It's Great 'n Dayton

Downtown Reaches Out to College Students

So if you haven't heard, on the heels of Urban Nights (September 12) and overlapping with the Taste of the Miami Valley (September 12/13), the Downtown Dayton Partnership (DDP) is sponsoring Dayton's first major outreach effort to get college students downtown (although other efforts have taken place to get students to meet with elected officials and young professionals, etc).

The DDP's new effort is called Dayton Campus Connect (check out the website. It's pretty cool and includes student discounts to stores/bars/restaurants and will list intern opportunities and more) The first official event is a Welcome Fest on September 13 at Courthouse Square. Activities include:

• Cornhole tournament
• Guitar Hero
• Karaoke contest
• Velcro wall
• Laser tag
• Cooler races
• Climbing Wall

The event is sponsored by the DDP, Wright Patt Credit Union, City of Dayton, Montgomery County, Cricket, and the Southwestern Ohio Council on Higher Education. Links to all of those can be found on the Campus Connect site. 

Not only are our corporations, hospitals and universities major community assets but we all know that one of the best things Dayton has going for it is its PEOPLE (including college students)!! Hopefully this well be the first in a number of activities that will show the students how cool Dayton is so that they have a desire to establish themselves here once they graduate.

The event is for students only. As for on-lookers? I'm not sure! I'm dying to go down and check it out!! This is one of the best things that has happened in Dayton for a long time!! It's worth celebrating! Congratulations to all who are making this happen. We indeed are an original and creative community that has alot going for it!

Festival of Creatives

I came across the following idea at www.ceosforcities.org where I was reading up on creative cities. A link took me to http://www.sparkcon.com.

SPARKcon is a conference and showcase dedicated to connecting the local creative community in the Triangle area of North Carolina. In short it’s a platform for local talent to show their stuff and have a say in our community... By talent, we mean scientific as well as artistic, geeky and musical. It takes a “creative ecosystem” to have a vibrant scene. SPARKcon’s aim is to recognize and support all the people who work to make local talent shine.

Considering that there isn't alot of retail downtown and that Urban Nights is mostly entertaining, dining, loft tours, etc. I think it would be cool to build on the momentum and synergy of the Creative Incubator and This is Dayton and get citizens to come out not just for a night but for an entire weekend and show all the original talent that we have in Dayton!! Instead of relying on professional entertainers and local arts groups let's go grassroots and let individuals express themselves. Such an event could also involve local college students.

Opposite of Dying

Dayton region lands 13 companies on Inc. fastest-growing list

Thirteen businesses in the Dayton region ranked among country's fastest-growing private companies, according to Inc. magazine.

Three of those firms are on this year's Inc. 500 list: Buycastings.com of Kettering ranked No. 240, One Call Now of Troy ranked No. 286 and Adaequare of Centerville ranked No. 465.

Ten more area companies ranked in the top 5,000: JangoMail of Centerville ranked No. 972, Centric Consulting of Dayton ranked 1,313, Crown Partners of Centerville ranked No. 1,744, Agilit of Troy ranked No. 2,518, Cornerstone Research Group of Dayton ranked No. 2,591, Alternate Solutions Homecare of Kettering ranked No. 2,915, Scottissue of Dayton ranked No. 3,010, George Steel Fabricating of Lebanon ranked No. 3,801, Comfort Keepers of Dayton ranked No. 4,080 and Quality Steel Fabrication of Sidney ranked No. 4,286.

The list previously ranked the 500 highest-growth companies in United States but was expanded to 5,000 this year.

The Dayton region did not have any companies in the top 500 last year on the Inc. list.

The highest-ranking company from Ohio on this year's list was Cincinnati-based business services firm Triplefin at No. 93. The top company on the list this year was Senior Whole Health of Cambridge, Ma.

Inc., a publication aimed at entrepreneurs, will publish the full list in its September issue, available Aug. 26. The list is also available on the magazine's Web site, inc.com.

E-mail dayton@bizjournals.com. Call (937) 528-4400.

Foot Traffic

There has been quite a buzz lately over at MostMetro regarding the possibility of closing 5th street for such activities as First Fridays, Urban Nights, etc.  While it seems common sense, it also follows a national/international trend to make communities more friendly to pedestrians and people who just want to gather.

Much about the idea has also been written at http://www.cooltownstudios.com/category/pedestrian-only-carfree/ which documents examples of communities that have disallowed vehicle traffic for events, weekends, summers, and permanently.

The hopeful sign is that if it can be implemented locally it would be an example of city leaders thinking outside the box, maybe ruffling a few feathers, and taking a risk to do something cool.

One of my blog categories is cool communities where I have written about other initiatives that make a community cool.

But is it enough to be cool? What do we need to do to be great? I can think of a few ideas and others have already been posted at MostMetro under various categories. But here's a primer, courtesy of the Project for Public Spaces.

Can we be great (as opposed to dying)? I think the answer is YES. A few things need to change though including attitudes and how we go about business.

A Dayton Original

Okay, I just did something really goofy. As a joke I signed an email to a local friend

Matt Dunn
A Dayton Original

Then it occurred to me how well "This is Dayton" and the city's new brand could play off of each other.

