Everyone knows that the solution to Dayton’s problems is a single silver bullet project- one that will change the future of Dayton forever- catapulting us back into the heyday when all was grand (somewhere between November 1955 and May of 1956).
We’ve done Courthouse Square, the Convention Center, Sinclair Community College, The Arcade, Arcade Tower, 5/3rd Field, Riverscape, the Schuster Center and countless other “game changers,” all with the same effect- not much. The most media attention we’ve gotten has been- take your pick:
- The Dayton Accords- which brought peace halfway around the world- but, were actually negotiated in Greene County.
- John McCain announcing Sarah Palin as his running mate- also in Greene County.
- A hoax concert by Limp Bizkit at the Sunoco station in South Park.
Of the three- the last was the most successful (no money spent, no politicians involved).
The new silver bullet is a concert pavilion on Dave Hall Plaza- where for years we’ve had a summer concert series on two portable stages that’s worked OK- the Women in Jazz show, Reggae Fest, Blues Fest, etc.
But, since Kettering has the Fraze (which lost money for at least the first 4 seasons before turning a profit) and Huber Heights just opened the Rose- which made a little in its first season- Dayton wants to bring a concert facility downtown- because, we don’t have one? Oh, we’ll get to that in a bit…
The nonprofit group Friends of the Levitt Pavilion Dayton has a goal of raising $5 million by the end of this summer to pay to build a state-of-the-art amphitheater in Dave Hall Plaza.
The group plans to intensify campaign efforts in coming weeks and months to raise the money needed to pay to construct the free outdoor music venue, which is slated to begin in 2017. The planned opening of the pavilion is late May 2018.
The state’s capital budget, unveiled this week, calls for allocating $550,000 for the pavilion.
The venue will be an anchor destination that offers world-class musical performances and acts at no cost to visitors that builds community and spurs on revitalization of the urban core, according to supporters and local officials…
Fundraising for the Levitt Pavilion Dayton is underway, and donations are being accepted at levittdayton.org [1] and on Facebook. The pavilion has a page at twitter.com/LevittDayton [2].
The roughly $5 million capital project will create an amphitheater in Dave Hall Plaza, on the north side of Crowne Plaza Dayton. The pavilion’s lawn will hold at least 2,000 people and will host 50 free music concerts each year.
The amphitheater will be a “community gathering place” that features a mix of national, international and local and emerging acts, supporters said.
The Dayton Levitt Pavilion will be part of a network of signature Levitt Pavilions across the nation, which are subsidized by the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation.
The foundation provides signature pavilions about $1.5 million in assistance in the first five years. But local support and funds are a necessity.
The foundation then provides about $150,000 annually for operating costs in perpetuity. Pavilion operations typically cost about $500,000 annually.
Pavilions are located in Westport, Conn.; Memphis, Tenn.; Bethlehem, Pa.; Arlington, Tex.; and Los Angeles and Pasadena, Calif. Pavilions are planned for Denver, Colo., and Houston, Tex.
Each Levitt Pavilion has an open lawn setting where everyone is welcome to enjoy the free concerts in an idyllic outdoor atmosphere, said Sharon Yazowski, executive director of the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation.
“No two pavilions are designed the same, ” Yazowski said. “Through a community-driven design process, each Levitt Pavilion is designed to reflect the personality and character of the city where it is located, taking into account local aesthetics and traditions.
”Levitt pavilions are a proven model for reinvigorating neglected areas, and cities that have welcomed the amphitheaters have benefited from new retail, restaurants and other investments, supporters said.
The Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation’s objective is to reactivate underutilized public spaces and create family-friendly music venues that bring together people of all backgrounds and socioeconomic status to interact and develop stronger bonds, said Mescher.
Free, quality live music promotes community-building and shared experiences at a time when U.S. concert tickets can be prohibitively expensive for many families, supporters said. On average, concert tickets cost almost $79 in 2015.
Levitt Pavilion shows attract top-notch acts and up-and-coming performers. About 20 of the artists who have performed on Levitt stages in recent years were nominated for Grammy awards in 2016, according to the foundation.
Black Violin played on the Levitt circuit. The band performed at sold-out shows at the Victoria Theatre in March….
All that foot traffic will lure light retail, restaurants, bars and other businesses, and the project optimizes a space that has been underused for a long time, said Ellen Ireland, who serves on the Friends of Levitt Pavilion Dayton Board of Directors.
This project will build community through free music and will kick-start economic development and bolster reintegration in the urban core by bringing as many as 125,000 people downtown, she said.“For us to be the ninth (Levitt Pavilion) is huge,” Ireland said. “It’s key to get our fundraising well underway and finished so that we make sure it happens here and not somewhere else.”
The Levitt model demonstrably works, and Dayton’s project will draw from the experience of other cities with pavilions to succeed and have the biggest impact, Ireland said.
The proposed state capital budget includes $550,000 in funding for the pavilion project.Rep. Fred Strahorn, D-Dayton, said he pushed for the inclusion of the Levitt pavilion funding in the state capital bill because, “most vibrant cities have a happening music scene. I think Dayton has some components, but I think Levitt will really push that over the edge.”
Strahorn said the project will complement the growing number of people moving to downtown Dayton.
“I think things like the Levitt will engage more people to want to move into that space, and want to live in that walkable space,” he said.
Source: Backers seek $5M for Dayton music pavilion [3]
[4]But, wait- we already have a concert pavilion/bandshell, with plenty of free seating. It’s in Island Park, but- oh, I must have forgotten, we only invest if it’s Downtown, or helps UD, Premier Health, or Kettering Health, or a major corporation that doesn’t want to pay taxes (GE, Emerson, Midmark, Standard Register, or any of the tenants in Tech Town). We’ve also seen summer concerts under the Riverscape ice rink/pavilion- as well as shows on the streets- ala Dayton Revival festival or Cityfolk festival.
