tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75722055624980244542024-03-13T04:17:38.922-04:00DaytonologyJeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.comBlogger627125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-32146361395790293282009-07-23T22:47:00.001-04:002009-07-23T22:50:20.908-04:00<span style="font-family: arial;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Daytonology is...</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzlWdkKDheW6-vl7rrYVeKsbTp48goD8rvOvKjsVIZPbXXWdd51-3ke52GK2Z_qAA7fvXS8laVJo4XdTopIXMbi-mDbHhvfCOYPciiRJvsspWeiMVtsZMDr0Q18o2ezTVJX7JdKwfHM9P/s1600-h/Closed.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzlWdkKDheW6-vl7rrYVeKsbTp48goD8rvOvKjsVIZPbXXWdd51-3ke52GK2Z_qAA7fvXS8laVJo4XdTopIXMbi-mDbHhvfCOYPciiRJvsspWeiMVtsZMDr0Q18o2ezTVJX7JdKwfHM9P/s400/Closed.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361853312354846562" border="0" /></a>Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com53tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-91099837124499102532009-07-23T22:37:00.000-04:002009-07-23T22:47:07.883-04:00Daytonology Two Year AnniversaryBack in January there was <a href="http://daytonology.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-new-year-and-farewell.html">this post</a>, announcing yer humble hosts impending departure from Dayton and the closure of this blog.<br /><br />The move is on hiatus due to the dire job situation but the blog is done. Daytonology has been running on empty for quite a while now, so this two year anniversary (the first posts were during July 2007) is as good a time as any to close the blog. Two to three years is the average life span of a blog, too.<br /><br />Since there are things linking here the blog will be online for a few more months. This will give people who surf in time to remove links if they have any (if other bloggers are like me they periodically check their link roll and cull dead links).<br /><br />Come December the delete button will be pushed and this blog will finally disappear into the ether.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-38775170370762537702009-07-19T22:04:00.003-04:002009-07-19T22:17:36.574-04:00The Space Race is Over<span style="font-style: italic;">Since this is the 40th anniversary of the first men on the moon, a good song on the subject, sort of, by UK folk-rocker </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.billybragg.co.uk/index.php">Billy Bragg</a><span style="font-style: italic;">. Bragg was a fan of Simon and Garfunkle as a teen before going through the "cleansing fire of punk" (as he says) and one can tell the influence of a certain Paul Simon song here. In fact Bragg cribbed a line from it for this lyric. Y'all can guess that song.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Anyway, a good song from one of Billy Braggs best albums:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Space Race is Over</span><br /> <p>When I was young I told my mum<br /> I'm going to walk on the Moon someday<br /> Armstrong and Aldrin spoke to me<br /> From Houston and Cape Kennedy<br /> And I watched the Eagle landing<br /> On a night when the Moon was full<br /> And as it tugged at the tides, I knew deep inside<br /> I too could feel its pull</p> <p>I lay in my bed and dreamed I walked<br /> On the Sea of Tranquillity<br /> I knew that someday soon we'd all sail to the moon<br /> On the high tide of technology<br /> But the dreams have all been taken<br /> And the window seats taken too<br /> And 2001 has almost come and gone<br /> What am I supposed to do?</p> <p>Now that the space race is over<br /> It's been and it's gone and I'll never get to the moon<br /> Because the space race is over<br /> And I can't help but feel we've all grown up too soon</p> <p>Now my dreams have all been shattered<br /> And my wings are tattered too<br /> And I can still fly but not half as high<br /> As once I wanted to</p> <p>Now that the space race is over<br /> It's been and it's gone and I'll never get to the moon<br /> Because the space race is over<br /> And I can't help but feel we've all grown up too soon</p> <p>My son and I stand beneath the great night sky<br /> And gaze up in wonder<br /> I tell him the tale of Apollo And he says<br /> "Why did they ever go?"<br /> It may look like some empty gesture<br /> To go all that way just to come back<br /> But don't offer me a place out in cyberspace<br /> Cos where in the hell's that at?</p> <p>Now that the space race is over<br /> It's been and it's gone and I'll never get out of my room<br /> Because the space race is over<br /> And I can't help but feel we're all just going nowhere </p>Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-38214950196620236792009-07-19T18:42:00.007-04:002009-07-19T22:34:27.741-04:00Urban Bohemia and Left Wing Political Style<span style="font-style: italic;">Stadt luft macht fr</span><span style="font-style: italic;">ei,</span> City air makes one free.<br /><br />This old German saying, perhaps coming from the Middle Ages or Renaissance, could be the theme of a cultural tendancy of modern America, too, as it is so contrary to the American ethos, which is, at heart, anti-urban. As we here in the Dayton region know all too well.<br /><br />That cultural tendancy is for cultural and political free thinkers and innovators to seek out the city as a favorable mileau for innovation, leading to the formation of urban bohemia, but also the ongoing connection of this bohemia to a left politlcal turn, meaning either revolution or reform, either socialist or anarchist.<br /><br />This phenomenon was perhaps already visible at the dawn of Bohemia, in 19th century Paris.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bohemia & The Paris Commune</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br />Bohemia was first named by Henry Murger, staging a play on Bohemia in 1849 and later publishing </span><span style=";font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;" ><i>Scenes de la Vie de Boheme </i>in 1851, just after the 1848 revolution, the one that overthrew Louis Phillipe. It's unclear what role Murgers bohemians played in that revolution. In fact it appears that Bohemia was pretty much apolitical at first. Yet it's certain members of the bohemian subculture participated in the great proleterian insurrection of 1871, the Paris Commune. </span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTubKFHSFxJrowi0juDvw62soOjqKZREfwLy11pt5MVlXkVXxlfhiVy-oMfg-22h1e3sqV7XwlUyjI7mQ4g2waUlH2QKLYxt5gPuNvyYBRpyyipTcamWuv5zJG3eP2gkJBcF7409QE_qdW/s1600-h/UBL1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTubKFHSFxJrowi0juDvw62soOjqKZREfwLy11pt5MVlXkVXxlfhiVy-oMfg-22h1e3sqV7XwlUyjI7mQ4g2waUlH2QKLYxt5gPuNvyYBRpyyipTcamWuv5zJG3eP2gkJBcF7409QE_qdW/s400/UBL1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360312323892528130" border="0" /></a><br />Perhaps that is a bohemian in the red coat, on the right of the above illustration of the Communards marching with Marianne, symbol of the French Revolution. Both literary figures of Parisian bohemia and at least one artist, Gustave Courbet, participated in the Paris Commune.<br /><br />And this wasn't "left wing political" style, as over 20,000 died or were executed, with even more deported the colony of New Caledonia. Observers hostile to the Commune noted that it was "the death of Bohemia".<br /><br />Another time and place where urban bohemia (and when isn't it urban?) intersected with politics, or at least social criticsm, was in Berlin, perhaps during the Wilhelmine era but certainly after 1918 with the coming of the Weimar Republic. This was most clearly seen with Berlin manifestation of the Dada movement. Dada was essentially apolitical in its original form in Zurich, but took a decidely left wing turn in Berlin, with artists such as the painter/illustrator Georg Grosz and collagist John Heartfield creating bitter, politcally charged artworks. It must be said that Grosz himself was no follower of any political line, distrusting ideology and political supermen, as he makes clear in his excellent autobiography: <span style="font-style: italic;">Ein klienes Ja und ein grosses Nein</span> (A small Yes and a big No)<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Political Turn in American Bohemia</span></span><br /><br />The first urban bohemia in the United States was probably Greenwich Village, which became a location for artists and writers in the early 20th century (perhaps earlier?). The development of the Village as an artists enclave parallelled the great "second immigration" to America from eastern and southern Europe and the second wave industrialization.<br /><br />Artists of this era documented and even celebrated this booming urban world, especially artists of the "Ash Can School". One of these was John Sloan, one of the great painters of the American city, as demonstrated by this wonderful painting of a part of New York.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlOfLYlyrOHtaW6TNRYy8IyHinDrStUDUutxfzys4TrlvUvu3oz4sHT_to3PzJ9BSL8Kn_Wr09lUROGpcy4yXPzbZ5S8MWPcxx69OfIWk-cvbPky-aeNKjExREz2ftkfa47TDmErJny0qy/s1600-h/UBL2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlOfLYlyrOHtaW6TNRYy8IyHinDrStUDUutxfzys4TrlvUvu3oz4sHT_to3PzJ9BSL8Kn_Wr09lUROGpcy4yXPzbZ5S8MWPcxx69OfIWk-cvbPky-aeNKjExREz2ftkfa47TDmErJny0qy/s400/UBL2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360310862692657666" border="0" /></a>Greenwich Village was also a center of political and social creativity. An example of this was <span style="font-style: italic;">The Masses</span>, a magazine put out by the Village creative class. In the example below the same John Sloan who did the above painting provided this cover on the miners strike in Ludlow, Colorado (later immortalized in the Woody Guthrie song "The Ludlow Massacre").<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOa1VMWJklP7aoLMejxT-CsEvg-xbp5D8y08hgTSMc8d4PW_Bfre-7LYhRoLbFHLpkJCpXZYuX2iTBsQcNzyQBJaUiWVcMnbMStg_oWsOZzNRj4ZzRokD2Wu8FEUkDlDXae84d7zL36vys/s1600-h/UBL3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOa1VMWJklP7aoLMejxT-CsEvg-xbp5D8y08hgTSMc8d4PW_Bfre-7LYhRoLbFHLpkJCpXZYuX2iTBsQcNzyQBJaUiWVcMnbMStg_oWsOZzNRj4ZzRokD2Wu8FEUkDlDXae84d7zL36vys/s400/UBL3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360310861135604322" border="0" /></a>The Village tradition of politically committed artists, writers, and illustrators lived on into our times. A good example is World War 3 Illustrated, a collection of comix and illustrations put out by people associated with the East Village scene, such as Eric Drooker and Peter Kuper, The East Village was a modern geographical and cultural expansion of the old Greenwich Village of The Masses and Ashcan School.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCYdeQaApvnNjwRiBGwhZ-S2EZ80x7oLnsacJorOMYls7UWjVLBXweBZEnijUFpAhFJ4vi72zd4DeiwvMnk2blJAhazTKjhJfVMLSU0dtufYvJHlGBc9q2-lom6vkuU6_vxjghdn_aL6F/s1600-h/UBL4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCYdeQaApvnNjwRiBGwhZ-S2EZ80x7oLnsacJorOMYls7UWjVLBXweBZEnijUFpAhFJ4vi72zd4DeiwvMnk2blJAhazTKjhJfVMLSU0dtufYvJHlGBc9q2-lom6vkuU6_vxjghdn_aL6F/s400/UBL4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360310849740673938" border="0" /></a>This same East Village scene was the setting for the popular musical <span style="font-style: italic;">Rent</span>.<br /><br />One doesn't usually associate musicals with either bohemia or political content, but <span style="font-style: italic;">Rent</span> is perhaps the exception. The story of Rents relation to 19th century Paris via Puccini is probably known to readers thus need not be detailed here. What is probably not known is that the writer/composer Jonathan Larson was himself quite political, having developed an earlier musical on the right wing ascendence in 1980s America. And Larson pretty much lived the bohemian life of little money and day jobs, concentrating on his art.<br /><br />And of course there is that theme of AIDS running through the musical. In fact one thing that made <span style="font-style: italic;">Rent</span> radical was it's putting of gay and lesbian relationships on equal footing as straight ones.<br /><br />Urban bohemia had long provided cover for sexual innovators and non-standard relationships, so became a tolerant mileau for gays and lebsians. One of the sources of modern gay rights movmenet came out of the Greenwich Village bohemia, the explicitly political Gay Liberation Movement.<br /><br />Art and politics were to cross again with the advent of AIDS and the hostile social and political climate the disease engendered. One response was via the work of artists like Keith Haring, part of the street art scene, and the edgier <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wojnarowicz">David Wojnarowicz</a>, who went beyond art and fought legal battles in the culture war against the right wing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpHJbdSDEx8uOJrwEqugBY7KlbQbEbRZRUvtdRhKGNj9nAbzIYoGerTSp11iI9d4zMXvGG5EyNgJUY5h9CxRUO9wxwdpdwocN0J4dmNtqmcgTM2-lenXyo5S3h6GSX6J_Cr3m4__KPrZep/s1600-h/UBL5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpHJbdSDEx8uOJrwEqugBY7KlbQbEbRZRUvtdRhKGNj9nAbzIYoGerTSp11iI9d4zMXvGG5EyNgJUY5h9CxRUO9wxwdpdwocN0J4dmNtqmcgTM2-lenXyo5S3h6GSX6J_Cr3m4__KPrZep/s400/UBL5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360310842285701602" border="0" /></a>Haring was already well known in art circles for his graffitti-inspired work when he joined the new ACT-UP movement. ACT UP is a good example of the politicl potential of a radicalized creative class. In this case it was not just artists but individuals involved in commercial art, the adverstising industry, who developed a potent visual identity for the movement, which was innovative in agit-prop tactics, civil disobedience, and media manipulation.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWyYNHhNN0uiVQXDgUf6kyZ6ph4SCIohmOkirHWxMydkYfJP1T4CsLBbCT_0NtKcSG6Iv4StO2qX9mq1vVgw2ccBFPmZ_xSy5Fma9XaGXFB53kmGicYbYYmFSkf54DK4_Bfxp2yCx5GpMP/s1600-h/UBL6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWyYNHhNN0uiVQXDgUf6kyZ6ph4SCIohmOkirHWxMydkYfJP1T4CsLBbCT_0NtKcSG6Iv4StO2qX9mq1vVgw2ccBFPmZ_xSy5Fma9XaGXFB53kmGicYbYYmFSkf54DK4_Bfxp2yCx5GpMP/s400/UBL6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360310837242422786" border="0" /></a>This continued on into non-gay alternative politics, probably best known via the anti-globalization demonstrations in Seattle, but also via the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indymedia">Indymedia</a>/<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infoshops">Infoshop</a> movement, which is probably more anarchist than left (if one had to put a label on all this).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXp_qAe6Lad_sKUp_-6ZzHerl0xeionCZUXpoMB7SDfswJcg1mYoVHD40F-zSq7bVHhfG-UcWSxkmbeXVpHWgbdsHyjmztDePKG5Mv0-wNW8pVRrj1aneg4BmaRKG5kimJvkP8Tte7gB-2/s1600-h/UBL7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXp_qAe6Lad_sKUp_-6ZzHerl0xeionCZUXpoMB7SDfswJcg1mYoVHD40F-zSq7bVHhfG-UcWSxkmbeXVpHWgbdsHyjmztDePKG5Mv0-wNW8pVRrj1aneg4BmaRKG5kimJvkP8Tte7gB-2/s400/UBL7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360306931744336178" border="0" /></a>New York has been mentioned a lot. But urban bohemias exist outside of NYC. Particularly on the West Coast, but also here in the Midwest, in Chicago.<br /><br />Chicago had it's own Greenwich Village in Tower Town, the neighborhood directly west of the old Water Tower, around <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/178.html">Bughouse Square</a> (traditionally the Speakers Corner of Chicago), an intersection of the political, literary, and artistic (as can be seen by this <a href="http://www.newberry.org/outspoken/exhibit/objectlist_section2.html">collection</a> on Chicago's free speech tradition. Frequently seen in that collection is the <a href="http://www.newberry.org/collections/FindingAids/dillpickle/DillPickle.html">Dill Pickle Club</a>, which rang the same politico-cultural changes as Greenwich Village.<br /><br />Chicagos politicized bohemian spirit continues one in modern things, like some of the plays of <a href="http://www.theateroobleck.com/">Theatre Oobleck</a>. And some of the newer neighborhoods, which are described as "hipster" but also have a certain political turn, as one can see by these pix of a mural on various freedom fighters, in the traditional colors of anarchy and revolution, red and black.<br /><br />The Mexican revolutionary Zapata<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0MWjX00L_2Zfw7oUHcP39WzRp_G7WNsjEhqMU5alQwZMI71giVqBcS2STZbGv__3wMZYVfWblvWIG7rQWJt9ubHzKCe9FX7NC_tgzagxmWPy4VrRQdUf0-0OOqKHlxMfhkQzwVXJHeqwD/s1600-h/UBL8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0MWjX00L_2Zfw7oUHcP39WzRp_G7WNsjEhqMU5alQwZMI71giVqBcS2STZbGv__3wMZYVfWblvWIG7rQWJt9ubHzKCe9FX7NC_tgzagxmWPy4VrRQdUf0-0OOqKHlxMfhkQzwVXJHeqwD/s400/UBL8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360306929179685538" border="0" /></a>Bob Marley and some woman who I don't recognize.