Racism in Dayton? Why, you don’t say. Really? Naw. It’s like fight club, we don’t talk about fight club.

For the life of me, I’d love to hear the explanation of why the Princeton Recreation Center on the West Side doesn’t have doors on the toilet stalls in the men’s locker room, and the Lohrey center on the East side does. Wouldn’t you?

I’m starting to believe I’m from a different planet than the rest of y’all in Dayton. Somehow, to me, this is the symbolic representation of racism that we refuse to talk about here. I know, it’s only bathroom stall doors, but, when you look at what is spent downtown and for “economic development” and what is spent on the citizens it should be clear- someone in charge of this definitely doesn’t care about you, me, or anyone trying to survive in Dayton. Our taxes go up, while 80% of the biggest employers in Dayton pay nothing. We’re on the hook for fixing up other peoples messes- like the Convention Center, the Arcade, or demolishing homes that were allowed to rot and burn, and to subsidized flying electric cars and defense contractors- but, we can’t even let you go to bathroom in privacy on the West side?

We’re about to be hit up for two more tax renewal/levies this fall. Metroparks and Dayton Metro Library are both planning to be on the ballot. You don’t hear about it- because they don’t want you to have time to organize against the levies. 90 days before the election- BAM! They show up. Note, neither of these organizations have any elected oversight- but have sizeable public tax dollars funding them.

I was speaking to one of our elected officials the other day, and he was talking to someone in Indianapolis about why their tax burden is so much lower than ours. The answer “unigov”- the people of Indianapolis got smart- and realized, with less political subdivisions/jurisdictions/duplication of effort they get more bang for their buck- and it’s easier to keep track of who’s on the take.

Accountability is baked into unigov just because they can bring more eyes on fewer “leaders.” Now, I know you’re sitting here and wondering “how did Esrati go from bathroom stall doors to unigov” and the answer is really simple: our leaders are so far removed from accountability that they can get away with almost anything.

Some of the recent embarrassments: The City of Vandalia just tossed their City Manager and hired an interim. They are on the hook to the old one for over a quarter of a million dollars- and none of it comes out of their pockets- it comes out of the tax payers.

Huber Heights just put their City Manager on paid leave while they sort out his drunk driving charges. They promoted their assistant fire chief to interim manager. They spent considerable time and money hiring the drunk- and now will have to do it again.

The “city” of New Lebanon is in the middle of lawsuits and he said she said over the city manager there. Note- the “city” is a whopping 3,780. The city manager was making $100K+

Trotwood quietly signed their city manager to a 5 year contract right after the election. Note- the people who signed off on this- are only elected for 4 years- which should make their actions unenforceable.

The Trotwood School Board also just had their Superintendent resign. Except, it wasn’t really a resignation- but more of a realization that someone had been coasting in their over paid job for years. This is a school district with 2,600 students and failing grades. We don’t even know how much this game of musical chairs will cost the taxpayers.

The reality is, from the bottom to the top, it’s hard to hold anyone accountable for anything, because basically, it’s all dysfunctional. Ohio drew lines on the map for our 88 counties for a much different population back in 1850 than we have now. Then we let them subdivide into 609 school districts and who knows how many cities, villages, townships etc.

And while we’re all excited about redrawing voting maps to stop gerrymandering, it’s really just a diversion from the real questions in Ohio- why are our schools still unconstitutionally funded and why the hell do we have so many worthless politicians and jurisdictions that can’t handle something as simple as putting a door on the privy?

Don’t talk about fight club, or the private club that allows this crap to continue.