I saw this coming years ago.
Ten cities including four from Ohio are listed on Forbes.com list of America's fastest dying cities. My hometown of Cleveland was on the list (for many reasons) but the town I live at and call home now Dayton is on there too. Youngstown and Canton are there as well.
The rest of the cities: Detroit and Flint, Michigan, Springfield, Mass, Scranton, Pa, Buffalo, NY, Charleston, West Virginia. I've been through Detroit and Buffalo and I can tell you it looks like the Grim Reaper himself visited these towns. Go up the road to Pontiac and it is a different story. The money coursing out of those cities is frightening.
Guess all of my concerns and warnings I made to city officials and in the media makes me look like the Lorax. My only question: Will it be time to pick up my tail and head off into the sky loosing all hope of ever seeing greener pastures again?
Funny how I've seen this coming 15 years ago when I saw the department stores leave downtown Dayton. Then the small businesses started drying up one by one with the arrival of WalMart, lack of help for those businesses to thrive, and the lack of municipal foresight to plan for such an event like what we're facing with gas prices and the (gasp) the end of oil consuming vehicles. Imagine waking up and viewing yesterday's Dayton Daily News with this headline:
4 Ohio cities on list of fastest-dying
More here
Forbes on the top 10 fastest dying cities
Then I dig further at Forbes.com and to see the pictures I'm not surprised. I've been through most of the cities they point out. With the exception of Columbus and upper Cincinnati the reports are spot on. Dayton, Ohio, my beloved Cleveland, Ohio, Youngstown and (gasp) Detroit, Michigan are all cities who look like ghost towns right now. I fear for their future and wonder if my future would be best served someplace else in Ohio (if outside Ohio at all)?
Of course city officials will put on a brave face; they will fight tooth and nail, but I know better. I said eight years ago on a radio talk show that frankly Dayton sucks. The general manager at the time almost fired me on the spot, but I was honest and to the point...the town sucked. If not for Sinclair Community College, the University of Dayton, the Wright Patterson Air Force Base (outside of Dayton proper, borders Green County) and the history marker of the Wright Brothers, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and Erma Bombeck this town should be dead and buried by now. But I'm the one without a radio job because I told the truth then and I tell it now. Our job situation, living conditions, and the future of this city suck right now.
But I say this without malice but sadness...and hope.
We didn't want to admit this was coming. There's sadness because Dayton is going to have to go through a lot of bad before seeing a lot of good. Hope. My hope is whoever is left will right the ship, but it will be a very big ship to right.
I'm still bracing for NCR to leave town, MeadWestvco to head east, and other side businesses to dry up along with it. I'm holding on to my job of five years as a courier driver but the work is hard to get and when we get it we hope to hold on to it for a while. I haven't had a raise in over a year and there are days I just sit at home with nothing to do for me. I drive through Cincinnati and Columbus all the time and to be honest if things don't get better soon I may make a bold move and check out the jobs in Columbus or possibly look outside of the Buckeye State for the first time in my life. It is sad because baring service in the military and being stationed overseas Ohio has been my home state.
But with two girls and life around us looking like a daily survival game to us I'm thinking it may be time to seriously consider a bold move of our own.
I read another post from a fellow Daytonian Ohio Player.
Shout out to my neighbor!
I know it's tough living here or finding work here because at the moment opportunity knocks somewhere else. Sad but true, the youth sees it while the voices of the past find it hard to grip with reality. I pray Dayton survives when all is said and done.