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibY_ksERxnYPrZYKs9Zlhc0rt74tFcJaGXHqmyVz2xCaGmvNB6Vn99dCFjmDK1DoIV3aJtc00Ekis8fEyMga5N1ErxU8STaulggQp8M0-rL3gWNn-N_zWGbmEkryBiVvR_O6GFSY9IFPRV/s1600-h/UBL9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibY_ksERxnYPrZYKs9Zlhc0rt74tFcJaGXHqmyVz2xCaGmvNB6Vn99dCFjmDK1DoIV3aJtc00Ekis8fEyMga5N1ErxU8STaulggQp8M0-rL3gWNn-N_zWGbmEkryBiVvR_O6GFSY9IFPRV/s400/UBL9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360306930168039634" border="0" /></a><br />An odd juxtaposition, Ghandi and Che Guevera. Could they be any more different in style?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxNsbgrk7rSbiJeseae3oW1_cbtsk45A8D2uOG4aOnKIFXObAmjhMWniAKzWH0Zmy-3UZTdfJZCHpI3fMohZbecQ2SfalrWNXCKjOrf0EdRVpzJrCixpJd9kcJJWlB1-HntWqIJSd3roU/s1600-h/UBL10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqxNsbgrk7rSbiJeseae3oW1_cbtsk45A8D2uOG4aOnKIFXObAmjhMWniAKzWH0Zmy-3UZTdfJZCHpI3fMohZbecQ2SfalrWNXCKjOrf0EdRVpzJrCixpJd9kcJJWlB1-HntWqIJSd3roU/s400/UBL10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360306926037110866" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dayton Bohemia and Left Wing Political Style</span></span><br /><br />Yer humble host wouldn't know because, though a longtime lefty in spirit, he's not part of the local bohemia. Since the scene here is more music based one won't see (or hear) much politics because, unlike in Europe, the US alt/indy scene isn't that political. Yes, the left does have the best music, but its usually the <span style="font-style: italic;">British</span> left.<br /><br />Locally, if there is a political turn it's more of a libertarian one, or indifference to politics (which is the usual image of the bohemian, someone who lives for art)<br /><br />About the only local artist that works political content into his work is Drexel Dave Sparks, though he's probably more a libertarian than a lefty (based on his previous incarnations online as Sparkdog, host of the late, lamented Fat City News). An example of DD's political content; bedpan commentary on Bob Taft:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8wYzELcD9AjihP1ZJqGCN-nPrDN1JX1FSEaxLlq7vgd80JGd5XdKWU72qqRgfCj2VLRb_Tv-55IYONEmqOp3luZ3eOQLxSM9ZokYst_tMCoB_11qy6_3mCrPWbaWHJNVQtqTM61FkY-uP/s1600-h/UBL11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8wYzELcD9AjihP1ZJqGCN-nPrDN1JX1FSEaxLlq7vgd80JGd5XdKWU72qqRgfCj2VLRb_Tv-55IYONEmqOp3luZ3eOQLxSM9ZokYst_tMCoB_11qy6_3mCrPWbaWHJNVQtqTM61FkY-uP/s400/UBL11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360306915699080050" border="0" /></a><br />I recall one other local visual artist (whos name escapes me, but I do know he is an Iraq veteran) who's done some interesting things on the Iraq War and related themes. And there is a fellow associated with The Circus who does rap/spoken word with some proto-political content..more about social conditions...which have political implications.<br /><br />And that's about it for Dayton. Which brings up the the fact that this political turn in urban bohemia is probably found only certain large cities. Yet it neglected aspect of the creative class concept, which tends to depoliticize the cultural creative scene, rather than recognize a bohemian tendancy to political radicalism, or, at very least, political critique.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-76598486223396368212009-07-19T08:09:00.003-04:002009-07-19T08:40:51.232-04:00Mock Turtle PressMore signs of life in the dying city.<br /><br />Stopping by Jazzy Java Cafe I happened across a basket of little chapbooks with a donation can. Entitled "Collage" this is a collection of stories. The one bought was "short stories by Dayton authors". So it seems people are still doing zines here.<br /><br />The publisher is "Mock Turtle Press", who maintains both a facebook and myspace page. Here's a <a href="http://www.myspace.com/mockturtlepress">link</a> to the hipper myspace site (and, as is usual, the "Freinds" section provides linkage to local cultural creatives and their freinds and associates).<br /><br />Perhaps what's interesting here is the concept of mixing print & paper (zines) with a presence in the social networking online world. The myspace/facebook sites promotes the zine, but one wonders if a zine could work the other way, promoting a blog or online place.<br /><br />Stuff like this is heartening; small shoots of independent cultural production in a desert of soul sucking cultural conformity and conservativism. It's the small thrills of looking at the little postcards and mini-flyers at, say, Gem City or Jazzy Java or that coffeeshop at Paccia, or at the 5th Street Deli (and the larger band and event posters in the windows); that there are things happening out there, a scene of sorts creating and producing things, usually music but other types of cultural activity, too.<br /><br />In short, a local bohemia or alternative scene. <br /><br />Perhaps Dayton could evolve something like the <a href="http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_underground_scene">Bristol Underground Scene</a>. Or maybe it already has and all is needed is a wikipedia entry?Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-44528106515663061652009-07-19T07:01:00.002-04:002009-07-19T07:48:25.989-04:00The Dayton Daily News Beats the Creative Class DrumDaytonology has done some desultory blogging about Richard Florida's Creative Class concept and the local attempt at doing Creative Class things, the Dayton Create initiative. <br /><br />But not too much because yer humble host isn't part of this class, or category. Not because of cynicsm since Florida is on to something (albeit something difficult to measure). <br /><br />What's good to see is the Dayton Daily News continuing to report on the progress and the positive editorials on the intiatives. Recently there was one on UpDayton, the young adult group, who have been quite active: <a href="http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/opinion/entries/2009/07/19/ediorial_creative_class_is_liv.html">Creative Class Living Is Up to Name</a><br /><br />The article mentions the "summit" sponsored by UpDayton, which came in for quite a bit of critique from the local blogosphere (Daytonology Included):<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;">One group organized a summit last spring where two hundred or so people showed up to mull over what to do first. What could have been a boring, discouraging gripe fest was a mass brainstorming session that wrapped up with participants settling on four big things to tackle.</span></span><br /><br />...oddly enough the DDN itself is the source of the regions' largest ongoing "boring, discouraging gripe fest"; the readers comments to their local news articles, especially ones dealing with urban affairs.<br /><br />I guess this editorial signals that the editors do not share the views of their more vocal readers. <br /><br />The editorial discussed UpDayton's "Don't Dog Dayton" video contest, which is one of three things they are pushing for in their <a href="http://updayton.com/2009-action-plan/grow-downtown/">Grow Downtown</a> intiative. Another is revitalize existing festivals, which are, presumably, not attractive to the 20 and 30 - somethings (one of the local bloggers has <a href="daytonlocal.blogspot.com/2009/07/saving-shrinking-festivals.html://">noted</a> the festivals decline, so a definite issue here).<br /><br />It will be easy for UpDayton and the other DaytonCreate initiatives to get lost in the generalized malaise and negativity, the black hole of bad local karma, so a big pat on the back for the DDN for keeping this (admittedly small) counter-trend in public view via their editorials.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-17847013828581962782009-07-18T12:29:00.006-04:002009-07-18T13:26:26.685-04:00Building Xenia Junction.Xenia developed into one of Ohio’s railroad towns, a species of place that had some importance to railroading due to repair facilities and as a junction point for the railroads that criss-crossed Ohio during this era. <br /><br />On the map this looks quite confusing, so this post will attempt to untangle the knot of railroads via a chronology.<br /><br />The story starts with a pioneer railroad, one of the very first in the state. The Little Miami Railroad reached Xenia in 1845, five or six years before Dayton received it’s first railroad. The early lines didn’t have powerful engines, so grade was a consideration. One can see this in the Little Miami right-of-way; The Little Miami took a valley route into Xenia, departing the Little Miami bottomlands at Spring Valley and following the valley of Gladys Run into town:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL5PcRrMPmmAEwXkaRcoatIgcSfnkup3-uDY0886pO7ifV1TYOzvOT7QI-IgLIYZJYZ1rj3LlE0pdg2JiMcuVpqkJliSpCbwKQquOndy9UVAO44danjt24Ul93_mu8LYIE6xBS1_2TAXbm/s1600-h/Xrr1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL5PcRrMPmmAEwXkaRcoatIgcSfnkup3-uDY0886pO7ifV1TYOzvOT7QI-IgLIYZJYZ1rj3LlE0pdg2JiMcuVpqkJliSpCbwKQquOndy9UVAO44danjt24Ul93_mu8LYIE6xBS1_2TAXbm/s400/Xrr1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359842998400867778" border="0" /></a>The Little Miami Railroad, entered town on the exceptionally wide Detroit Street (on the east side of the street), which was a bit unusual for Ohio (there are at least two examples of this in Kentucky, in Frankfort and Lagrange).<br /><br />Xenia railroad lore says that a promoter donated a building on Detroit Street as a station, with the proviso that trains would stop there for all time. And apparently passenger trains did continue to stop there after the union station was built in the 1850s.<br /><br />Next a few diagrams showing the evolution of the junction.<br />Xenia, starting with the Little Miami.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_6T9CbmAjEF5kDOdi1_hhFMMlrz5KD9IqZr0_s_R7NUudLQ9opr-p_nZ6R53zlTgqRU2n_pauyUO75V9oymftBopnfBbJ0uhKjutF4X2c8lCRnyWwqwr6CdqYS7lytFn0ApX7Kh-HP8nC/s1600-h/Xrr2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_6T9CbmAjEF5kDOdi1_hhFMMlrz5KD9IqZr0_s_R7NUudLQ9opr-p_nZ6R53zlTgqRU2n_pauyUO75V9oymftBopnfBbJ0uhKjutF4X2c8lCRnyWwqwr6CdqYS7lytFn0ApX7Kh-HP8nC/s400/Xrr2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359842999596113426" border="0" /></a>In the mid 1840s Columbus had no railroads, so a daily line of mail stages went into operation between the railhead at Xenia and Columbus and Dayton.<br /><br />The next year the line was extended to Springfield. The original route was to be via Clifton and it’s big mill, but the promoters of Yellow Springs offered money to route the line through that town. The route via a mill might have been because the railroad was initially conceived, in part, to provide an outlet for the merchant millers of the Little Miami valley.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7fZ-xDpW0uLpF9o2CIUAQWOnfHZQf8zbuXhVYx4UEDDmuvdPtVTnFljU6-wjpGXjgVrxQ6mq9h3oaK0jop_rcZw7vQY1KrNBL9IERliYV1Cs6zKhyj57EsDzPSgZkx8-ngRrMMEztGCr/s1600-h/Xrr3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7fZ-xDpW0uLpF9o2CIUAQWOnfHZQf8zbuXhVYx4UEDDmuvdPtVTnFljU6-wjpGXjgVrxQ6mq9h3oaK0jop_rcZw7vQY1KrNBL9IERliYV1Cs6zKhyj57EsDzPSgZkx8-ngRrMMEztGCr/s400/Xrr3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359842989434628882" border="0" /></a><br />At Springfield one took a stage to make the connection with the Mad River Railroad railhead at Bellefontaine. There was also a line of “daylight stages” to connect with Columbus, perhaps via the National Road. The journey from Cincinnati via Xenia, Springfield, stage coach to Bellefontaine, overnight in Bellefontaine, then on to the lake port of Sandusky took around 27 hours in 1847.<br /><br />The next line was the Columbus and Xenia, which presumably replaced the stage to Columbus.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUTVnGeNJAVECDLBrNP0_s-lu9lS79PRDfF_U5yNLq8KKXA6HjaWfk1yBezkLhR2LP2hi4oUoY8x5rhcZ9mpzmD2-y4QS1EEzog4n7xFgOQYBZyVMy3vjL5O3PYV6WhXGvrvaIOxM_IrAb/s1600-h/Xrr4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUTVnGeNJAVECDLBrNP0_s-lu9lS79PRDfF_U5yNLq8KKXA6HjaWfk1yBezkLhR2LP2hi4oUoY8x5rhcZ9mpzmD2-y4QS1EEzog4n7xFgOQYBZyVMy3vjL5O3PYV6WhXGvrvaIOxM_IrAb/s400/Xrr4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359841503670660722" border="0" /></a>This line would eventually connect with the Columbus and Cleveland railroad, and ultimately to the eastern seaboard via the Lake Shore Railroad east from Cleveland, becoming a main line into Cincinnati, relegating the old Little Miami north of Xenia to branch line status. <br /><br />The C & X entered Xenia via the valley of one the forks of Shawnee Creek, joining the Little Miami in the valley just south of the forks of Shawnee. The Xenia junction was starting to form<br /><br />The Columbus and Xenia had originally projected to connect to Dayton. Instead, a railroad was projected east from Dayton. This was the Dayton, Xenia and Belpre.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5OkZipQmKF7XXrZUG_EAGvMdSURTr1Y_yWJGoaoC72JeIFGh7UFrbT1Lt-KMTDWTSuLzVBARd9Yaw3OD26HTpqDYmah1jNp3DrusFTG7hOWR5dznavQHD1H8oH91uZoHFLVQR1u9g5Vi/s1600-h/Xrr5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5OkZipQmKF7XXrZUG_EAGvMdSURTr1Y_yWJGoaoC72JeIFGh7UFrbT1Lt-KMTDWTSuLzVBARd9Yaw3OD26HTpqDYmah1jNp3DrusFTG7hOWR5dznavQHD1H8oH91uZoHFLVQR1u9g5Vi/s400/Xrr5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359841501722292914" border="0" /></a><br />The DX&B was intended as a “resource road”, connecting the Hanging Rock Iron region (and early coal fields) to Dayton manufacturers, and also offering a connection to tidewater via the Baltimore and Ohio branch across the river from Belpre at Parkersburg. <br /><br />This line was never completed. Grading extended as far as Jamestown and then work ceased. <br /><br />In the 1870s there was a second attempt at a “coal road”, a narrow gauge line from Dayton to the vicinity of Wellston and Jackson in Appalachian Ohio. Narrow gauge is usually associated with logging and mining railroads out west, but here it was used as a long distance cross-country line.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEn9B3eDudoIF8ufev_IC53Kfx5iecA6azETzP_XYek0Wf-6DnU74sHLwkx0HitGDZHgMMb37OW5uJurbJ0vrs-bEKU9IzuiNVrigwwbxJVJ1OAcFBATGYCHDnBAzKVa9QeR5dLAr1uUA/s1600-h/Xrr6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBEn9B3eDudoIF8ufev_IC53Kfx5iecA6azETzP_XYek0Wf-6DnU74sHLwkx0HitGDZHgMMb37OW5uJurbJ0vrs-bEKU9IzuiNVrigwwbxJVJ1OAcFBATGYCHDnBAzKVa9QeR5dLAr1uUA/s400/Xrr6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359841495031185186" border="0" /></a><br /><br /> This line was eventually converted to standard gauge and taken over by the Baltimore & Ohio. <br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Xenia Junction in Detail</span></span><br /><br />This vignette shows the old 1850s two story union station. Union because it served more than one railroad at the time. These lines soon went under joint operation and eventually merged. Ultimately they were taken over by the great east-west railroads. In this case the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_yjadNed2DvFWEcVQ5CY91Df8KYYI6hbjbPYsL3uW2Lsv_dhFpI_El7yrhNulYjVEy_6KK0F5i-nMeOx4mxZi9u5eghFNz_TAASIIuhnVXQENUJYdu9P4JW5QBJaz77-mY34sVOorxh5m/s1600-h/Xrr7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_yjadNed2DvFWEcVQ5CY91Df8KYYI6hbjbPYsL3uW2Lsv_dhFpI_El7yrhNulYjVEy_6KK0F5i-nMeOx4mxZi9u5eghFNz_TAASIIuhnVXQENUJYdu9P4JW5QBJaz77-mY34sVOorxh5m/s400/Xrr7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359841494131081938" border="0" /></a><br /> The junction in the 1870s. One can see the station, a roundhouse, a freight house, and some sidings.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsse8F2gnrmDArYNcqBJUGN8cp1Vg1MHPTNNk9UqN3dCHwSo2q-V4eWiDJJ6I-UVVC58jObLE55c3JSrX7Zv8_5qV1mLxoEYoxyFcZ-dVx_lXPuKDBdcm34eo3tMIRhriUjG-b_9qVXQrJ/s1600-h/Xrr8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsse8F2gnrmDArYNcqBJUGN8cp1Vg1MHPTNNk9UqN3dCHwSo2q-V4eWiDJJ6I-UVVC58jObLE55c3JSrX7Zv8_5qV1mLxoEYoxyFcZ-dVx_lXPuKDBdcm34eo3tMIRhriUjG-b_9qVXQrJ/s400/Xrr8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359841486246382322" border="0" /></a>By the 1890s one sees the Baltimore & Ohio branch swinging into the junction area, with its’ own depot. This is probably a fairly accurate track configuration for that era.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDFpeaDLCppThUwzfGMV5Mt9pua1IMKLQjiIjD0mg1TEI7tnXz2qsiwpYW9XuIoJmuaGvr8CfSiuUwkb1K1G1BPeikeSJPJqVEr89jHcZ00M4DH82VnlBB_kE9C2SNYMg6ulH7P4lgCzC/s1600-h/Xrr9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDFpeaDLCppThUwzfGMV5Mt9pua1IMKLQjiIjD0mg1TEI7tnXz2qsiwpYW9XuIoJmuaGvr8CfSiuUwkb1K1G1BPeikeSJPJqVEr89jHcZ00M4DH82VnlBB_kE9C2SNYMg6ulH7P4lgCzC/s400/Xrr9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359839538119319170" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Xenia Junction in the 1930s, from the air. This was the peak of railroading in Xenia, with various shop and support facilities, a small yard, and some sidings. One can see that structures from the 1850s, 70s, and 90s survived into the 1930s. The Greene County historical society has a collection of artifacts, photos, and a scale model of the junction, worth a visit for railfans and history buffs.