We're all unique. We're diverse. We're original!! We need to celebrate that whether we are native Daytonians or transplants, whether we're talking about individuals or companies. Whether we're engineers or artists or bankers or urbanites or suburbanites.

I really like DaytonCREATE's positive press release about the city's brand. The quotes by Tom Thickel and Dave Seyer were spot on.

We ARE Dayton and we have alot of original things to be proud of. Yes the city has problems but in a HUGE way we're dealing with issues of perception and just plain old negativity, racism, classism, etc.

There was a post a while back about creating a video about tolerance and shattering stereotypes.

I wish there was energy and people to make such a video (and possibly other collateral materials) happen. If we can't get someone to create it from scratch with personal equipment maybe DATV could be involved.

Given all the negativity propagated by the media lately it seems it's going to be crucial for all of us (not just the This is Dayton folks) to find a way to counter the misperceptions not just of brands and city leadership but of who we are as a community/city/region.

Still Breathing...Story of a dead city with a different twist

Recently Forbes announced that Dayton WAS on a dying cities list. Notice the past-tense usage of the word WAS. (Use your imagination. I know they said it IS dying but keep reading).

What the folks at Forbes didn’t realize is that their information wasn’t completely accurate and numbers only tell a piece of the story. Dayton, for the last several years, has been under the leadership of a mayor who believes in the city and is working side by side with a young city manager and young progressive commission members. These young leaders are thinking outside the box and are staying ahead of the curve by keeping up on what their contemporaries are doing successfully in other cities.

Dayton couldn’t stop certain industries from leaving. Once-locally-owned fortune 500 companies have been acquired by outside companies and their leaders have no loyalty to the hometown that made their companies so successful. Gone are the days that CEO’s are even involved in the local scene. Many of them don’t even live in the greater Dayton area and a conference call is the closest they’ve ever come to the city.

Dayton doesn’t rest on its laurels. While not staying ahead of the foreclosure crisis it has a plan/strategy to deal with vacant housing. Some think the city isn’t moving fast enough but it’s moving as fast as legally possible. We’re not just dealing with housing and economic problems. We’re dealing with a systemic problems. Yes we have people out of jobs but learning new skills can’t be done over night.  Workforce development programs are being put into place but new skills require effort and time. Some of the people who need the new skills will need to go to school for them. Some of them for the first time in their lives.

Dayton and the region have experienced a ground-swell of pride for the city that not only invented flight but also invented record-breaking numbers of patents. Dayton has a rich history and a viable exciting future. Dayton has a cadre of believers, both residents and professionals.

The City and several other organizations are working with local universities on retaining graduates. A local initiative (which has now become 5 initiatives) was launched to cultivate, attract, and retain the “creative class.” The region came together under the Dayton Development Coalition to make Dayton (the region) a prominent location to benefit from the military’s BRAC (base realignment and closings) decisions. Regardless of the fact that we feel we’re behind the proverbial 8-ball, these are all pro-active things.

Housing in Downtown Dayton is roughly 95% occupied. Residents are single, young couples, retirees, downtown employees, and more. Dayton has award-winning historic neighborhoods. The 2^nd Street Market thrives on Saturdays and is open on Thursdays and Fridays also. Riverscape has replaced Courthouse Square as the venue for large community events and festivals like Cityfolk and the Celtic Festivals and people attend in immensely large crowds. The Oregon District has seen resurgence as an entertainment district with fine dining and art galleries. There are a few downtown bars where folks can hang out and there is a thriving nightclub/dance club scene.

We can all wish for more but there is A LOT of good happening. Any city is going to have crime, housing problems, economic hard times, etc. Why should any one city be considered dead or dying when those making the declaration don’t even look at the entire picture?

Our Problems, Our Expense, Someone Else's Gain?

What do we do when we just can’t seem to get ahead? Today the Dayton Daily News lobbed into cyberspace (and most likely will be front page news tomorrow) a brief article describing a Forbes article that says Dayton is a dying city. It then let people post comments and most of the comments were about poor leadership, crime, racial/socio-economic differences, all with a general overtone that no one cared [as long as it doesn’t affect their cushy lifestyles in the suburbs] and that it’s all deserved.

The Forbes article didn’t define Dayton’s boundaries or say whether people left the state or moved to the suburbs. It merely looked at census data related to unemployment, population migration, and economic growth. While it doesn’t look good for Dayton other Ohio cities didn’t fare any better. This to me speaks not of a Dayton problem but a systemic problem that has allowed this situation to happen. It didn’t happen overnight (and I feel sorry for the mayor and administrators who have to deal with problems they didn’t create). Obviously industries in Ohio’s major cities have changed and haven’t been replaced by other high revenue jobs. But when was the last time anyone looked at Ohio’s tax structures and how revenue is accounted for across the state. Who pays property tax? Who pays income tax? Why are some higher than others? What exactly does sales tax cover?

