One of the reasons South Park works as a neighborhood is that we know and trust our neighbors. When my mother wanted recommendations for a tree service to cut down the almost dead tree behind their house we asked our neighborhood webmaster, Robert, to send a request for referrals to our neighborhood mail list.

We got back 9 responses almost automatically- and Mom had about 6 of them out for quotes.

They ended up picking Dan Fugate on the recommendation of Michael Di Flora (who is one of the prime investors in the neighborhood).

This is what my Mother wrote back to the neighborhood:

David – please thank Bob for posting all the recommendations for help with the tree.  You were right – it was amazing. Shows how much we care about our trees in South Park.  We called several people and decided on Dan Fugate who owns D&F Tree Service, tel: 937-256-5178.  Michael Di Flora recommended him.

In addition to being a top-notch pro, Mr. Fugate gets points for personality and price.  He says that word of mouth is always helpful so anyone who would like to hear more about him should feel free to call us: (You can e-mail me- david at elect esrati dot com if you want to chat about this)

By the way, he spotted the empty cottage next door and expressed an interest.  Said he would like to come back and live in South Park. We’d love to have him as a neighbor.

A few things- people do business with people they like. My Mom went on about how my Dad liked him instantly. Another thing is that in this day of info overload- and especially marketing overload, nothing beats a personal recommendation or “word of mouth” as we call it in the business. You have to also understand that for a small business like D&F Tree Service, a community like South Park can be a great base to build on. All it takes is a level of confidence built up by consistent solid work and next thing you know- you don’t run out of work.

The same thing applies to our city. If everyone in the city talks confidently about our community, and says good things about it- we build.

When we constantly speak poorly of our community- we destroy. Dayton has been in self-destruct mode for a long time. No, waving a magic wand and singing “Kumbayah” all day won’t fix the problem- but, if only our citizens had some strong leadership that was singing our praises at the top of their lungs day in, day out, maybe we’d be coming out of our slump.

If there is anything about Mayor Leitzell I would criticize, it’s that he’s not been as visible as a cheer leader as he could be. However, it wouldn’t hurt if our true CEO of the city- City Manager Tim Riordan was using his voice a lot louder – after all- we could have picked anyone for his job- and we had only two choices for Mayor.

So, next time you sit and read the crapfest that goes on in the Dayton Daily News comments sections- consider posting as “It’s Great In Dayton” and say something super positive. We don’t have to take this lying down.