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnviniP8fN2aVSLkm64u2WwXWzw0gpdvAQuyFqnlr7fDVVWRi-Mkn7mns-kQO_FfviWipagbxuN6AjvLuTVQYEtkge3iHviilG3ezNd4RXIu0o2FGHbHZkYzYOx5Mx20wXNxeRuNbcj8p/s1600-h/Xrr10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgnviniP8fN2aVSLkm64u2WwXWzw0gpdvAQuyFqnlr7fDVVWRi-Mkn7mns-kQO_FfviWipagbxuN6AjvLuTVQYEtkge3iHviilG3ezNd4RXIu0o2FGHbHZkYzYOx5Mx20wXNxeRuNbcj8p/s400/Xrr10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359839539191724210" border="0" /></a><br />The same site today. All the railroads are gone and the junction is now a cycling center, with <a href="http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/station.htm">Xenia Station</a> as a visitors center for bike trails radiating from Xenia on the old railroad right-of-ways.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip1-ZHVdtcN237wbr-kn2EozAtT64FsAWGcynOnt_kw9LfE07VbqubTcqBTZIe8uYDLbvr33ELOp-Trhcy8qEFeoenOXjnFq5jTjX4GizNJEwnWYbexeaBExK3eKDrLPOK2JdC-yu9n91m/s1600-h/Xrr11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip1-ZHVdtcN237wbr-kn2EozAtT64FsAWGcynOnt_kw9LfE07VbqubTcqBTZIe8uYDLbvr33ELOp-Trhcy8qEFeoenOXjnFq5jTjX4GizNJEwnWYbexeaBExK3eKDrLPOK2JdC-yu9n91m/s400/Xrr11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359839532070162674" border="0" /></a><br />Another view of the junction. The building is a reconstructed baggage station and railway express office, and has a small exhibit on railroading in Xenia.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFD70alHhkm0lUqDcSd9WhFLpM4bmzuu9JG1Po_wGCneibKo_CL-tQnudOwZ48tjut3SaDhmSnoR-nLJGH0R2cu4CoGmbbBUDHtO3-3RfIxjZG7_xjIo7wIID9oZzF952AX5lNNZFYwgG/s1600-h/Xrr12.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFD70alHhkm0lUqDcSd9WhFLpM4bmzuu9JG1Po_wGCneibKo_CL-tQnudOwZ48tjut3SaDhmSnoR-nLJGH0R2cu4CoGmbbBUDHtO3-3RfIxjZG7_xjIo7wIID9oZzF952AX5lNNZFYwgG/s400/Xrr12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359839529480937778" border="0" /></a><br /><br />And in this aerial one can see how the bike path follows the old Little Miami grade out of the valley to Detroit Street. Some surviving buildings are keyed from old maps to the aerial, showing how some of old Xenia survived into our time (although it should be noted that the station is a reconstruction).<br /><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span></span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTv0NG8X9facEEC7GH54Y53KjkM31iFSXj165E7LVJwJq6xPOSYL0d-RiBQdFW6yt7m0pDEcI2yS7tGNQroDyzQEsyEsqdeNp35M9Y-_eyNdIoaBf3UM9p4IZ7vhOO73u3hyUHrdWsDhiA/s1600-h/Xrr13.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTv0NG8X9facEEC7GH54Y53KjkM31iFSXj165E7LVJwJq6xPOSYL0d-RiBQdFW6yt7m0pDEcI2yS7tGNQroDyzQEsyEsqdeNp35M9Y-_eyNdIoaBf3UM9p4IZ7vhOO73u3hyUHrdWsDhiA/s400/Xrr13.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359839521903180786" border="0" /></a><br />It might be worthwhile taking a closer look at the Sanborn maps to how much of industrial Xenia has survived. Though it had good rail connections Xenia didn’t develop into an industrial center the way nearby Springfield did. And <span style="font-style: italic;">why</span> that was is a good question for econmic history.<br /><br />Another future post would be to investigate the development of the railroad system in south & west Ohio, since there might be an interesting economic geography story to be told. This would look at the rise of Cincinnati & Dayton as a railroad centers as part of the development of a regional network. Maybe more the subjec of a book or journal article than a blog post, though.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-4979361324265582532009-07-16T21:29:00.003-04:002009-07-16T22:03:56.655-04:00I-75 Interchange Boom: Springboro/FranklinA first look at two developing interchanges on I-75, building blocks of Daytonnati. These are exits 36 and 38, for State Route 73 and 123, radiating out from Franklin to Springboro and Red Lion. <br /><br />These exits are developing into substantial business centers, certainly in area or land consumed, if not in actual employment.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbevmiuI2YlJiy1KX4Fm2QWU05zjoYlpGRmpM8H32vYHNKSFcN5lkltFEsyRcG6-i5-71GSr2dXgpV__fliRIfVfoJDaNFBt-pAp87wl6FWiTtA_S8D11phP6yPPY-BVYz-3-AQX8jxyy2/s1600-h/I75SF1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbevmiuI2YlJiy1KX4Fm2QWU05zjoYlpGRmpM8H32vYHNKSFcN5lkltFEsyRcG6-i5-71GSr2dXgpV__fliRIfVfoJDaNFBt-pAp87wl6FWiTtA_S8D11phP6yPPY-BVYz-3-AQX8jxyy2/s400/I75SF1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359237777248694402" border="0" /></a>An areil showing development patterns in the vicinity of the interstate. As one can see there is still plenty of open space here.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcKG2LKUhWUiPqpGSUROdvF5400pqSxdATragd08lXohW0Bc2CJTf-xc6sIFvpmzatgP7I3IjmBBtYbANtYDiez21-zvVxv6p1N3M0c1AyytLXXI8hCnMIzdi26GTLUngjePat4t97VFV8/s1600-h/I75SF2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcKG2LKUhWUiPqpGSUROdvF5400pqSxdATragd08lXohW0Bc2CJTf-xc6sIFvpmzatgP7I3IjmBBtYbANtYDiez21-zvVxv6p1N3M0c1AyytLXXI8hCnMIzdi26GTLUngjePat4t97VFV8/s400/I75SF2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359237774730829554" border="0" /></a>But shading the business district, which is mostly industrial or warehouse, not so much retail, the extend of the development becomes quite clear. There is also business activity in "Old Franklin", including at least two legacy industrial facilities from the 19th century, still in operation (Franklin developed as a small industrial center, as did many of the towns on the Great Miami river).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh16lHEOI301EY90zMzeNqHlGI1EDF5HAm1iLGbJ7dF4Kk_TvbXtMcuvHESiQSQbnbhyMJ26Fi0E4bSFZnoX8dEd6lOeC1SbOMkAIFXDTqQZeMzoRtyi0ANsbYp-O_Eta6RgvrKw9DUkNuH/s1600-h/I75SF3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh16lHEOI301EY90zMzeNqHlGI1EDF5HAm1iLGbJ7dF4Kk_TvbXtMcuvHESiQSQbnbhyMJ26Fi0E4bSFZnoX8dEd6lOeC1SbOMkAIFXDTqQZeMzoRtyi0ANsbYp-O_Eta6RgvrKw9DUkNuH/s400/I75SF3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359236902148863890" border="0" /></a>A close-up of exit 36. This is the "truck stop exit" but behind the big rigs there is a substantial industrial and large-floorplate business presence. This interchange was already under industrial/office development in 1983, so it's taking decades for build-out. It all belongs to Franklin, which apparently has an agressive annexation policy.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXTNjygPQa4gNsd2H5eS1VWC_qY37Z1bIi97TUq68g6lLPMVGayZY9j2L2KX2bQ1xPyU5t9XKEcE6kRT0t5BpMyAeNpMAC7M3yhNWPu7VQWZTB3ydL3LMiJG9lBj5EcaRfk7bqCg9T5hdR/s1600-h/I75SF4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXTNjygPQa4gNsd2H5eS1VWC_qY37Z1bIi97TUq68g6lLPMVGayZY9j2L2KX2bQ1xPyU5t9XKEcE6kRT0t5BpMyAeNpMAC7M3yhNWPu7VQWZTB3ydL3LMiJG9lBj5EcaRfk7bqCg9T5hdR/s400/I75SF4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359236899132412226" border="0" /></a>Exit 38 is probably the best known to Daytonians for the Dayton Daily News' new printing plant, but also Buddies Carpet Barn and La Comedia Dinner Theatre. Springboro has annexed the east side (right) of I-75, and Franklin the left, or west side.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxLycZJOjZ1tXZSPspRnVNDvZmMs22WLwnxLNljmkydXhWCRC_QuKTWoq34DNyUFTWbG3r-vdgyyvgV8O2GKOEos7HRSdk9kptJl1z3zFjHW3UrZVVUcc09hGpK7J7SORh_C0ZDi-XBE0/s1600-h/I75SF5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxLycZJOjZ1tXZSPspRnVNDvZmMs22WLwnxLNljmkydXhWCRC_QuKTWoq34DNyUFTWbG3r-vdgyyvgV8O2GKOEos7HRSdk9kptJl1z3zFjHW3UrZVVUcc09hGpK7J7SORh_C0ZDi-XBE0/s400/I75SF5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359236869878113426" border="0" /></a>As one can see development is extending deeper into the surrounding countryside from the strip development along SR 73. The desirable, high-visibility frontage alont I-75 is sucking development to the north and south along the interstate. An example is the green space across the highway from the Dayton Daily News, which is going under development.<br /><br />This was a brief glimpse, but Daytonology will go into a bit more detail later.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Quick Look at Employment and Business Growth</span></span><br /><br />From County Business Patterns, some numbers. CBP does provide some gross data on types and numbers of business establishments by zip code for the late 1990s and early to mid 2000s. An imperfect measure of interchange-specific growth but a good barometer on how this corner of Warren County is booming. Employment was topping 15,000 jobs and business establishments increasing to over 1,050 by the mid 2000s, before the recession. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDdFuj8HbGII_CyaIcRJGmy9qzM62NSCHJqcc4TY7D9CFdgNPSwvFvB0P_rAv3h8OoVHLcH83-MQJVxTI28BpSggsdr-vUgDgTPlkCsnL8IWVFN6HRpNAuRFVvfjxjKr87rX6OQLmU_CYa/s1600-h/I75SF8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDdFuj8HbGII_CyaIcRJGmy9qzM62NSCHJqcc4TY7D9CFdgNPSwvFvB0P_rAv3h8OoVHLcH83-MQJVxTI28BpSggsdr-vUgDgTPlkCsnL8IWVFN6HRpNAuRFVvfjxjKr87rX6OQLmU_CYa/s400/I75SF8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359236860062682578" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrglJsq6ffNDpLz-zkT6bxgtHSSLbMqcw8zqGP5YSYB9EW9BEqh1g2ubHD_WCl9wcZKkFuZC5lCnCG6uwjt1cOHONMpD4rgeK9QYgTbmlhAVyIEX9nzGvw9WnuVFvht5LU874pkP-j7ok6/s1600-h/I75S9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrglJsq6ffNDpLz-zkT6bxgtHSSLbMqcw8zqGP5YSYB9EW9BEqh1g2ubHD_WCl9wcZKkFuZC5lCnCG6uwjt1cOHONMpD4rgeK9QYgTbmlhAVyIEX9nzGvw9WnuVFvht5LU874pkP-j7ok6/s400/I75S9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359236854551097298" border="0" /></a><br />Later, a closer look at the interchange development.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-33490047541883557522009-07-16T20:55:00.003-04:002009-07-16T21:27:39.699-04:00Xenia: Antebellum ExpansionsAs we've seen in the previous post, Xenia was platted as an 24 square block rectangle, with two exceptionally broad cross-streets, one laid out across an old pioneer road or trail, the Bullskin Road. The platters extended outlots east to, it seems, the line of the original Virginia survey, and south to a fork of Shawnee Creek.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbivRh8I6dYrfA0-RBTwWaIRz_FfEAAc5bnLv9IRZyUYRhU5Nsy_8Rt35HUCcCTQVp-Y2TaxybADbpIZvrjXuzSKSESeY6Fx5FNe0MOx7Oqa33l88AWpDxXKEIpNqadoisSQXyEI1x-PIx/s1600-h/Xplat1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbivRh8I6dYrfA0-RBTwWaIRz_FfEAAc5bnLv9IRZyUYRhU5Nsy_8Rt35HUCcCTQVp-Y2TaxybADbpIZvrjXuzSKSESeY6Fx5FNe0MOx7Oqa33l88AWpDxXKEIpNqadoisSQXyEI1x-PIx/s400/Xplat1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359228802276202258" border="0" /></a><br />Logically one would expect the town to extend east along the outlots, and south to Shawnee Creek (as a possible mill site). This did happen to some extent, and its notable the platting of town lots into outlots didn't cross the valley and watercourse that made a diagonal traverse of the outlots.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvYhjqW-gIBVhALGy0z33zN0OQ4gHqxrlRy9jGRYetuVIKetggsd_lbWfEyituolZw6JdWNTMVeyRbN9lNF0FiYCLMpnAwJX4dcU7fgK0TCH_lRIWOaeRUIKA1zZcacwIB76RkxObR9Eb/s1600-h/Xplat2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvYhjqW-gIBVhALGy0z33zN0OQ4gHqxrlRy9jGRYetuVIKetggsd_lbWfEyituolZw6JdWNTMVeyRbN9lNF0FiYCLMpnAwJX4dcU7fgK0TCH_lRIWOaeRUIKA1zZcacwIB76RkxObR9Eb/s400/Xplat2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359228803280997602" border="0" /></a>What's more noticeable, however, is the platting activity along Shawnee Creek. We don't have maps showing the orginal surveys in this area, or a chronology, but these streets appear in an 1855 map of Xenia, part of Greene County Atlas.<br /><br />The 1840s and 1850s was the era of railroad construction, and Xenia played early in this. The lines entering Xenia around 1855 are shown here, and one can see how the platting is around the railroads and their junction, which happened to be along Shawnee Creek. One can speculate that the platting action was driven by anticipation of growth due to developing railroad junction. Growth that never came to the extent expected.<br /><br />The platting form was probably determined by the various roads and turnpikes radiating from Xenia, since there wasn't a survey grid to work off of.<br /><br />In this Xenia resembled Kentucky towns, where road alignmnets were not governed by survey grids, but ran cross country, radiating from county seat towns. Lexington is a good example of this, with the town grid determined by topography and water courses, but with a very pronounced radial pattern for the turnpikes extending from the grid into the surrounding countryside.<br /><br />A bit more on railroading in Xenia in a future post.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-32639211743640344962009-07-15T17:14:00.002-04:002009-07-15T17:55:15.857-04:00More on The Urban Policy RoundtableThere isn't much in the news on this. So far the Washington Post has provided the best coverage.<br /><br />You can read their report on the confab here: Obama Paints a New Vision for Nation's Urban Policy. (and it should be noted we havn't actually had one since the LBJ/Nixon years)<br /><br />The article quotes Obama at length, so here are some excerpts from the POTUS' s remarks.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;">....he said that he defined "urban" as not just inner cities, but also their surrounding suburbs, asserting that there is no longer a divide between the two.</span></span> <p style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">"Even as we've seen many of our central cities continuing to grow in recent years, we've seen their suburbs and exurbs grow roughly twice as fast," said Obama.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> "It's not just our cities that are hotbeds of innovation anymore, it's our growing metropolitan areas."</span></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">He said he would send members of his Cabinet and the Office of Urban Affairs to look at innovations in cities around the country to elevate as best practices.</span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Obama noted Denver, for its plans to build a public transit system to handle the city's anticipated growth; Philadelphia, for its urban agriculture; and Kansas City, which has weatherized homes and built a ecologically minded transit system in one low-income neighborhood.</span></p> The foot stomper is in bold. Obama is calling for a <span style="font-style: italic;">metropolitan</span> vision, trying to get beyond the parochial and limited view of "urban" = "inner city/black". And in this he is borrowing on some thinking coming from Brookings; their <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/metro/About-Us.aspx">Metropolitan Policy Program</a> is probably one of the best urban policy think tanks. <br /><br />Obama is proposing some interesting things regarding inner city neighborhoods, mentioned in the previous post, but it seems this advocacy of a metropolitan model for urban policy is quite new.<br /><br />The Washington Post followed up with an editorial today on the topic: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071402998.html">Rethhinking the Cities.</a><br />The WaPo chides Obama a bit in that the stimulus money isn't necessarily metro-focused, as well as other policy glitches (like the abandonment of the Vechiles Miles Driven tax and urban areas getting less stimulus money). Yet the thrust is correct: the time has come for the Feds to catch up with almost 20 years worth of new thinking and policy innovation on urbanism, much of it happening at the state and local level (unfortunatly none of it from the laggard Dayton area):<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family: times new roman;">The 1990s brought a resurgence of cities and ushered in a new way of looking at them as part of sprawling metropolitan areas with interdependent localities. Today, according to the Obama administration, these areas are home to more than 80 percent of the nation's jobs and residents and 90 percent of the nation's economic production. <br /><br />Urban policy already is being redefined by many states and localities around the country. </span><br /></span><br />That's one reason this blog has changed focus to the Dayton region, recognizing this is a interdependent regional economy even if there is still that cultural parochialism. Or, to put a postivie spin in on it, a rich variety of communities and places that comprise the region, yet function together as one economic unit; one media, employment, and retail market.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-50283274642004550092009-07-13T22:29:00.003-04:002009-07-13T22:59:39.921-04:00The Return of Urban Policy?Just off the AP Wire: <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hP3xP6coPF3BClQMa9qr5kK9ktQwD99DRJN82">White House starts urban policy outreach</a>.<br /><p style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;">WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Monday that federal policy has encouraged urban sprawl, has hurt city residents and damaged the environment.