Here’s a micro look at the arts and cultural amenities enjoyed by Daytonians, Beavercreek residents, Troy residents, Springfield residents, Springboro residents and more: ticket sales generally don’t ever account for more than 55% of an arts/cultural organization’s budgets. The rest is raised through fundraising efforts. Actually, not all of the rest. You see, in Dayton we have an organization called Culture Works which raises money and disperses it for the arts (similar to the United Way model) including support of programs in Yellow Springs. Montgomery County also supports arts and culture via the Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District which annually awards $1 million to arts and cultural organizations and institutions. This is general operating support which basically allows the groups to open their doors and turn on the lights.  What does Greene County give to our arts organizations? Nothing. What does Miami County give to our arts organizations? Nothing. What does Clark County give to our arts organizations? Nothing. What does Warren County give to our arts organizations? Nothing.

Despite what people in the suburbs think about the City of Dayton they don’t have a problem enjoying our amenities and our infrastructure.  With Dayton’s (and Montgomery County’s) shrinking tax base I take personal offense as a Dayton resident that everyone else just seems to take us for granted and don’t seem to care that they enjoy their quality of life at our expense.

Businesses Helping Downtown Businesses

So it seems like business leaders are helping each other... this is from today's Dayton Daily News:

Group focuses on jobs in city
Downtown Dayton Partnership launches program to establish business contacts.

By Joanne Huist Smith
Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 05, 2008

DAYTON — Downtown business owners and chief operating officers, take note: if you want to expand, move or your lease is running out, volunteers from the Downtown Dayton Partnership want to chat.

In July, the partnership launched a program that charges 20 volunteer business leaders to forge relationships with at least four of their downtown peers.

The goals of the Dayton Leadership Program are to create jobs downtown and retain existing ones.

Ron Budzick, former vice president for government affairs at Mead, is part of the volunteer team.

"As downtown transitions from large corporations to smaller businesses, we want to find out what their challenges are," Budzick said. "We want to tell them, 'we're very happy you look upon Dayton as a place for your business.' "

Volunteers will contact 80 companies considered strategically important.

"When we track job gains and losses downtown, the vast majority of new jobs are from growing existing businesses," Downtown Dayton Partnership President Sandy Gudorf said. "That's why we started the leadership retention program."

Gudorf wants to establish connections with companies before they "pack their bags and move out."

Downtown suffered a net job loss of 2,232, between the beginning of 2003 and the close of 2007.

"From a 50,000-feet perspective, it's got to be disappointing considering the rate we are moving," Budzick said.

"I am encouraged that business leaders want to change the environment downtown to better position the city to capture its share of the growth."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2362 or josmith@DaytonDailyNews.com.

I should also mention that there is another local program involving a network of business leaders. It is spear-headed by Montgomery County. The program is called BusinessFirst!
http://www.mcohio.org//services/ed/business_first/index.html

Can Local Businesses Help Attract Other Businesses?

So I've been out of the loop for a while. I was on vacation and after getting back took a while to catch up on everything I've missed. I've mostly been commenting on discussions at www.dayton.mostmetro.com/forum.

A recent conversation about Reynolds & Reynolds moving from downtown Dayton to it's Kettering campus led to a conversation about economic development and cause me to have these thoughts... 

Whatever became of the recommendation by the city's consultant back in December that there needed to be a better coordinated (if not merged) economic development effort? I know none of the existing entities was interested in merging but I thought the City was going to step up to the plate to take the lead...

On the other hand, given Hilary's points (and here) about the common problem of cities lacking the ability to actually attract new business maybe local development professionals' time would be better spent helping our local businesses to attract other businesses.

I heard great presentations the other night at a Generation Dayton event where we listened to representatives from Dayton Area Defense Contractor Association, Greater Dayton Area Hospital Alliance, Greater Dayton IT Alliance (now Technology First), and the Dayton Tooling and Manufacturing Association. These are trade professionals who talk to their colleagues across the country regularly.  What I'm hoping these business leaders are saying to other businesses is "it's great doing business in Dayton," "Dayton's a great place," "you should consider moving to the midwest," and to suppliers and vendors "we love your products but we wish you were closer."

We also need to remember that R&R's decision wasn't a quick one. I think they've stuck around downtown longer than they probably wanted to (and at least they're still in the region, especially since they haven't been a locally owned company for several years now).

Just as R&R's decision wasn't quick, neither has most of the region's decline (although companies like GM shutting down don't help). Much could have been forecast a long time ago but we can't look back now. We have to continue looking forward and but also realize that there isn't a quick fix. BRAC is happening. The Coalition has identified its core "clusters" but it's going to take a concerted effort for those clusters to establish a critical mass of new opportunities to make a difference. 

From the urban core perspective I'd love to know if downtown is being marketed for its housing, office, corporate opportunities for these clusters. I have a feeling BRAC stuff is going to end up in Fairborn or Beavercreek or on the base itself, not in Riverside or Dayton (even though it's a straight shot from downtown, out First street, to the Base). That's the kind of stuff I hate to see happen. Where's the marketing? Where are the incentives? What do these other locations offer that Dayton doesn't? If we're supposed to be playing together as a region why does Dayton always get the short end of the stick?