Fastest Dying City Looking for Originals

Lots of fun online discussion about urban affairs this week.

Rumors of Dayton's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Investor magazine Forbes is notorious in the “urban geek” community for their off-the-wall lists generated by cranking in numbers and spitting out rankings or groups of cities.

This time they did a list of fastest dying cities in the US. Quelle surprise, Dayton was on it.

Forbes did note that they really meant fastest dying metropolitan areas, but that fact was lost on the posters at Dayton Daily News comments section (the DDN did an online article on it, and put columnist DL Stewarts tongue-in-cheek opinion piece on the Wednsday front page) , which quickly devolved into the usual whining about city problems and political axe-grinding.

One could probably gin up a little DDN comments generator since they are so predictable.

The DDMers had a lot to say, too, but more the other way.

Striking a balance, neoliberal urban policy expert (and local guy) Sam Staley had a more serious look at the local economic malaise over at New Geography. Staley provides a bit of history, notes that this metro area is more diversified than one thinks, and says , regarding economic decline, that this to will pass.(tip o’ the hat to Aaron at Urbanophile for turning me on to the Staley piece)

One has to wonder at the fortuitous timing of Staleys article, being online around the same time as the Forbes list.

If you want a peak at what Staley is talking about, but from yer humble host, check this recent blog post, where I come to similar conclusions with different numbers.


Originals Wanted

On a brighter note, Esrati opines that the new city brand has hit a home run, and I agree. Not much to add to his observations, but I will anyway.

Dayton Patented/Originals Wanted rings all the right changes on the various tropes of Dayton economic traditions without invoking yet again the tired mantra of the Wrights/Kettering/the pop-top, reflects what’s really happening here (assembly being replaced by tech, or parts to patents), and riffs on the “Keep Wherever Weird” meme by keeping “originals” open-ended enough to include cultural creatives.




I can see this on T shirts or stickys. On lamposts and bumpers.