Human Services Levy Political Geography

The Dayton Daily News has a good article with this impressive little graphic on the Human Services Levy vote (impressive in that the vote is taken down to the precinct level, which is about as granular as it gets in political geography)


(click on the map for an enlargement)

The news analyses was fairly accurate, too, showing the strong votes coming from poorer parts of Dayton and the wealthy “west of Far Hills” corridor to the south of the city.

To elaborate on the geography, some additional observations:

1. Rural vs Urban/Suburban divide. Rural western Montgomery County voted against, while most suburban and urban precincts voted for. Opposition looks to be strong in German Township, and in parts of Butler Township around the airport. The more rural parts of Huber Heights, Clayton, and Miami Twp also voted no, but in the 40% and 50% range. Yet some rural villages voted "yes" (like New Lebanon).

2. Mall Area “for” vote. The area around the Dayton Mall/I-75, in Miamisburg and Miami Twp seems to be a suprisingly large suburban concentration voting for the levy.

3. Strong Suburban “no” votes in Riverside/Northridge. Seems the parts of Northridge/Harrison Twp along I-75 and the “Avondale” part of Riverside were pretty set against the levy. The North Dixie area toward Stop Eight Road also looks to be a strong "no" vote.

4. Suburban "no" votes in certain suburbs: Huber Heights, parts of Vandalia, and most of West Carollton voted no. "Yes" votes in Huber concentrated in older parts of Huber south of Fishburg Rd. "Yes" votes in Vandalia were in precincts south of US 40 and west ofI-75.

5. Strong "no" vote in military precincts. The military housing areas off of Airway in Riverside vote "no", (less that 40% supported). This is ironic as this was a property tax levy, and the military in these housing areas don’t pay property tax, so maybe more of an ideological vs pocketbook opposition?

I’d love to see more of this precinct level analyses from the DDN, as it really helps to understand the political geography of the area.