Now run by Metroparks, what started out so aptly named “White City Amusement Park” the Island park band shell sits mostly unused- and forgotten. Erected in 1939, the “Leslie L. Diehl Band shell was sponsored by the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, the city and the Works Project Administration for their “enjoyment of music and other wholesome entertainment” according to the bronze plaque that is covered with the patina of age on the right front pedestal. It used to be the home of the “municipal band” – back in the day when high schools in the city still had marching bands and music programs, and the health and welfare of the citizens wasn’t ignored in the name of “economic development.” The band shell had fallen on hard times- just like the rest of the city- and in 1995, the countywide tax that funds Metroparks (an example of regionalization that we don’t fight) were used to restore the band shell- which will be ignored for the new bright shiny thing Mayor Nan can bring to Downtown.
Considering that both the Fraze and the Rose already host a number of free concerts – should we call the Levitt the “Bus Hub Concert Pavilion” or, the keep the Daytonians in Dayton concert pavilion- or what it really is- the anti- “White City Amusement Park Band shell?”
And, one last note- to Fred Strahorn- ““most vibrant cities have a happening music scene”- haven’t seen you at any Yellow Cab shows or at any of the many bars that are keeping our local music scene going. I must have missed you at the Limp Bizkit show.
…hoax concert? Au contraire. The Bizkit set up at the Sunoco station on Brown Street. Killer set. They played for a solid two hours, and woulda’ gone longer had not the Oakwood gendarmes put an end to the show. The UD kids didn’t know who the Bizkit was, so they played in front of a dozen or so homeless folks who wandered there from South Park. After the gig, Fred and the Old Bandito went to the Oregon District for some female companionship. We struck out. Sorry you missed it…
All very funny. Especially thinking Ice Bandit would imagine female companionship.
The Island Park band shell has been used well, on and off, for various shows within memory. Recall seeing Natalie McMaster there a year after her bravura performance at Cityfolk, there were rock concerts there during the unfortunate Centennial of Flight events, and last year the Black Cultural Fest moved there and had non-stop entertainment from that stage.
But still lack of intelligent planning plagues the city. Put a band shell right where there’s little convenient parking and not quite enough space for the kind of crowd a “national act” would pull. The same problems plague Island Park and Riverscape as concert venues.
Triangle Park stands as the opportunity to put such a venue near downtown. Eliminate the stage at Riverscape and use all that blacktop for a purpose for which blacktop is superior–parking. A short walk over the bridge that was so essential for the Centennial (with close-by spaces in the park for those who can’t walk that far) and lots of comfy space for crowds, no need to block state routes to vehicular traffic. What’s not to like?
Well, it wasn’t the idea of any city planner–so that’s what’s not to like.
Please stop perpetuating the “lack of downtown parking” myth!
The Transportation Center garage, which sits across the street from Dave Hall Plaza, has 1400+ parking spaces. Of those 1400+ spaces, probably 1200 go unused every day and night.
Across Main Street from Dave hall Plaza the Reibold Garage has another 800+ spaces which sit empty every night.
There is plenty of parking available in downtown if people weren’t too cheap to pay a couple bucks and too lazy to walk a block or two.
http://www.downtowndayton.org/pdfs/EasyParkBrochure.pdf
Jeff- yes- there is plenty of parking downtown. There isn’t at Island Park.
But- what’s really missing from downtown parking is standardized signage and rates. In smart cities- they have programs that clearly mark garages and their rates- Cincy has first 3 hours free.
We could do a lot to solve that problem with very little expense- but- we- don’t- want- to….
So is the idea of trudick to turn Riverscape into a parking lot and have people walk to Triangle Park? Just making sure I have this right.
>>>> All very funny. Especially thinking Ice Bandit would imagine female companionship. <<<< – TRUDDICK
Something tells me that the ol' Bandito does not have to IMAGINE female companionship. I'm betting that old hockey player that's full of great stories is pretty much a chick magnet! I've said it before Bandito – I want to party with you!!
Mr. Esrati, you bring up a lot of excellent points, very nice write-up.
The bandshell is a wonderful asset that should be used more than it is, great venue.
I’ll add that the bandshell hosted Barack Obama for the 2012 re-election bid. It’s really an ideal place for a political rally because it is relatively isolated and easy to secure.
I’d agree that parking there is an issue. The Kettering ballfields are a downright illogical use of space at that site, but at the moment there’s not much economic incentive to turn them into something different. What a nice site for redevelopment though. Either way, my guess is that grass parking would work well there, especially on the land that used to host Parkside Homes.
But then all those people will get in their cars and drive home after the concert, taking their dollars to Beavercreek or Huber Heights instead of lingering after the show at the bars and restaurants downtown. That’s the trade-off.
I’m just glad to not see CityWide or that idiot Aaron Sorrell attached to this project!
Several here deserve the courtesy of a reply.
Todd: basically yes, tho’ the ice rink at Riverscape, the water park, and the walking paths would not move. I like the idea of free parking for festivals, of taking in culture among trees and grass rather than asphalt, and traffic, and of not shutting down state routes from their primary function of being state routes.
Jeff G: I’m tempted to think you’re a garage owner wanting to increase profits. Why do you think people should be happy to pay too much to drive around tight ramps, go up several floors, squeeze into a spot, and walk further to get to the elevator and the venue? Then get caught in a traffic jam on the way out after the event that’s made worse because owners are too cheap to open all the exits? One of the reasons downtown is failing: the malls and other performance venues like Fraze do not charge for parking. That’s one reason why several of our smaller neighbors discarded their parking meters a couple of decades ago.