</p><p style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;">Pledging a top-to-bottom review of how the United States deals with cities and metropolitan areas, Obama invited political leaders and policy experts to the White House to solicit their ideas for a national urban policy. Citing the connection between education and employment figures, transportation and pollution, White House officials said their next budget proposal would address how to remedy long-festering policy questions about the pace of urban growth.</p><p>More at the link.</p>It's been noted that Obama was the first Presidential candidate in some time to actually mention urban policy as an agenda item. In fact he has appointed an urban policy czar, the former Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion. <br /><br />However, inside-the-Beltway observers like Politico have questioned whether <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24503.html">urban policy is on the back burner</a>, and if Carrion is the man for that job:<br /><p style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"> Urban policy watchers said that some sort of broad policy mandate is necessary, and soon, so that the office doesn’t lose credibility and momentum. A report released last month by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy called "No Economic Recovery Without Cities: The Urgency of a New Federal Urban Policy" said that the White House must act soon to empower the office to have a more active role in making sure stimulus money is spent wisely in the cities.</span> </p><p> Perhaps Obama's remarks today is a response to critques like this, and a signal that he is still serious about urban affairs, or at least in trying to move the discussion forward. <br /></p>And apparently approaches floated during the campaing are still on the table, based on the WaPo's excellent <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/12/AR2009071200948.html">summary of the conference agenda</a>. Note the discussion of Choice Neighborhoods (HUD) and Promise Neighborhoods (Department of Education), both of which sound a lot like the old Model Cities concept of a holistic approach to urban problems. These proposals first made their appearance in Obama's campaign websites. Incidentally, Choice Neigborhoods will be replacing the HOPE programs of the Clinton era:<br /><br /><p style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;"> Those gathered Monday will consider local initiatives that could become best practices to emulate, with the goals of increasing the competitiveness, sustainable development and opportunity of metropolitan regions. </p> <p style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman;">The conference is to present an interdisciplinary approach to urban issues and include the heads of the Departments of Labor, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Small Business Administration. </p><p style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Carrión said discussion will include initiatives like Choice Neighborhoods, a new HUD program that provides poor neighborhoods not only with housing, but also social and economic benefits, like day care and farmers' markets; and Promise Neighborhoods, a Department of Education program modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone, to improve academic achievement and life skills by offering after school and weekend sports, social and arts activities.</span> </p>This could be a return to a New Frontier/Great Society era of urban policy innovation.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-91580594880007345202009-07-13T20:52:00.005-04:002009-07-13T21:45:26.865-04:00I-75 Linear City: The Middletown InterchangeThe Cincinnati Buisness-Courier printed a lengthy article on the developments along I-75, recognizing a linear city is developing between Cincinnati and Dayton. The article was entitled <a href="http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/07/13/story15.html">I-75 Ceasless Makeover to Include New Interchanges</a>.<br /><br />The subtitle was even more signifigant: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Line between Cincinnati & Dayton Blurs.</span><br /><br />Since the POV was Cincy-centric they listed developments by exit number northbound on I-75.<br />The article is posted at <a href="http://www.daytonmostmetro.com/forum/index.php?topic=1251.0">Dayton Most Metro</a> and Urban Ohio. The geographically imparied can read it while using the map below as a key.<br /><br />As this spine develops people in south suburban Dayton will be more and more oriented south as the I-75 corridor develops into the new job and housing center for the region.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrMGuX0iKpAY6cEeD0kYHs6jnCSM5Ekycymh0WNYQompOja6sg3xUp-JnhKiYyTt2nihQWkiYzRTbx8Lhqy5CXRUW2DUB1Wix7YqI847FMzBMSjd-we2mriQL0jX0TbjdCrvLBieLKiVt/s1600-h/LinCit1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZrMGuX0iKpAY6cEeD0kYHs6jnCSM5Ekycymh0WNYQompOja6sg3xUp-JnhKiYyTt2nihQWkiYzRTbx8Lhqy5CXRUW2DUB1Wix7YqI847FMzBMSjd-we2mriQL0jX0TbjdCrvLBieLKiVt/s400/LinCit1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358114674592220482" border="0" /></a>Though the article says the line is blurring, it's safe to say exits 19 through 24 (which is being rebuilt to include an additional interchange with Liberty Road) are within the orbit of Cincinnati, and exit 29 is a special purpose exit with unusual retail like the Hustler Superstore, the two "flea markets", Solid Rock Church with the Touchdown Jesus, the prison, and the new outlet mall.<br /><br />Beyond that things get more interesting....at least when it comes to blurring lines of influence.<br /><br />This is the area where Dayton's influence might be felt more, but also the old industrial city of Middletown. In fact the development at the Middletown interchange, Exit 32, is probably the direct competitor with Austin Road (apparently Middletown is also proposing another intechange, too, at Manchester Road).<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The New Middletown: The Renaissance District</span></span><br /><br />This Middletown development, east of I-75, is called the Renassiance District. And, unlike development outside of Dayton, its all within the city limits of Middletown, representing economic growth for a city who's core is nearly as dead as Dayton.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4dzfNWB6wSksde4WFbNwwPd5CxoPYNBN7fhHy9NPohXfOg_rbclcLdPAGpuxIOKxyRp-F1TEbFIGcGcXcS-ijV_oC2lNNaV0-ThjPj-vNARnsuTGkH4IxFPCkFgVA3gXLP48ZDYjDTu7/s1600-h/LinCit1a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4dzfNWB6wSksde4WFbNwwPd5CxoPYNBN7fhHy9NPohXfOg_rbclcLdPAGpuxIOKxyRp-F1TEbFIGcGcXcS-ijV_oC2lNNaV0-ThjPj-vNARnsuTGkH4IxFPCkFgVA3gXLP48ZDYjDTu7/s400/LinCit1a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358114665797781250" border="0" /></a><br />The Renaissance District is developed around a brand new hospital, replacing an old hospital deeper into Middletown. The basic land use concept:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjory72E_z183hG3cLFsstzELoq7LzLpPYqap-acZO5Eb7KDUzx2k2VWsTo9hBJXhlJ834EjD4ghozzriAQv09T0ENjzxW_o0JtsxZAjUxw7VbK2TdXau69dzxWguNagmM_ktty5nUrfWS-/s1600-h/LinCit2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjory72E_z183hG3cLFsstzELoq7LzLpPYqap-acZO5Eb7KDUzx2k2VWsTo9hBJXhlJ834EjD4ghozzriAQv09T0ENjzxW_o0JtsxZAjUxw7VbK2TdXau69dzxWguNagmM_ktty5nUrfWS-/s400/LinCit2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358113798091215330" border="0" /></a>...and the master plan is shown below. A notable feature is the greenway following the forested banks of a little creek, and the greenways running east/west south of OH 122. In the map, orange is offices, red is mixed use (retail & office) and dark brown is multifamily. So the concept follows old-school zoning, but does try to mix things up more.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRiJYOTnNH9B-PNrwHUot2ESu_J1F_jR-Cqvl0DzPPBU2TpEJD9QxET0t_xX5HWsXxQYqu7_wjYcec7K5eCEWnmN8J935UG1b23grmI8kAnqKEakYgFiJ_IWYqLitG-9CO5uqNBSD09bx/s1600-h/LinCit3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRiJYOTnNH9B-PNrwHUot2ESu_J1F_jR-Cqvl0DzPPBU2TpEJD9QxET0t_xX5HWsXxQYqu7_wjYcec7K5eCEWnmN8J935UG1b23grmI8kAnqKEakYgFiJ_IWYqLitG-9CO5uqNBSD09bx/s400/LinCit3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358113793672022690" border="0" /></a><br />Theoretically some of this could be either walkable or bikeable, depending on how it sis developed.<br /><br />Middletown selected Al Neyer, a Cincinnati developer, as their lead developer for the site. The aerials here are from Neyers online prospectus.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Looking West: </span>The first mover was Paychex, who consolidated their Cincinnati and Dayton operations into one cener at this site. A good example of the business case for a consolidating into a central location serving two population centers. SR 122 is in the process of being widened and realigned, and I-75 is being widened to eight lanes. In the distance is the "new" downtown Middletown: the retail/hotel/food-drink zone around Town Mall.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_gv0AS1L1mvLU0SIwL_Pjx6qGmW6RjdEMRhPuMAz3WelqNG3jvmcFasM8_Ga0I9gcY2kqUGAU5Kia06_513DXD6G7-uACEyqk0EnX7f1iydBe2lV_mXVWYAhkQtoFLR7t-k91AbwjTtb/s1600-h/LinCit4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_gv0AS1L1mvLU0SIwL_Pjx6qGmW6RjdEMRhPuMAz3WelqNG3jvmcFasM8_Ga0I9gcY2kqUGAU5Kia06_513DXD6G7-uACEyqk0EnX7f1iydBe2lV_mXVWYAhkQtoFLR7t-k91AbwjTtb/s400/LinCit4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358123138057578754" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Looking North:</span> The new hospital is visible here, and is quite visible from the freeway at this time, too. One can see the belt of woods proposed as a greenway, and some new office buildings, possibly related to or supporting the hospital.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimBZHy_pTpj6aMXddKXdrCnwjA7En0WdoqSQw3iQuUyiLKMIw5w0imajKSB4hGDt8sYsIEIDbvBpIZJWuoqyX7ZB4i_aSSN7sMlEtIjirIwA62uUJWOB8Zj8JG3zk_hqHYttqwRi4A5K8e/s1600-h/LinCit5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimBZHy_pTpj6aMXddKXdrCnwjA7En0WdoqSQw3iQuUyiLKMIw5w0imajKSB4hGDt8sYsIEIDbvBpIZJWuoqyX7ZB4i_aSSN7sMlEtIjirIwA62uUJWOB8Zj8JG3zk_hqHYttqwRi4A5K8e/s400/LinCit5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358113784933764770" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Looking South: </span> One can see the possibilities here, with lots of open space between Union Road and the interstate. Ideally the property closer to the interstate would be developed first as it's more visible, where buildings can act as billboards of sorts.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn47YDl-W4GB4qxOVBk6JfYAhrlmXXE0T49wq6Hqa1-KwyGW1QujGvEZQHjpes7TovO_0qx5OjGXSsm4G_8q61pAj8Ubi2XzbE6JqPzpp0EON7-6UwGBqnaoK4tgwdA5FGuGF7JS6xCUWz/s1600-h/LinCit6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn47YDl-W4GB4qxOVBk6JfYAhrlmXXE0T49wq6Hqa1-KwyGW1QujGvEZQHjpes7TovO_0qx5OjGXSsm4G_8q61pAj8Ubi2XzbE6JqPzpp0EON7-6UwGBqnaoK4tgwdA5FGuGF7JS6xCUWz/s400/LinCit6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358113781873849682" border="0" /></a>The Town Mall retail/hospitality zone is visible to the right (west) of I-75. Town Mall itself is empty, and this retail district has morphed into a de-facto power center, with a veneer of hotels and food/drink places and maybe some strip centers.<br /><br />If the site planning is kept to the relatively high standard shown in the master plan map this could be one of the most attractive interchange developments in the region. There is a real posssibility here for some innovate use of open space to connect office and retail into future residential areas to the east of the siteJeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-32774722674100892202009-07-13T16:30:00.006-04:002009-07-13T17:59:22.132-04:00Platting Xenia<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_e7P42D12kYaW1RH2YXbdT7fs06ifWtwtuAzhe84E-zijz6agkCUwhYDoEq__tdFcSUy5uRrKrIZWHhaupIDFnD-5evtpCyn9kVodVrAq6uBWYpLuUwcTpgBMeJvGKnR4GV5r5n6aCJP/s1600-h/X1.jpg"></a>Xenia, the county seat that is also a suburb. Perhaps not as engulfed by sprawl as Chicagoland’s Wheaton (Dupage County) or Atlanta’s Decataur (DeKalb County), Xenia would not be as large as it is today if not for the proximity of Dayton.<br /><br />Yet the place has it’s own history and industrial traditions. And, along with Troy, one of the more imposing courthouses in Southwest Ohio.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_e7P42D12kYaW1RH2YXbdT7fs06ifWtwtuAzhe84E-zijz6agkCUwhYDoEq__tdFcSUy5uRrKrIZWHhaupIDFnD-5evtpCyn9kVodVrAq6uBWYpLuUwcTpgBMeJvGKnR4GV5r5n6aCJP/s1600-h/X1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK_e7P42D12kYaW1RH2YXbdT7fs06ifWtwtuAzhe84E-zijz6agkCUwhYDoEq__tdFcSUy5uRrKrIZWHhaupIDFnD-5evtpCyn9kVodVrAq6uBWYpLuUwcTpgBMeJvGKnR4GV5r5n6aCJP/s400/X1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358046509805066370" border="0" /></a>The history of the founding of Xenia is a good case study of land ownership and subdivision in the Virginia Military District. But first the tale of the town’s founding.<br /><br />The 1881 History of Greene County, by R.S Dills, has an oral account of how Xenia was selected as county seat. The tale starts by introducing a Mr Lewis Davis, who met the early pioneer John Paul, who had settled in 1797 on Beaver Creek near the Little Miami, near the site of the later Trebein community:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >Upon one of his previous trips ….(Davis) chanced to meet Paul, who told him that on his tract of land he purposed laying out the county seat, backing up his assertion by illustrating the feasibility, advantages of location, etc. Davis, who was a large land owner and veteran pioneer; and seemingly. possessed of an intuitive knowledge as to the direction of greatest development in a country, disagreed with Paul's opinions, and informed him that there never would be a county seat there. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >Taking his map from his pocket, and spreading it upon the ground, he proceeded to demonstrate the grounds of his dissenting. Premising by the remark that county seats naturally located themselves upon thoroughfares between points on the Ohio on the south, and Lake Erie on the north, the southern point manifestly Cincinnati, and Sandusky the northern. Then placing the butt end of his riding-whip on Cincinnati, he dropped the small end on Sandusky, which, upon examination, cut the county at the forks of Shawanoes (Shawnee) Creek. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >Placing his finger upon the spot now occupied by Xenia, he said, 'There will be the county seat..' He then pushed on ….</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >After remaining a week or so, he returned to Cincinnati ; but upon approaching the cabin of his friend Paul, he found it vacant and locked. A few days subsequent he learned that Paul had, immediately after the conversation above mentioned, gone to Cincinnati and entered all the land in the vicinity, and upon which is located now the city of Xenia. Thus it would seem, from the conjunction of facts and prediction, that Xenia was located in the above manner."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >In the selection of a county seat, the preference seemed at first in the direction of Caesarsville; but upon due deliberation the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >present site of Xenia was determined upon, and on the 4th day of August, 1803, Joseph. C. Vance was, by the court., then sitting at the house of Peter Borders, appointed to survey the seat of justice. Giving bond in the sum of fifteen hundred dollars for the the faithful performance of his duties, with Joseph Wilson and David Huston as sureties, he proceeded to lay out and survey, in the autumn of the same year, the present. city of Xenia. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >The surrounding country then was a wilderness, in which the native denizens of the forest held high carnival. John Paul had previously bought this tract, and donated for public buildings, it is said, that portion bounded by Main, Market, Detroit, and Greene streets.</span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Forks of Shawnee Creek</span></span><br /><br />The following contour map shows the lay of the land at the forks of Shawnee Creek. On can see the land rise to the east, and the creek and it’s forks curve around a bench or flat.