the 1970 census (which was the peak of decades of steady and sometimes high growth). With the last census this has tipped into nearly no growth, and the start of ongoing population decline in the core suburban county (I think this was the first census to show a population decline in Montgomery County, overall)
Though there are shifts in growth around the region,due to sprawl, overall growth is minimal.
And make no mistake about it, Dayton is still declining, but not at as a great a rate as in the past.
Ghost town is actually pretty apt, especially in the little neighborhood shopping districts, like Valley and Troy or TALS Corner. But one sees suburban ghost towns, too, in metro Dayton. Here, have a look:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=472525