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlyWiGLFKmKjZcivgNI6oKFGeAvLV9-feNAjhx5qFiQtFuWkKaA-GrCrkxXzYCMXIx2afxorMfeiP56f6BirUnFmGo0ZmTLcG7RNwVKQsr2bqs9U_Ot9zJ3wyByf_SwAqeQ1W69lSdIlw/s1600-h/X1a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLlyWiGLFKmKjZcivgNI6oKFGeAvLV9-feNAjhx5qFiQtFuWkKaA-GrCrkxXzYCMXIx2afxorMfeiP56f6BirUnFmGo0ZmTLcG7RNwVKQsr2bqs9U_Ot9zJ3wyByf_SwAqeQ1W69lSdIlw/s400/X1a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358046505620705138" border="0" /></a><br />It was this flat that was to be the Xenia townsite, which was platted roughly at right angles to one of the forks of Shawnee. The square donated for public buildings is shown as a dashed line. As with many town plats of this era a set of outlots was appended to the grid of town lots, extending up into the hills to the east. Fractional outlots also extended to the Shawnee fork. This is a good example of early settlers’ sensitivity to topography and site.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOcA2oJda0nsfsdIYTGfZ9h0rC4b_LU_ZnlFNJLDIjRoS7mcMe_VR77myANHGKkz4poW5CSZIWSSefvz8xJiEuqsi6jzvyXcsNlr_Kdn0GiBFqixrxJ6lSDqKrsUsJJJzkhGTYgSK2SoG/s1600-h/X1b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiOcA2oJda0nsfsdIYTGfZ9h0rC4b_LU_ZnlFNJLDIjRoS7mcMe_VR77myANHGKkz4poW5CSZIWSSefvz8xJiEuqsi6jzvyXcsNlr_Kdn0GiBFqixrxJ6lSDqKrsUsJJJzkhGTYgSK2SoG/s400/X1b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358046503834724034" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />From Virginia Land Warrant to Town Plat</span></span><br /><br />The previous post noted that many of the Revolutionary veterans sold their rights to land to speculators. This might be the case with the land around Xenia, as the Warner and Addison Lewis, the warrant holders, did not appear on lists of Virginia veterans, and claimed thousands of acres via the first surveys.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHbxiujAMiTtr4iPqnUC2JbRjc3f5SO8aKlfww2fgrThnsdiwETeLho8cvx9Dega866Ss7EsGx13MQv93UMm3RDozx4OG7Le2-LJs0JtDN7XCpL84vcRMAWhyphenhyphenvbkvEc2EwudICtCh7pxG/s1600-h/X2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHbxiujAMiTtr4iPqnUC2JbRjc3f5SO8aKlfww2fgrThnsdiwETeLho8cvx9Dega866Ss7EsGx13MQv93UMm3RDozx4OG7Le2-LJs0JtDN7XCpL84vcRMAWhyphenhyphenvbkvEc2EwudICtCh7pxG/s400/X2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358045710290556514" border="0" /></a>It should be noted that an early road or trail passed through here, the Bullskin Road from the Ohio River to Detroit, passing through the site of “old town”, AKA “Old Chillicothe”, a former Shawnee village.<br /><br />In 1798 Warner & Addison Lewis conveyed the land patent, or deed, of the future Xenia townsite to one Robert Pollard. This survey was 1,000 acres.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLK6bBP-QUOgOnQ_Du9QB8I4k7NiW5exFL8imBP_3l8CBNEIkaCAajzwAEvDTyOsceoz1zdu2LOEfNfGPbXoNrNc-sQye9NQozGkHiVeOrUcRvWhEvcmQpryYa_NzmUqHPdY1KRG5feCnd/s1600-h/X3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLK6bBP-QUOgOnQ_Du9QB8I4k7NiW5exFL8imBP_3l8CBNEIkaCAajzwAEvDTyOsceoz1zdu2LOEfNfGPbXoNrNc-sQye9NQozGkHiVeOrUcRvWhEvcmQpryYa_NzmUqHPdY1KRG5feCnd/s400/X3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358045704197388930" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Then, in 1801, Pollard conveyed the property to Thomas Richardson and his wife, of Hanover County, Virginia.<br /><br /><br />Finally, in 1808 the future Xenia survey and an adjacent tract, 2,000 acres in all, were purchased by John Paul from Richardson (or his agents), presumably after that fortuitous meeting with Lewis Davis.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfx4Za_KFNTzzixYOldP6ugUT7k61oMQeDZOiaZPvyOLJRxfpKzIMLHHpM6D91SP70Gi71BmyxZUqoBGWj_zTPjxuLotUgBtA_iLTyOANyjV_nobRIoocmqSGTXD3TyPn7MUYvMyUE-0hI/s1600-h/X4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfx4Za_KFNTzzixYOldP6ugUT7k61oMQeDZOiaZPvyOLJRxfpKzIMLHHpM6D91SP70Gi71BmyxZUqoBGWj_zTPjxuLotUgBtA_iLTyOANyjV_nobRIoocmqSGTXD3TyPn7MUYvMyUE-0hI/s400/X4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358045702280400450" border="0" /></a><br />It appears that the purchase by Paul was the first time the property was owned by someone actually living in the Ohio country. Which does raise the question of communications between Virginia-based speculators, the Virginia Military District land office, and pioneers wanting to purchase land.<br /><br />After Paul purchased the land he sold a portion of it (apparently not the full 1,000 acre survey) to Joseph Vance and others, who actually platted the town. Paul did donate the public square, however. One notes that the town was oriented around the Bullskin Road, which became Detroit Street, the principle north-south street.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRRjiYTkB_1P9FdQ3f-ofhDZRaAD10sC74jH4wdqbJiYp4-Cj4NfGzEbAC97HxuwsEhSIrCrLte83A_SuSqrcNtUakNM4AfKXQX6XpgPaZ-KPWCaE8DrXY6BRHN7kpx2Vzyz6er1AtVpWe/s1600-h/X5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRRjiYTkB_1P9FdQ3f-ofhDZRaAD10sC74jH4wdqbJiYp4-Cj4NfGzEbAC97HxuwsEhSIrCrLte83A_SuSqrcNtUakNM4AfKXQX6XpgPaZ-KPWCaE8DrXY6BRHN7kpx2Vzyz6er1AtVpWe/s400/X5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358045698316647090" border="0" /></a>After Paul purchased the land he sold a portion of it (apparently not the full 1,000 acre survey) to Joseph Vance and others, who actually platted the town. Paul did donate the public square, however. One notes that the town was oriented around the Bullskin Road, which became Detroit Street, the principle north-south street.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXENpFNO-jyF6KWWkc_kNVm20iz6tM13cEyv014mYVm1dAfUhvfVUxR7_ftJ3UedyxvuLXrfrXrQKaN1moaXkllaeN-C1ddBesjc6vRw8bp3taXNl6klnDKeiJtJrul4o5iSPFWNOhN3mq/s1600-h/X6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXENpFNO-jyF6KWWkc_kNVm20iz6tM13cEyv014mYVm1dAfUhvfVUxR7_ftJ3UedyxvuLXrfrXrQKaN1moaXkllaeN-C1ddBesjc6vRw8bp3taXNl6klnDKeiJtJrul4o5iSPFWNOhN3mq/s400/X6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358045698947506242" border="0" /></a>As one can see by the above map and the earlier contour map the town was laid out based on local topography, the creek and the adjacent flat, not the original survey nor by true north.<br /><br />By 1855 Xenia had outgrown the original plat, with the eastern outlots being subdivided into town lots and new plats developing on either side of Shawnee Creek. By this time the railroads had arrived, which probably set off a real estate boom.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">John Paul Moves West</span></span><br /><br />John Paul's life story is an excellent demonstration of the movement west from the Eastern Seaboard.<br /><br />Paul was born in 1758 in Germantown, PA, now a part of Philadelphia. His family moved west around 1767, to Redstone, on the Monohgalena River. Redstone was a well-known jumping off point, the source of the flatboats that floated settlers west down the Ohio.<br /><br />From Redstone the Pauls pushed on to what is now West Virginia, then on to Kentucky, where the family settled in what became Hardin County. This was the Revolutionary War era, and young John Paul joined up with George Rogers Clark's 1778 expedition, participating in the the capture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes from the British. In 1790 Paul married Sarah Grover at Danville, Kentucky (at that time still part of Virginia). Paul moved north to Ohio in 1797.<br /><br />After his involvement with the founding of Xenia Paul moved west. He at first bought the future site of New Albany, Indiana (near Lousville) at a land sale in Vincennes, but thought better of that sale. He found a better site, but had to wait until the land went on sale to buy it. This he did in 1809, purchasing the site of Madison, Indiana, and was a co-founder of that town.<br /><br />Paul died in 1835, having lived long enough to see Madison become the largest in Indiana.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-48446919900475550322009-07-12T08:45:00.004-04:002009-07-12T10:47:57.104-04:00Following the Ludlow Line to the Top of OhioThe boundaries of the Virginia Military District, between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers north of the Ohio, left open the question of how to "close the survey", since the fourth "side" was left open.<br /><br />The Virginia Military District's boundary would be closed by surveying a line between the sources of the boundary rivers. Conceptually simple except that the Scioto was considerably longer, and its northern course turned west, extending past the source of the Little Miami.<br /> <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFnU2xyB7B9nwA0i9mmX-4Mt5RMNer1LPvUZUQRArBFJXzjiyuMj_RNvtdulc57muxSLbf6zyZQm7C2YYlscoW3KfVM_oo1niaTRfKWqnfHOnfvfoV9nhBpIUAQKdk45GHI_0ErVJDHTc8/s1600-h/LL1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFnU2xyB7B9nwA0i9mmX-4Mt5RMNer1LPvUZUQRArBFJXzjiyuMj_RNvtdulc57muxSLbf6zyZQm7C2YYlscoW3KfVM_oo1niaTRfKWqnfHOnfvfoV9nhBpIUAQKdk45GHI_0ErVJDHTc8/s400/LL1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357559645902685042" border="0" /></a>The first attempt to run a survey closing the VMD was by Israel Ludlow, platter of both Dayton and Cincinnati, and namesake of Ludlow Street in downtown Dayton. His survey was the Ludlow Line, and can still be traced through the modern landscape.<br /><br />The lands of the VMD did not extend all the way north to the source of the Scioto at first. The Greenville Treaty Line of 1795 marked the end of US and state lands, because north of the line was "indian country". Aboriginal title would finally be extinguished north of the Greenville Treaty Line in the early 1800s, permitting this last piece of the VMD to be claimed and surveyed.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTGj2eD-vPbnQKgR7gQPJ15b7rgawMo7_DsYt8YIk_JSvMkrjU5dcO1-Jbh_tS1sAGTLR8B6NrJWMNoB71Sge0C0oZzASBLkNoknfNqTcYMLqibQXQJkX-NOJOCniv4aZ7-f2vjACjHpa/s1600-h/LL2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhTGj2eD-vPbnQKgR7gQPJ15b7rgawMo7_DsYt8YIk_JSvMkrjU5dcO1-Jbh_tS1sAGTLR8B6NrJWMNoB71Sge0C0oZzASBLkNoknfNqTcYMLqibQXQJkX-NOJOCniv4aZ7-f2vjACjHpa/s400/LL2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357559638716890370" border="0" /></a>At the time of the Ludlow survey the source of the Scioto was thought to be a large swampland called the Scioto Marsh. The discovery that the headwaters extended beyond the swamp led to a second survey, the Roberts Line. This survey ran at a sharper north by northwest angle, terminating north of what is today Indian Lake (but was then yet another swamp) and then via right angle to the Scioto headwaters.<br /><br />The Roberts Line was accepted by the Federal government, but the Feds bought out the Viriginia claims between the two lines, resulting in the Ludlow Line remaining the boundary of the VMD south of the Greenville Treaty Line. North of the treaty line the Roberts boundary was used, as shown on the map below. Also shown is a modern map, demonstrating how these 18th century survey lines are still visible in the modern landscape, usually as country roads and fence lines. And that the irregular metes and bounds surveys generate erratic road patterns compared to the gridded landscape west of the Ludlow Line.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJVXZUsVdutruCpMx8lSnRCp4Ivln-EoKIg2dC9Z3cCBjxMAerY1N_uiJ0iU3B50qAXOYYPlilGzejPqv6B4bTIdjUx856tmG3F89QY1KikpzwcK231lIdDgIUbWefNDPxFBvIv5ss3t1/s1600-h/LL3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYJVXZUsVdutruCpMx8lSnRCp4Ivln-EoKIg2dC9Z3cCBjxMAerY1N_uiJ0iU3B50qAXOYYPlilGzejPqv6B4bTIdjUx856tmG3F89QY1KikpzwcK231lIdDgIUbWefNDPxFBvIv5ss3t1/s400/LL3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357558501979456498" border="0" /></a>The red cross marks Campbell Hill, at 1529 feet the highest point in Ohio. This is the "top of Ohio". <br /><br />The countryside around Campbell Hill is noticeably different, too. While the surrouning area is the flat Midwestern plain the vicinity of Campbell Hill, particularly to the east and south, is rather hilly, with wooded, steep slopes and flat valleys and bottoms. It almost looks like it was missed by the glaciers (like southwest Wisconisn), but this is not the case. <br /><br />If one starts at Deeds Point in downtown Dayton and follows the Mad River north one will end up in these valleys, because this is the headwaters country of the Mad. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicN7WUEfvNIskhJ8LaQuW7Q8162CIK9xAW18CpmBbboc8NxnS6FMT0Pq8Mgw2RfuA579pJKhgdldugR9HslGBoHgpROQ65T0QpeUdaZrQ1JKbBFeLtem0dEipWd3A1IILrBcJ78mMXvwSw/s1600-h/LL3A.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicN7WUEfvNIskhJ8LaQuW7Q8162CIK9xAW18CpmBbboc8NxnS6FMT0Pq8Mgw2RfuA579pJKhgdldugR9HslGBoHgpROQ65T0QpeUdaZrQ1JKbBFeLtem0dEipWd3A1IILrBcJ78mMXvwSw/s400/LL3A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357558498532231314" border="0" /></a>The Ludlow Line is just visible on the left side of the map, shooting into the county seat of Bellefontaine, pronounced 'Bell-'Fountain by the locals (and everyone in Dayton, too).<br /><br />The cultural landscape is as interesting as the geological one. Nearby<span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><img src="img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span> are the two <a href="http://www.piattcastles.org/">Piatt Castles</a>, built by a notable political family of 19th century Ohio, who relocated here from Cincinnati in the 1820s. The castles (large mansions) are from the 1860s and 1870s, though. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcoY4x64jjkvK2DJxdcb-yeIa6UAfbuZ6rSI9owpc2DzQvcKO_Zob28EnCdDNoL7ROCl1PFTeoT9VzUJG3vUU_lZB0d3GHY6ZiRQa3_Yw9xBV1x0Wu874IInGjKAuIXNxi0gt6_dQ2b3O/s1600-h/LL4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcoY4x64jjkvK2DJxdcb-yeIa6UAfbuZ6rSI9owpc2DzQvcKO_Zob28EnCdDNoL7ROCl1PFTeoT9VzUJG3vUU_lZB0d3GHY6ZiRQa3_Yw9xBV1x0Wu874IInGjKAuIXNxi0gt6_dQ2b3O/s400/LL4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357558495408609746" border="0" /></a>Campbell Hill itself is not as impressive as the countryside to the south, being a large rise rather than a true hill or peak, yet one does have a slight feeling of the land dropping away to the the west; perhaps the horizon is a bit lower. This effect is more noticeable in the winter.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6XW2OxP5kq4gHZOpuD4xQDEB62m716Ka34rDoxNiI6oTT3ZEhfE7qz1wNnskbxLSX_JqkDLw5auQdapreAINOMSDTfhZqxxzv6K_vJbSMQs40kzhuH75XA2tkD0HouyUGT2GWkv1p5k7T/s1600-h/LL5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6XW2OxP5kq4gHZOpuD4xQDEB62m716Ka34rDoxNiI6oTT3ZEhfE7qz1wNnskbxLSX_JqkDLw5auQdapreAINOMSDTfhZqxxzv6K_vJbSMQs40kzhuH75XA2tkD0HouyUGT2GWkv1p5k7T/s400/LL5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357558490471653026" border="0" /></a>Campbell Hill has a modern historic signifigance as a Cold War relic. The Air Force built a radar warning site here in the 1950s, complete with a military housing area. All that's left are the radar and radio towers, visible above, and some of the housing.<br /><br />A few pix of the countryside in the vicinity of Zanesfield, in the center of the hill and valley country southeast of Campbell Hill.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFriWRtoKi0Wz2mn0X-7QTg3-Jd7abt5a3YdfGFpkcz8unnC85UEbvpR3aXU_n7MlXvl3scbYVX01k4uWQZdxeQEgbbWAumNzpa_6PyIy-E7Mkoh0nGyn_KxNP2up6saJdVs_kQ2TzF2k_/s1600-h/LL6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFriWRtoKi0Wz2mn0X-7QTg3-Jd7abt5a3YdfGFpkcz8unnC85UEbvpR3aXU_n7MlXvl3scbYVX01k4uWQZdxeQEgbbWAumNzpa_6PyIy-E7Mkoh0nGyn_KxNP2up6saJdVs_kQ2TzF2k_/s400/LL6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357558486482518610" border="0" /></a>A suprising connection between this countryside to the Dayton scene is the annual <a href="http://www.southwindmusicfest.com/">Southwind Music Festival</a>, held on the grounds of the Zane Shawnee Cavern, owned by a <a href="http://www.zaneshawneecaverns.net/shawnee.shtml">remnant band</a> of the Shawnee (descendents of Indians who stayed behind when the tribes were relocated west). Southwind is a project of <a href="http://www.myspace.com/southwindfest">local music scene</a> folks (check out the "freinds" section at the link) bringing bands one would ordinarily hear late at night in a downtown bar to a a sunny summer outdoors setting. This festival is part of the larger jam band/festival scene best exemplified by the Bonnaroo event down in Tennessee.<br /><br />This country was long home to the native Americans. One of the last reservations in Ohio was the Shawnee/Seneca reservation between what is now Indian Lake and the Greenville Treaty line. The indians retained this land until the 1830s, when they were finally moved west.<br /><br />Indian Lake itself is a major feature of the region. This lake is the headwaters of the Great Miami, but it's not a natural lake like the glacial lakes of Michigan and northern Indiana. Indian Lake was once a big swamp akin to the Scioto Marsh, but was turned into a resevoir in the 1830s and 40s to feed the Miami and Erie canal<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjr_TdIPKWxszZEFpCuPbsSy2FQMNm9W-5OsdO6eQhR5tgNL50Vk6X50CLf4pYZcVt1vzRrVHRA7fSiEn5_dITdgUgW3M4jrvjZ8Vz9jiYs5_QusHb0iAvG16t1lX2MlB1ApHjRJw5XBI/s1600-h/LL7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjr_TdIPKWxszZEFpCuPbsSy2FQMNm9W-5OsdO6eQhR5tgNL50Vk6X50CLf4pYZcVt1vzRrVHRA7fSiEn5_dITdgUgW3M4jrvjZ8Vz9jiYs5_QusHb0iAvG16t1lX2MlB1ApHjRJw5XBI/s400/LL7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357555220984274978" border="0" /></a>With the rise of free time and recreation the lake became a resort area in the 20th century, and still is popular with fishermen and as a vacation home site.<br /><br />As was noted the difficulty in determining sources of the Scioto led two boundary surveys of the VMD. So the Scioto Marsh countryside north of Indian Lake is the "last of Virginia" in Ohio.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ6g-G-SUeeRw9Ej9hpAlhomm68x6iOcE2d_ZrliqpqdH18f4vtdO3BXzxyI5yLYYUBq7Tu23ICZengT0MrrI2gqraj0mJvoS7LMpFddN8MdycVWtBmOo1xjhguX0luVFsYdEsDs6gYPir/s1600-h/LL8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ6g-G-SUeeRw9Ej9hpAlhomm68x6iOcE2d_ZrliqpqdH18f4vtdO3BXzxyI5yLYYUBq7Tu23ICZengT0MrrI2gqraj0mJvoS7LMpFddN8MdycVWtBmOo1xjhguX0luVFsYdEsDs6gYPir/s400/LL8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357555215805463682" border="0" /></a>The red line in the above map is the end of the Roberts Line and the blue line would have been Ludlows survey ending in the lower reaches of the Scioto Marsh.<br /><br />The Last of Virigina: the end of the VMD survey at the headwaters of the Scioto, as expressed in field boundaries and country roads:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiklMJKIWBemY6rPRY5GYl4lI9EHVWSzAHAdP1AsX55fHGET-aBrlHqjrHqo6fSNikzfQvijBgPDiwY0N02EhZgmcVJdi2RP2YPeT08JvWjWPmEtcnBzweEgyZooQBlwydaYoHJFsMuT77H/s1600-h/LL8A.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiklMJKIWBemY6rPRY5GYl4lI9EHVWSzAHAdP1AsX55fHGET-aBrlHqjrHqo6fSNikzfQvijBgPDiwY0N02EhZgmcVJdi2RP2YPeT08JvWjWPmEtcnBzweEgyZooQBlwydaYoHJFsMuT77H/s400/LL8A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357555213015665730" border="0" /></a>The heart-shaped Scioto Marsh was rather large. It is all drained today, yet the rich black soil is still visible in aeriel photographs of freshly tilled fields, as one can see here. The Scioto has been channelized in this area, but one can still the contrast in the north-south orientation of the fields west and north of the river vs the angled field to the south, probably based on surveys run off the old Ludlow line or Greenville Treaty Line.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVExoxfO3PUN5ChT7jDVl8voVvALfagU09FsoaUVzjMZjbcZpj7O1sA6BU4QdfNqJL53uONEqg9aFK9c72ObIHao6qcCu10UznSI77KiywyygMFuWlHV-tZF2ToMOD005anbpilegD3ff9/s1600-h/LL9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVExoxfO3PUN5ChT7jDVl8voVvALfagU09FsoaUVzjMZjbcZpj7O1sA6BU4QdfNqJL53uONEqg9aFK9c72ObIHao6qcCu10UznSI77KiywyygMFuWlHV-tZF2ToMOD005anbpilegD3ff9/s400/LL9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357555206235485090" border="0" /></a>The (drained) Scioto Marsh: flat as a board yet near the top of Ohio. The Scioto Marsh apparently warrants a historical marker, and it does have a history. The place was not typical wesern Ohio farm country, but relied heavily on hired hands imported from Appalachia, who organized and went on strike in 1934 (discussed in the old WPA Federal Writers Project Ohio Guide). <br /><a href="http://www3.uakron.edu/uapress/rumer.html"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuX4rihoZMA6KecII8s01YsGhh5G6ERIgOudGwQjJsC7FUAMF6H2OowdMSikkpDsHR0OAY8KuIAiraivOi3KPQjZlcnjQ_nnc8CA1o6jFZhmikLKv0yqFG2O-6h-pVs4ZLkNsXinuUEHW0/s1600-h/LL10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuX4rihoZMA6KecII8s01YsGhh5G6ERIgOudGwQjJsC7FUAMF6H2OowdMSikkpDsHR0OAY8KuIAiraivOi3KPQjZlcnjQ_nnc8CA1o6jFZhmikLKv0yqFG2O-6h-pVs4ZLkNsXinuUEHW0/s400/LL10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357555207036024130" border="0" /></a><br />A modern book is out on the marsh: <a href="http://www3.uakron.edu/uapress/rumer.html">Unearthing the Land, The Story of Ohio's Scioto Marsh. </a><br />which discusses the strike, but also the natural history of the marsh and its subsequent draining and cultivation. <br /><br />So, the Top of Ohio. Where the generic Midwest gets interesting. Perhaps even an example of a subltle American <span style="font-style: italic;">Heimat? </span>Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-2525063905506389292009-07-11T20:57:00.004-04:002009-07-12T17:27:42.185-04:00The Virginia Military DistrictDaytonology is going to experiment a bit with a regional perspective, investigating the area outside of Montgomery County, including the rural landscapes of western Ohio.<br /><br />In this post a quick introduction to "Virginia in Ohio", the Virginia Military District, VMD for short.<br /><br />The Virginia Military District is the land between the Scioto and Little Miami River, which means it includes a substantial portion of Greene County. When Virginia ceded it's claims to sovereignity over the Northwest Territory to Congress in 1784 it retained this portion of land for military land grants in case land ran out in it's original military reservation in what is now Kentucky.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz7GdZIonF__CgpmqjOnRhzeeSZp5_5vNMXdsYdRLL5QbImpDv-ZfyMMIjDhddPKp6CWfDdFcQOu_kCMzeu8IvGIpDRN62oB0dqTc-JkiE3Bur-xLKwa5MGe1MgXBQ_G1MVeM_M_m2YF5S/s1600-h/VMD1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz7GdZIonF__CgpmqjOnRhzeeSZp5_5vNMXdsYdRLL5QbImpDv-ZfyMMIjDhddPKp6CWfDdFcQOu_kCMzeu8IvGIpDRN62oB0dqTc-JkiE3Bur-xLKwa5MGe1MgXBQ_G1MVeM_M_m2YF5S/s400/VMD1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357373370862094386" border="0" /></a>Land went under survey and tracts were located starting in 1790. It should be noted that Virginia retained the title to land , not sovereignity or jurisdiction, which went to the Northwest Territory. This was a bit different than the Connecticut Western Reserve up in northeast Ohio.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Chains of Rights and Title: From Military Service to Property Ownership</span></span><br /><br />The land was a bounty or reward to Virginia veterans of the Revolution who served in the Continental Army. There was a rather involved process for obtaining land, starting with the veteran obtaining a certificate of service, which entitled him to a land warrant for an amount of land depending on rank and service. This was for just an amount of land, not specific pieces of property.<br /><br />Then property in the VMD was surveyed for the amount of the land in the warrant. After the survey the warrant was exchanged for a patent, which was equivilant to a deed. This patent was how title transferred from Virginia to the veteran.<br /><br />This diagram illustrates the process:<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIaK7Do6H2_ZWxJchxOxnkvEkYs99LTTl4cnG7ypy4Bnzhn4xywdlyKgLfuLESwQsIffjSmNERCGzr9hDOjXPBJzB7ITOX0gOyPY69Wt7zr2DXF7nkwUyX9oujQ8rYhVintqsUhkSIkwDi/s1600-h/VMD2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIaK7Do6H2_ZWxJchxOxnkvEkYs99LTTl4cnG7ypy4Bnzhn4xywdlyKgLfuLESwQsIffjSmNERCGzr9hDOjXPBJzB7ITOX0gOyPY69Wt7zr2DXF7nkwUyX9oujQ8rYhVintqsUhkSIkwDi/s400/VMD2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357373346582590514" border="0" /></a>However, this assumes a Virginia veteran would travel all the way to Ohio to locate his tract.<br /><br />In reality certificates, warrants, and patents could be bought and sold. Speculators could purchase certificates of service (in other words, rights to land) from veterans and obtain a warrant in their own name based on this certificate; the actual veterans name would never appear on these warrants. Or speculators could purchase (and sell) warrants and patents, without ever leaving Virginia.<br /><br />As an example, of the 34 orginal "proprietors" (indivduals locating property via survey based on warrants) in Xenia Township, little more than half were actual Revolutionary veterans. And none of the orignal proprietors settled in the township, having sold their patents to others.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Surveying the Virginia Military District</span></span><br /><br />What distinguishes the VMD from the rest of Ohio (and the rest of the Northwest Territory) is that this is the only large portion of the state to be survyed using the ancient <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metes_and_bounds">metes and bounds</a> system used in colonial Virginia and Kentucky. All the other large surveys in Ohio used rectangular coordinate systems. Since metes and bounds used natural landmarks to establish corners the result was an irregular system of land subdivision, with eventually was manifested on the landscape via woodlots, fence lines, and road alginments.<br /><br />To illustrate, a map of a portion of Greene County bisected by the Little Miami River, in the vicinity of Old Town (between Xenia and Yellow Springs). To the right (east) is the VMD, to the left (west) are "Congress Lands", surveyed using the township and range system.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHrwAtxp2Pv6TaiDy-UsxLbkLIB1sqEfEpu_vlxU3OkWa0ENFT4a8i0kyBKCyOQr-f74gOqWRflZl0cr0zmCsyuad9GmmXHMcl87qvvffVXlcKct66ykKyy8_2oClLBQJjHDx2_b3oL0Cd/s1600-h/VMD3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHrwAtxp2Pv6TaiDy-UsxLbkLIB1sqEfEpu_vlxU3OkWa0ENFT4a8i0kyBKCyOQr-f74gOqWRflZl0cr0zmCsyuad9GmmXHMcl87qvvffVXlcKct66ykKyy8_2oClLBQJjHDx2_b3oL0Cd/s400/VMD3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357372823884777890" border="0" /></a>The irregular nature of the property surveys in VMD is evident. Stripping away the property lines to expose the "bones" underneath subsequent land subdivisions one can see the orginal surveys: townships subdivided into sections and quarter sections with range and section lines running north/south versus the considerably larger, irregular orginial surveys of the VMD. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDjhZibbArCvamb1M2MsDHUmSGEDKz1MCQcU_i74pDvPxMo8XvV7KeXThgjIGCHhlzHNINR-hBVsyBIR9Nqsnrro0549MJEIa-NgYtWBQqrdDE9nNmh3ryTQ7mUEt6XTxGUvsYhAR0mkQ/s1600-h/VMD4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDjhZibbArCvamb1M2MsDHUmSGEDKz1MCQcU_i74pDvPxMo8XvV7KeXThgjIGCHhlzHNINR-hBVsyBIR9Nqsnrro0549MJEIa-NgYtWBQqrdDE9nNmh3ryTQ7mUEt6XTxGUvsYhAR0mkQ/s400/VMD4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357372813617901282" border="0" /></a><br />One can discern that some of the VMD surveys might have been run using the Little Miami as the base line, illustrating the importance of natural features to metes and bounds surveys.<br /><br />This becomes very clear in the southeastern part of the VMD, where it meets the Scioto River. This is Appalachian Ohio; beyond the wide bottoms of the Scioto the land becomes a rugged maze of hollows, valleys and ridges. And VMD surveys here follow hollows and valleys up the tributaries of ths Scioto and Ohio, as shown by this map of the Scioto valley between Wavery and Portsmouth. In this case the VMD is to the west (left) and Congress Lands to the east (right).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75JTfpJ5_yf8nVD5NTU5PvzKIfSsiie_rUIcAlBJaXeRwdHw0P5zjhmW47aWTMRFI6n4u33U0wo1O5tkjHjNBZUMhJQT6Y0DOYTOlqTjrgBFqfGFUOOTO5vAKXF6a9KSU-rfnbNLikrSu/s1600-h/VMD5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75JTfpJ5_yf8nVD5NTU5PvzKIfSsiie_rUIcAlBJaXeRwdHw0P5zjhmW47aWTMRFI6n4u33U0wo1O5tkjHjNBZUMhJQT6Y0DOYTOlqTjrgBFqfGFUOOTO5vAKXF6a9KSU-rfnbNLikrSu/s400/VMD5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357372808476692818" border="0" /></a><br />A modern example of the difference in landscape are these two maps of the modern rural road system in the Congress Lands (vicinity of Arcanum at the Darke/Preble county line) and the VMD (far eastern Greene County at the Madisona and Fayette County lines just north of Jamestown)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpu08PfEBwrut4GJQEW1uPtskGvyxGYmvHCcIYb8PfdqkTjGAc6vJZeEx31itJgh0c3l7AE1PDoBpjC726CTlmLaT9viDRDitBcsyEn7XAdkO2sUDP50CqHgXCTwk4pRLIGJMZNsrMCsMM/s1600-h/VMD6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpu08PfEBwrut4GJQEW1uPtskGvyxGYmvHCcIYb8PfdqkTjGAc6vJZeEx31itJgh0c3l7AE1PDoBpjC726CTlmLaT9viDRDitBcsyEn7XAdkO2sUDP50CqHgXCTwk4pRLIGJMZNsrMCsMM/s400/VMD6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357372800148728802" border="0" /></a>One can see the pattern is quite irregular, even if the topography is nearly identical.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Virginia in Ohio? Cultural & Landscape Features </span><br /></span><br />Some cultural geographers have noted there are some aspects of this landscape that illustrate a southern influence, such as barn types and perhaps larger sized farms (though this might be a stretch) due to the larger initial surveys. Legal issues with property lines lacking permanent monuments would be another. And, of course, the irregular road and field patterns.<br /><br />Although many of the original patentees never left Viriginia settlement was, ultimatly by Kentuckians and Viriginians (Thomas Worthington, a personage in early Ohio history, was a Viriginian and VMD settler), but there was also a strong stream of Pennsylvanians in the mix, plus some North Carolinans.<br /><br />The countryside does remind one a bit of Kentucky, though. Especially as one gets closer to the Ohio river in Highland and Adams County.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX54D99YNDdjs6nB9_P2RdDNcg8phfrKeDCxJS0LKf6i_Io_dPyaFI2SlOMOqBE1okShaQRHx8ExsSXns8e_U1eZbAKM8o2_G6mPu6LzvB3AHESCTtMj0LpVsnb94zf4IfdeCjqQhW0nx-/s1600-h/VMD7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX54D99YNDdjs6nB9_P2RdDNcg8phfrKeDCxJS0LKf6i_Io_dPyaFI2SlOMOqBE1okShaQRHx8ExsSXns8e_U1eZbAKM8o2_G6mPu6LzvB3AHESCTtMj0LpVsnb94zf4IfdeCjqQhW0nx-/s400/VMD7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357372793822238162" border="0" /></a><br /><br />And there was that tobacco economy in the countryside around Ripley, akin to a similar rural economy in the Kentucky counties directly across the river. Though, in that case, the tobacco variety (white burley) was first developed and grown in Ohio, and then was adopted by Kentucky farmers. Sidebar: The <a href="http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=3128&nm=Ohio-Tobacco-Museum">Tobacco Museum</a> in Ripley is worth the visit, especially since the guides used to work in the industry.<br /><br />One demographic aspect that reflects proximity to the South is the presence of a rural black population, something uncommon elsewhere in rural Ohio. This was due to freedmen crossing the Ohio, not to southerners brining slaves to the VMD. Slavery was illegal in the Northwest Territory and Ohio's first constitution prohibited involuntary indetured servitude. <br /><br />As an example, county seats of Greenville and Eaton, north and west of Dayton, have less than 1% black population (Greenville at .6% and Eaton at .4% ). In contrast Hillsboro, a county seat in the heart of the VMD, is 6.4% black. Xenia is 13.5% black, but that may be due to the proxmity to Wilberforce University (Greene County had Ohios' highest rural black population in the 19th century). The rural VMD village of Jamestown is 4.1% black versus the Darke County hamlet of Arcanum, which is 0%. But maybe these percentages aren't that signifigant and might require further study.<br /><br />Coming Soon: The Ludlow Line and the Top of Ohio.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-61735842225223544212009-07-11T07:58:00.005-04:002009-07-11T09:09:25.206-04:00Beerman Towns: NorthtownArthur Beerman owned the Arcade. In fact, his real estate interests had offices on the upper floors of Commercial Building at the intersection of Ludlow and 4th. And on one of those floors was the offices of the Main-Nottingham Shopping Center, apparently the leasing and development offices of the first "Beerman Town", because Main-Nottingham would later be re-named <span style="font-style: italic;">Northtown</span>.<br /><br />And the Arcade might have been the inspiration for certain features of this shopping center.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Suburban Growth in Northwest Dayton.</span></span><br /><br />This enlargment of a dot map from the Harlan Bartholomew planning studies of the late 1940s and early 1950s shows population growth from 1930 to 1952. In reality most of this growth was probably from 1939-1950, the pre-WWII "Pearl Harbor Suburbia" boom coming out of the Depression and the wartime and early postwar expansion.<br /><br />And what's notable, too, is that this was mostly infill on dead or lightly developed plats from the Roaring Twenties or before. The two early outlying suburbs here, Fort McKinley and Shiloh, are quite early, products of the interurban boom from before WWI.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaq5AjsQlPpNozp4kwvppYhj8VVs8g3jUoasynUj3L32I_Xz_DKc4aDehsntNe9o43TGpKYRfL4Me4b9PLbYd3JW4Pq3z4r1om6gI5Di7bK30_SWbXcaZzMA0TC6WwfjpywJLxWJiNxZFX/s1600-h/NTw1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaq5AjsQlPpNozp4kwvppYhj8VVs8g3jUoasynUj3L32I_Xz_DKc4aDehsntNe9o43TGpKYRfL4Me4b9PLbYd3JW4Pq3z4r1om6gI5Di7bK30_SWbXcaZzMA0TC6WwfjpywJLxWJiNxZFX/s400/NTw1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357173083124083426" border="0" /></a><br />Stripping away the plats, and showing the main streets + population growth, one can see how Northtown was positioned to attract shoppers <span style="font-weight: bold;">out</span> from areas developing closer-in (reversing the usual shopping trip into the city) but also to intercept shoppers heading into town (and from future plats that might occur in the 1950s). <br /><br />The earlier Miracle Lane (first true strip center in Dayton from around 1946-47) is also shown, performing a similar function on Salem Avenue that Northtown did on North Main. Northtown was developed in the 1949-1951 time frame.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU6B09_8jhIuXR-BX_Bz-gDkR_4CeaT15n8k-lb1I7UUsNneHQYly88MGDD5_LHwRq7Mfu7AWTNcjaUb4JvAOe3rv-6IuTU8W0ueMnpc9W5bVBg1sGUOBxYQch44xwcm_ecG-qcj-Uv4Oa/s1600-h/NTw2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU6B09_8jhIuXR-BX_Bz-gDkR_4CeaT15n8k-lb1I7UUsNneHQYly88MGDD5_LHwRq7Mfu7AWTNcjaUb4JvAOe3rv-6IuTU8W0ueMnpc9W5bVBg1sGUOBxYQch44xwcm_ecG-qcj-Uv4Oa/s400/NTw2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357173078984966306" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Let's Go Shopping (for urban form)</span></span><br /><br />Beerman's firs shopping center was probably <a href="http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,12702.0.html">McCook Center</a> off Keowee Street, where some of the features here make their appearnace. But McCook seems much more ad-hoc compared to Northtown.<br /><br />Northtown in its contex on North Main Street, set in areas that were already developed east of Main. Whats' notable is the center was somewhat integrated into its site, with streets from adjacent development leading into the centers parking lots. The land behind the center was developed as apartments.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvYIRFlBuyCRuLf9aEXlK7ALxQcKC6-q7oLG6PYQ8DR7xrTVgJw82lNZs6_i33SmCERKsuMUQVr511SLNdjTsSAL1xbajplEajg0BQlzqwIetQvc5Xw3nYlc7SzeV6b0ubRckrEF121kM/s1600-h/NTw3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvYIRFlBuyCRuLf9aEXlK7ALxQcKC6-q7oLG6PYQ8DR7xrTVgJw82lNZs6_i33SmCERKsuMUQVr511SLNdjTsSAL1xbajplEajg0BQlzqwIetQvc5Xw3nYlc7SzeV6b0ubRckrEF121kM/s400/NTw3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357173075871827634" border="0" /></a>A closer-up, illustrating how the center was somewhat tentative, working out some basic strip-center concepts. <br /><br /> There are two larger stores, ancestors of the big box anchor store of today, but they are seperated from the center by an access drive to rear of the center. There is plenty of parking, but the center buildings are still held fairly close to the street. About half the parking is hidden to the rear of the center. The characterstic L form of Beerman's later centers appears, but the L comes very close to Main, leaving only two rows of parking. And ther's that access drive to the back parking.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULCAtHL9AQn0gObdLJJkGjhB9LL_xtlQldz81EDDn3130DxevTfv6lDZeb0IslgVE7G1WNLLAQqGPB7enJW8YbFRIjAuK2sCpzscpXN6ITTnLJVaAPx8BkIAZLCsXWjzpmdO1Ic9U66Hi/s1600-h/NTw4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULCAtHL9AQn0gObdLJJkGjhB9LL_xtlQldz81EDDn3130DxevTfv6lDZeb0IslgVE7G1WNLLAQqGPB7enJW8YbFRIjAuK2sCpzscpXN6ITTnLJVaAPx8BkIAZLCsXWjzpmdO1Ic9U66Hi/s400/NTw4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357172463890918146" border="0" /></a><br />Northtown today. The center apparently had facade updates over the years.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVfhiFneTasKJZZQpjS6t6mcQaG4njsUe701unNjhkD04p7AGhpOXM8PlTklIcNSkoHU0okkEFMlrCXwt7q3WVRAG0WV4dsLjvpV4WgGkt53Y_ffMN_ivCArknMJezB4FOFz5IvWyu_Vx-/s1600-h/NTw5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVfhiFneTasKJZZQpjS6t6mcQaG4njsUe701unNjhkD04p7AGhpOXM8PlTklIcNSkoHU0okkEFMlrCXwt7q3WVRAG0WV4dsLjvpV4WgGkt53Y_ffMN_ivCArknMJezB4FOFz5IvWyu_Vx-/s400/NTw5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357172455907769714" border="0" /></a><br />The Beerman's downtown Arcade might have been an inspiration here as, unlike other strip centers, there is a<span style="font-style: italic;"> second floor of offices</span> and a little <span style="font-style: italic;">shopping arcade</span> connecting to the back parking. <br /><br />Fairly unusual for a strip center, but there are contemporary examples in Dayton from the same era of two story mixed-use buildings going up at new suburban shopping nodes (like at Patterson and Wilmington or Far Hills in Oakwood). In this case this transitional building type is incorporated into a strip center.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Y-gXhuLwKewckMNbbnjvXxyHo6UUG52jsZhcnub0dTMr5_Iled9t0kjKGtVdV8nhc6VUQuFB4zHk9inOdrW3E-Mqsm64uQdExDv_A28HzCJlOL_K3-TMchfAgTfQEgnKAowg3kYO5Ouv/s1600-h/NTw6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Y-gXhuLwKewckMNbbnjvXxyHo6UUG52jsZhcnub0dTMr5_Iled9t0kjKGtVdV8nhc6VUQuFB4zHk9inOdrW3E-Mqsm64uQdExDv_A28HzCJlOL_K3-TMchfAgTfQEgnKAowg3kYO5Ouv/s400/NTw6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357172454189563202" border="0" /></a><br />Inside the shopping arcade, which is really just a wide hallway with storefronts arranged in a sort of zig-zag pattern to make the hall seem less of a tunnel.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDSnIqcBmX-kZ2HGv6OM7HbV3cAf1Bdn6iETup3c3Xi8qN3g6qw8kV3lwrqNh3KnaESo9dO040jIpixL1drB1evqKhS7n8hJQtPkNls9HEsmeibYdZybp1KrFdEV6e1eWcac0plrMe1rEX/s1600-h/NTw7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDSnIqcBmX-kZ2HGv6OM7HbV3cAf1Bdn6iETup3c3Xi8qN3g6qw8kV3lwrqNh3KnaESo9dO040jIpixL1drB1evqKhS7n8hJQtPkNls9HEsmeibYdZybp1KrFdEV6e1eWcac0plrMe1rEX/s400/NTw7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357172450468044834" border="0" /></a>(the offices are via the door to the left, which is probably original, with the original hardware, too).<br /><br />The rear entrance to the shopping arcade....<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4z3bqYKid1tQ4OROKvZFBvdZ6RmILNjXgng8F1UlVYobRniMORc9LIzEPFNk4ahYp35cQwHDdX-kx5BxeLRxzsBnfc-2SFwaX9Y6w7_XrXsTWqxxbl9bqBhJQU1wFL1w-yW1RZI4bC0IH/s1600-h/NTw8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4z3bqYKid1tQ4OROKvZFBvdZ6RmILNjXgng8F1UlVYobRniMORc9LIzEPFNk4ahYp35cQwHDdX-kx5BxeLRxzsBnfc-2SFwaX9Y6w7_XrXsTWqxxbl9bqBhJQU1wFL1w-yW1RZI4bC0IH/s400/NTw8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357172432576061778" border="0" /></a>...and the extensive rear parking area. Note the apartments in the backround as an illustration of how the center was somewhat integrated into surrounding housing. Though this is pretty desolate, a better landscaped and pedestrian -reindly parking area like this could be model for modern attempts to integrated strip centers into housing as a walkable ensemble.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7PmZrRr0D79Vhfb7mMVRJyRXYLe9n5Nt611TViDnCvSZUazJo_eCL3rnHgiPHx2TY-zzl-Ma6EKKVf0m6b0k0shPx425yv5IKm8VLWSBt1QMJ1O4bLKjyMPCZe5CDFs037TcSLGx278kc/s1600-h/NTw9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7PmZrRr0D79Vhfb7mMVRJyRXYLe9n5Nt611TViDnCvSZUazJo_eCL3rnHgiPHx2TY-zzl-Ma6EKKVf0m6b0k0shPx425yv5IKm8VLWSBt1QMJ1O4bLKjyMPCZe5CDFs037TcSLGx278kc/s400/NTw9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357171741831776546" border="0" /></a><br />The access drive to the front parking....<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDFrjQoK33W_gIOPRimXNQBwPcUYk3zgrM0fqPXtSz3GdpuZxpSJ7RVeyxYymdxM8n8uWx3QGrBdyGmymqJM8TfDFrrvzv_HMUSrhbAPDgxUTsyz80Niu_jSZINAM65CE_iPzolpSrOkOO/s1600-h/NTw10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDFrjQoK33W_gIOPRimXNQBwPcUYk3zgrM0fqPXtSz3GdpuZxpSJ7RVeyxYymdxM8n8uWx3QGrBdyGmymqJM8TfDFrrvzv_HMUSrhbAPDgxUTsyz80Niu_jSZINAM65CE_iPzolpSrOkOO/s400/NTw10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357171734886138322" border="0" /></a>..the two "big boxes" on the northern part of the site. One of these is a supermarket, perhaps it always was. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0zTLKQpJLsUDrZQrXPKbCp6W4oWGoyQty8ZsU6cCLCk9z4P3kN4woPcCBBlbe4YRTkhm5klQONJutceifoR9BGA48CRSIEIYNbJLOBX4fnRxwW4Gwe_jPkAd92FtpGQb7Mlx_scz1G5Ns/s1600-h/NTw11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0zTLKQpJLsUDrZQrXPKbCp6W4oWGoyQty8ZsU6cCLCk9z4P3kN4woPcCBBlbe4YRTkhm5klQONJutceifoR9BGA48CRSIEIYNbJLOBX4fnRxwW4Gwe_jPkAd92FtpGQb7Mlx_scz1G5Ns/s400/NTw11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357171732354208898" border="0" /></a>The L, closing off the south side of the shopping center, here made up of one-story buildings. Present at the creation of postwar suburbia: this was the start of 59 years of shopping center development.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLBeLwy3Iplew5ad3bT4LAMsYX4Jiwm_57W1oBZrvvvlOm68RlIBQ76RnVRUNzMwSUS0Zcv41_2MUDusufPOgzOYMyZK2wiZC7QkqtAU-3Volx8d1TWEtTGCAWs6fuv6pCxJASwc5gy_y/s1600-h/NTw12.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLBeLwy3Iplew5ad3bT4LAMsYX4Jiwm_57W1oBZrvvvlOm68RlIBQ76RnVRUNzMwSUS0Zcv41_2MUDusufPOgzOYMyZK2wiZC7QkqtAU-3Volx8d1TWEtTGCAWs6fuv6pCxJASwc5gy_y/s400/NTw12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357171725838986866" border="0" /></a><br />Yet memories of the old ways of city building linger here. Note how the L is so close to Main Street, with only two rows of angled parking. It's almost as if the desginers were still thinking stores should still be held close to the busy street, creating a street wall, not be set back away from it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNIy5ETQRz8YLj8DG5FnFsfHasCcl4RaGlKPSlnugGAJP4u_TNl96QIdR2jyAFuXXOoqhMDJzhD_beU04WwuGCiKxKQTQ3aEmfnsrzT5H7ad6flIjHpQwkkQ-NdW4H412aqneC_2EQ5V4/s1600-h/NTw13.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNIy5ETQRz8YLj8DG5FnFsfHasCcl4RaGlKPSlnugGAJP4u_TNl96QIdR2jyAFuXXOoqhMDJzhD_beU04WwuGCiKxKQTQ3aEmfnsrzT5H7ad6flIjHpQwkkQ-NdW4H412aqneC_2EQ5V4/s400/NTw13.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357171721153249058" border="0" /></a>The details here are another illustration of how tentative this design is. Note the corner entrance of the store to the left. This would be typical of corner stores throughout Dayton, and is a detail carried over from the pre-war era of retail construction. Yes there is a corner here, but the "street" heading off the pix to the right isn't a street at all, it's another access drive (without sidewalks) to the rear parking.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Northtown: Past as Prologue?</span></span><br /><br />What's interesting is how some of the later Beerman developments have returned to the mixed-use concept of Northtown, with stores on the ground floor and offices above. An excellent example is the <a href="http://www.acadiarealty.com/Web/PropertySummary.aspx?PropertyID=161">Mad River Station</a> across OH 725 from the Dayton Mall (which is no longer a Beerman property). And especially the S<a href="http://www.shoppesat725.com/aerial.htm">hoppes at 725</a>, which harkens back to the era before shopping centers.<br /><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><img src="img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span>Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-69058163860422608362009-07-07T21:23:00.005-04:002009-07-07T22:28:19.895-04:00Beerman TownsArthur Beerman was one of the most successful businessmen in Dayton during the postwar era, building business empires in retail and in real estate. <br /><br />Beerman was not a native, having moved to Dayton from Pennsylvania in 1929, while in his early 20s. He started in retail, but also ventured into real estate, forming the predecessor to Beerman Realty in the depths of the Depression. By the postwar era Beerman was already a player, being part of the consortium that purchased the Arcade and eventually owning that complex outright. The Arcade was perhaps an influence on an early Beerman suburban shopping center. More on that later.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Beerman Towns. </span></span><br /><br />Beerman was an early developer of shopping centers in Dayton. His first may have been the McCook Center, from the 1940s. This might have been the earliest, preceding Miracle Lane, the first true strip center in Dayton.<br /><br />It’s certain that Beermans’ Main-Nottingham Center was one of the very first strip centers, joining Miracle Lane and Town and Country as the first three outlying strip centers as of 1950. Main-Nottingham was later renamed <span style="font-style: italic;">Northtown</span>.<br /><br />After Northtown came Easttown, out Linden Avenue just outside the city limits. Easttown was open around 1954-1955, as the surrounding area was undergoing mass suburbanization. <br /><br />At the end of the decade Beerman moved again, developing Westtown, off West Third near Gettysburg around 1959-1960. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHrFWYOR7aEVgRQSxWrpAAI9sx8FCNcYaZH0t8EzWngznJqlb_xUSUL-qg080AVVySPoC4i8sZnLiJ8PUHsAsAxgGbaFfVR2DFHskyyCCYzFwuCgaO4i74a_Y2SNb9CiFvQKEkzgQdHru/s1600-h/BTwnI1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHrFWYOR7aEVgRQSxWrpAAI9sx8FCNcYaZH0t8EzWngznJqlb_xUSUL-qg080AVVySPoC4i8sZnLiJ8PUHsAsAxgGbaFfVR2DFHskyyCCYzFwuCgaO4i74a_Y2SNb9CiFvQKEkzgQdHru/s400/BTwnI1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355896319662312738" border="0" /></a>There was a Southtown, but that is another story as it’s related to the development of the Dayton Mall. These three “Beerman Towns” are good examples of the evolution of the shopping center during the early postwar era.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dissecting Location Decisions.</span></span><br /><br />Taking a closer look at locations one can see how savvy the site decisions were. Drawing a circle around each center and then looking at development patterns, one can see how nearly all of these were located at the edge of the platted area of the city.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkfhPl72613X48mQtgKRZyzRn3NV9jiV8f-ApfTMJKsAg_ZcEdrKsmrSzftCk9RVps8nKNCsViZhQ4aEusUDzzSsZ6JoQ03uxdi9WQ5KuLeSosZNzQUXrmwstv7qjL4W69GO1SfH_V1EOL/s1600-h/BTwnI2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkfhPl72613X48mQtgKRZyzRn3NV9jiV8f-ApfTMJKsAg_ZcEdrKsmrSzftCk9RVps8nKNCsViZhQ4aEusUDzzSsZ6JoQ03uxdi9WQ5KuLeSosZNzQUXrmwstv7qjL4W69GO1SfH_V1EOL/s400/BTwnI2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355894758647806034" border="0" /></a>This platted area, shaded in yellow, was mostly subdivided before the Great Depression, but was filling up with houses during the 1940s in response to the wartime and immediate postwar housing boom. So already a market; people from these older areas would be able to drive <span style="font-style: italic;">out</span> to the new shopping centers rather than fight parking hassles downtown or in their small neighborhood shopping areas.<br /><br />And the areas in white, undeveloped in 1950, would quickly be platted and go under development. The new shopping centers could intercept these new customers before they could head downtown for shopping (as well as providing neighborhood retail for the new plats).<br /><br />The shopping centers were located on arterial roads leading out of the city (Main, Linden, West Third), which isn’t so unusual. What is sharp is that they were located near intersections with the major crosstown roads on the periphery of the city (Gettysburg, Siebenthaler, Smithville, and eventually Woodman Drive), so the trading areas of the centers could extend in all directions, tapping into the newly developing suburbia.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Evolution of Shopping Center Form</span></span><br /><br />Comparing the three Towns by using aerials and black plans one can see the evolution, perhaps, of shopping center form.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1XvG01x7MI9uHLZOIW6G69FNBFwTB90frrrAfUeHJYDZZr98Mn0VdSpaiHnYmuSHxI8SUwP2Qf5UQr-VCqpSoGS3eENZsU34KtlMaerm1LvgH0JR4BUVLHEVuR8zl5HZjK_ORS2HakdaE/s1600-h/BTwnI3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1XvG01x7MI9uHLZOIW6G69FNBFwTB90frrrAfUeHJYDZZr98Mn0VdSpaiHnYmuSHxI8SUwP2Qf5UQr-VCqpSoGS3eENZsU34KtlMaerm1LvgH0JR4BUVLHEVuR8zl5HZjK_ORS2HakdaE/s400/BTwnI3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355894752155994290" border="0" /></a><br />For buildings one can see how Northtown is somewhat smaller and tentative compared to Easttown and Westtown. And there seems to be two early “”big boxes” (perhaps a grocery store) next to the two center buildings. But Northtown does have a first draft of the “L” plan that one also sees in Westtown and Easttown.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNeVC5lcB5paJ8xI3M0RbGBHXtCnaiqSy39oBheKNAuvknlROOfvQZOvfi2IZ2ND3l-xBhObaxxb34MpCBbJLeZ01hPl0xVyZmUA1_uBzNdPb3lpZ95FVjtyFr6IC9lpb1E1CuKrJVUTNH/s1600-h/BTwnI4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNeVC5lcB5paJ8xI3M0RbGBHXtCnaiqSy39oBheKNAuvknlROOfvQZOvfi2IZ2ND3l-xBhObaxxb34MpCBbJLeZ01hPl0xVyZmUA1_uBzNdPb3lpZ95FVjtyFr6IC9lpb1E1CuKrJVUTNH/s400/BTwnI4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355894746055100994" border="0" /></a><br />However, one can see that Easttown is also sort of a "U" shape, too, with a building to the east closing forming the U. One doesn't see this at Westtown; perhaps this center was never completed?<br /><br />Pavement diagrams shows how parking gets moved to the front of the site over time, as the strip center form is worked out. Northtown has substantial rear parking, Easttown not so much, and Westtown none at all. Yet in all cases there is a drive to the rear of the site (for parking in Easttown and Northtown, perhaps service access for Westtown), separating the buildings.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifbXEGEtGgied60Zbw53dRNkYeVVn8MG0NZnko95fndAM5kv3vExwRkSMX1wjGz_NsoxkN8HXFW2zv_BSxrcQjtVE4-V8IRfkyCJzFPMTDPzhV7CJ0epX5WRlVeVg6TiLDOzXJsc7jfnmG/s1600-h/BTwnI5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifbXEGEtGgied60Zbw53dRNkYeVVn8MG0NZnko95fndAM5kv3vExwRkSMX1wjGz_NsoxkN8HXFW2zv_BSxrcQjtVE4-V8IRfkyCJzFPMTDPzhV7CJ0epX5WRlVeVg6TiLDOzXJsc7jfnmG/s400/BTwnI5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355894743847715730" border="0" /></a><br />Putting it all together, one can see how Northtown really is a transitional form from something perhaps looking back to the taxpayer strips of the 1930s and proto-strip centers like McCook, as the front parking is less, and buildings are closer to the street.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTXncmV2DVtd-0fWLxnjiiNMVrh27FO1BfyrB-nh_m5vo8fKuHYvc_NOpfSuh4kmgEsng7UzmtavlTk78FV7elggy0obi7OPFB5iqU6fIcz2EqnTH55f4Fe53CwPzzKukUoyUaLBg2fzY/s1600-h/BTwnI6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTXncmV2DVtd-0fWLxnjiiNMVrh27FO1BfyrB-nh_m5vo8fKuHYvc_NOpfSuh4kmgEsng7UzmtavlTk78FV7elggy0obi7OPFB5iqU6fIcz2EqnTH55f4Fe53CwPzzKukUoyUaLBg2fzY/s400/BTwnI6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355894739469758754" border="0" /></a><br />With Easttown and Westtown the fully developed strip center form is evident. Most of the parking is in the front and the L form of the center is stronger. Buildings are more integrated vs. the two big boxes somewhat separate from the center that one sees in Northtown. One also sees outlying buildings either in front or to the side of the main buildings; early versions of out lot development common in later strip centers.<br /><br />Coming soon, a closer look at the Beerman towns, starting with Northtown.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-63474200134240531932009-07-05T09:25:00.004-04:002009-07-05T09:45:39.594-04:00Ohio Modern Goes DaytonBelated news. This was recently announced and didn't recieve much attention at all. But its worth noting since the postwar boom essentially built a new city in Kettering, but also impacted other areas. Suburban Dayton has an excellent stock of mid century modern housing, and even a few intact office buildings from the era, like Financial South and the offices around the old Hills & Dales shopping center. Not too much retail survives intact, though.<br /><br />From the Dayton Daily News:<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/preservationists-to-study-post-wwii-housing-in-area-173674.html">State Historians, Preservationsits will look at architecture in in Dayton and it's Suburbs</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >DAYTON — A world war had ended and industrial states like Ohio were booming. Returning soldiers found good-paying factory jobs, started families and bought their dream home in brand-new suburbs. Schools, parks and shopping centers followed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >It was a time of unprecedented growth and prosperity. Between 1950 and 1960, Ohio’s population increased 22 percent and more than 1.8 million homes were built, including 127,000 in Montgomery County alone.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Now, a half-century later, state historians and preservationists say it’s time to start studying that period in earnest and preserving its significant architecture before progress sweeps more of it away.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >And they want to begin their study in Dayton and the surrounding communities of Fairborn, Kettering, Huber Heights, Oakwood, Trotwood and Vandalia, the Ohio Historical Society announced Monday, June 22.<br /><br />.....</span>From the article: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">For more information, contact the Ohio Historic Preservation Office at (614) 298-2000 or Barbara Powers directly at bpowers@ohiohistory.org</span><br /><br />We take this postwar suburbia for granted. For most of us it is "everyday life", nothing special since we are surrounded by it and mostly likely grew up in it. But its been over half a century since WWII ended so there is enough building stock to see variations in style and built form. Suburbia isn't static, and does exhibit evolution in form and pattern of development. <br /><br />What this study will look at will be the brave new world of Cold War America, a time of mass prosperity and optimism in the future. The forward looking exuberance of the era's achitecture reflects this.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" ><br /></span>Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-79876408870858483722009-07-05T07:16:00.008-04:002009-07-05T09:15:38.216-04:00Building Northridge: Ridge Avenue @ Neff Park/Harshman PlatContinuing with the series on the development of Northridge and points north, Daytonology investigates the earliest plats, Neff Park and the Harshman Plat (named Fieldston in later mapping) on Ridge Avenue. This would be the first section of Fieldston; the additional property would be platted under this name further west on Ridge. For a discussion of Northridge platting history see <a href="http://daytonology.blogspot.com/2009/06/platting-northridge.html">Platting Northridge</a>.<br /><br />Ridge Avenue dates from sometime between 1875 and 1898, but this part of Ridge was the first part platted in town lots, perhaps in response to Stop 3 of the Dayton & Troy interurban.<br /><br />The maps below show the two plats, Neff Park in light orange and Fieldston in yellow. The arrangement of the interurban running down a median is clear in these maps, providing a traffic-free right-of-way into the city.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMrFeZ5xl5iQ0UFcsHJBzJRWWDhAXajLULJ-u2FO5PuB9ngt3O9XmU3yl-p5H3eiHP38rYSSvWO0pyAmT-qN1qSD2rE7nI8mrl_ZMXmVkeqYkKlboVHtC3EyLkAwYJ8QEni97Y4VDpKSxY/s1600-h/NRid1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMrFeZ5xl5iQ0UFcsHJBzJRWWDhAXajLULJ-u2FO5PuB9ngt3O9XmU3yl-p5H3eiHP38rYSSvWO0pyAmT-qN1qSD2rE7nI8mrl_ZMXmVkeqYkKlboVHtC3EyLkAwYJ8QEni97Y4VDpKSxY/s400/NRid1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354936339404093186" border="0" /></a><br />The lot lines as of 1930 for the plats west of New Troy Pike (Dixie Drive) compared to a modern aeriel. The area of interest is outlined in red, and the interurban stop shown. Since this was within walking distance of the stop the assumption is that this street would see a lot of pre-war development driven in-part by transit access.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpE8vTAETfR3iSyMRgJOPez2vIJGwBR37jUK9VGdIgFnaUcA_oopiSywmM-yNyXmTeCC-97XDPqaBDz-OAUhc27k521EQkit2hGstoJToZVK9b6pJdXGONzQk9kRbJEOrMKogdCtIpWiFj/s1600-h/Nrid2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpE8vTAETfR3iSyMRgJOPez2vIJGwBR37jUK9VGdIgFnaUcA_oopiSywmM-yNyXmTeCC-97XDPqaBDz-OAUhc27k521EQkit2hGstoJToZVK9b6pJdXGONzQk9kRbJEOrMKogdCtIpWiFj/s400/Nrid2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354936332869126962" border="0" /></a><br />A close-up of the platting on Ridge as of the 1930s. Harshman's Fieldston plat on the south side of the street has noticeably larger lots, and there's evidence of lot splitting.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFhth4OCm33lNgFqA-PK-7a2jlpyt_Ew1Zd4tDrk1wM0HFLTnkJp__t5TriKcsP5KkSNruwBYDAyaZu5ZRLGcZj-oIOnR_kpZwqcdEL14tooO7Y65NEzYKEQ6y2HRis9yrWkUfm1hxmwz/s1600-h/Nrid3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFhth4OCm33lNgFqA-PK-7a2jlpyt_Ew1Zd4tDrk1wM0HFLTnkJp__t5TriKcsP5KkSNruwBYDAyaZu5ZRLGcZj-oIOnR_kpZwqcdEL14tooO7Y65NEzYKEQ6y2HRis9yrWkUfm1hxmwz/s400/Nrid3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354936330008972514" border="0" /></a><br />(click on the pix to enlarge for more detail)<br /><br />Drawing the 1930s lot lines on the modern aerial one can see how the area densified, with two houses on one lot in some cases. The lots closes to Dixie Drive have been combined for auto-oriented commerical use. The configuration of Dixie Drive itself changed as the road was enlarged to four lanes, taking the interurban median and the frontage road. If there was any pre-war commercial development at "Stop 3" (intersection of Ridge and Dixie) it has been subsequently removed and replaced<br /><br /><br />Mapping out the prewar housing, determined by visual inspection of houseforms. The entire block was not built-out before WWII, and there is evidence of larger lots being split for additional housing in the postwar era, particularly on the south side of Ridge Avenue<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaTHt_3NYF1hqUaOfeU7ishrOkTaJ43z2GbU7jo6KpVr0h_Us3Mz-m5_HSkR0sHtaqarQtyVvy5lxtkWCZIRM1poY1s8eLjAJ-MT_xoQagZsiiBxI-MEvWOEvjf_4ISnBoRn0JOv6OE-5v/s1600-h/Nrid4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaTHt_3NYF1hqUaOfeU7ishrOkTaJ43z2GbU7jo6KpVr0h_Us3Mz-m5_HSkR0sHtaqarQtyVvy5lxtkWCZIRM1poY1s8eLjAJ-MT_xoQagZsiiBxI-MEvWOEvjf_4ISnBoRn0JOv6OE-5v/s400/Nrid4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354935462852547698" border="0" /></a><br />And a few aerials of the neighborhood, giving a bit of the flavor of the place. This is interesting as it's such a transitional area between different ways of building-out suburbia.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc_ed1TxNXyBQOlJpKSvJHh86Vqv1_9wqCKwq0KSYYiFJG-fltkRoTax-j_2RtJgx8S8FKAM-8ZyuLZSwvtwJATEi-Q8rOa6tg9mpHHBpc6XNLzko1Pw5yBWybejgRlR3zhMmqfl5C2tug/s1600-h/Nrid5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc_ed1TxNXyBQOlJpKSvJHh86Vqv1_9wqCKwq0KSYYiFJG-fltkRoTax-j_2RtJgx8S8FKAM-8ZyuLZSwvtwJATEi-Q8rOa6tg9mpHHBpc6XNLzko1Pw5yBWybejgRlR3zhMmqfl5C2tug/s400/Nrid5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354935460391638098" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnNjzr3CNoLVBkoO95JUcj9AX6KpwNT3R7W9zDKWyWBvK3NSYFtNx4uet0Rli9e6V97tcmEHoKnxXTmO3vj5W98mepd48_dJPxad-0pzUGuZHFVnrZVeHfsZAwIa-jzSTxBAq6_o9HO8F/s1600-h/Nrid6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnNjzr3CNoLVBkoO95JUcj9AX6KpwNT3R7W9zDKWyWBvK3NSYFtNx4uet0Rli9e6V97tcmEHoKnxXTmO3vj5W98mepd48_dJPxad-0pzUGuZHFVnrZVeHfsZAwIa-jzSTxBAq6_o9HO8F/s400/Nrid6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354935456566753682" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Stop 3 Gallery</span></span><br /><br />If there is a Stop 8 place name this is Stop 3. One can see a transition from 19th century house types to bungalows and foursquares, to the 1940s cottage style, and then to some postwar types.<br /><br />This house is a good example of the urban I house found on the backstreets of North and East Dayton. It's a later form (developed in the later 19th century) since it doesnt have the four windows on the gable end facing the street, and was either built when Ridge Avenue was opened up (predating the interurban plats) or it was one of the first houses built on the Neff Park plat (north side of Ridge). It's in excellent condition (on the exterior).<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvjpl2CBWxNvBYCmpBoIUISLZOkJ270csG80hXn1TEDidcVXUDBLROm4UGB2coOLOhqMUc7TDdlevSVnzdpX5yJbG7-4KBy8AjW1ZYcelzIa1aK-yuRWTO-MFmC6GYbhg2rdcvepT_dXgn/s1600-h/Nrid7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvjpl2CBWxNvBYCmpBoIUISLZOkJ270csG80hXn1TEDidcVXUDBLROm4UGB2coOLOhqMUc7TDdlevSVnzdpX5yJbG7-4KBy8AjW1ZYcelzIa1aK-yuRWTO-MFmC6GYbhg2rdcvepT_dXgn/s400/Nrid7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354935449543384674" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJK2GPF_5z-1jEDUV6WYlA6mm3FbdC2iMUlkteZ_5y3-x6k8GuQyWe6z4VHMzDsncxrlOkcCwNZpukw4lkCe_nEOnvGgMrXUGRDoAwP0oN-UM-ddWSFAbRR06zppPiyE3RyRM34_cU8R5K/s1600-h/Nrid8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJK2GPF_5z-1jEDUV6WYlA6mm3FbdC2iMUlkteZ_5y3-x6k8GuQyWe6z4VHMzDsncxrlOkcCwNZpukw4lkCe_nEOnvGgMrXUGRDoAwP0oN-UM-ddWSFAbRR06zppPiyE3RyRM34_cU8R5K/s400/Nrid8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354935445142739970" border="0" /></a>One of the ubiquitous four squares, this one is a bit different as it doesn't have a hip roof . A little bungalow next door. Note that there is no sidewalk here, yet the houses are still set somewhat close to the street. Perhaps the transference of siting practices for urban lots to a suburban locations when suburbia was new..."we've always done it this way".<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCohm81Y4hhbG_2GeMzorp8raXBz0H9cETE53G-fQplXOoJuTJCi0XzGyqTDhQheni0tLbY04PQyd7FucN35LujogPLy5RTy8VuJILOZqJX9LkBdladenPpbYMPR1r0TO5TjioUCMKnbz/s1600-h/Nrid9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCohm81Y4hhbG_2GeMzorp8raXBz0H9cETE53G-fQplXOoJuTJCi0XzGyqTDhQheni0tLbY04PQyd7FucN35LujogPLy5RTy8VuJILOZqJX9LkBdladenPpbYMPR1r0TO5TjioUCMKnbz/s400/Nrid9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354934319812792514" border="0" /></a><br />The Northridge area has some of the best bungalow, <a href="http://n.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Craftsman">Craftsman</a>, and "California doll house" style houses in Dayton. This housing stock is an unrecognized treasure. Here, two bungalows. The one to the left is probably earlier, and has some fine detailing.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii-1blOtJ-GzZvvsCAtPzKIyxCTTVwUvCLabynQQPiPe3Fpn_SgtK9EkC4Rw9Yn2LrTfzd5zkTGZc_Xk6Wt6eeN3nPS5UDiUVFW_99KMHM3TxiEl98-ne_J0tRzxWgkAAYbvl-rCBDipIC/s1600-h/Nrid10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii-1blOtJ-GzZvvsCAtPzKIyxCTTVwUvCLabynQQPiPe3Fpn_SgtK9EkC4Rw9Yn2LrTfzd5zkTGZc_Xk6Wt6eeN3nPS5UDiUVFW_99KMHM3TxiEl98-ne_J0tRzxWgkAAYbvl-rCBDipIC/s400/Nrid10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354934317095621826" border="0" /><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="on down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><img src="img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span></a>A 1940s cottage that is also a version of the "California Doll House" (the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/from_linda_yvonne/sets/72157600130746798/">famous concentration</a> is in Carmel), which uses exaggerated forms, distorted scale, and picturesque styling to create a storybook cottage feeling for small houses.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJPBzvJcbimbXG6nY0NBaT_HLbPiSzxFMC64C_FyPBBoID7JXkiEVrl-EGJMO7IwQjRTkrNx0Y-yzq-Bh1GZOuFqdhDwZVOzFUfqhZu07Rv7j15ohpNoxFwQZnTaT9V0v74TFXCGlgKp8/s1600-h/Nrid11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJPBzvJcbimbXG6nY0NBaT_HLbPiSzxFMC64C_FyPBBoID7JXkiEVrl-EGJMO7IwQjRTkrNx0Y-yzq-Bh1GZOuFqdhDwZVOzFUfqhZu07Rv7j15ohpNoxFwQZnTaT9V0v74TFXCGlgKp8/s400/Nrid11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354934310182525042" border="0" /></a>Three generations of urban vernacular. One the far left a version of the ubiquitous four square. In the middle a postwar houseform often found on prewar plats. The form might have evolved from pre-war bungalow cottages, but the styling and material are akin to the postwar brick ranch, except the siting on a lot is to put the gable, or short end, of the house facing the street, to take advantage of narrow lot frontage.<br /><br />In this case the lot itself was a large lot belonging to the house on the far right, but was split to put this house on it, increasing the density of the neighborhood. And on the right, another I house, one of the first on the street.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiyjlhPXexOJDbJI0d7iZsG83M3T3PB85UrvsDoUtPvrSao0Vc5-zX5WJQSlcmZtmhzkjPI43UEBUkLzpvkcT5HfosKXfBGqVAjfVsUqQoxDleVdzFH5QnSIX8Qwi66Nz5xgbv0ZKsA8Wb/s1600-h/Nrid12.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiyjlhPXexOJDbJI0d7iZsG83M3T3PB85UrvsDoUtPvrSao0Vc5-zX5WJQSlcmZtmhzkjPI43UEBUkLzpvkcT5HfosKXfBGqVAjfVsUqQoxDleVdzFH5QnSIX8Qwi66Nz5xgbv0ZKsA8Wb/s400/Nrid12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354934307364534866" border="0" /></a><br />Finally, another example of the excellent Northridge bungalows, exterior pretty close to original condition and with a nice privet hedge in the front yard. To the right is a postwar ranch, illustrating how build-out stopped during the Depression and resumed during the 1940s and postwar era, using quite different architecture.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9y9p2ezXVM1gawJ9VbL4t_WL7Il2ZJa0_jRoHSXQRxIE8Lb-ko9zi02eX2UW88-loMi48QebHb8Yq9HYBwbQCyNBtgRp-8tUaQf4mpeOyiK_OlrKD5Y_S4Avz7V5PPHPJmV3wenY_88t/s1600-h/Nrid13.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9y9p2ezXVM1gawJ9VbL4t_WL7Il2ZJa0_jRoHSXQRxIE8Lb-ko9zi02eX2UW88-loMi48QebHb8Yq9HYBwbQCyNBtgRp-8tUaQf4mpeOyiK_OlrKD5Y_S4Avz7V5PPHPJmV3wenY_88t/s400/Nrid13.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354934300584986786" border="0" /></a>The result is a visually rich neighborhood, avoiding the monotony of serial construction and housing from just one stylistic era.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-16070995741260459002009-07-04T16:32:00.004-04:002009-07-04T17:59:38.839-04:00Ohio Opinions on Gays & Lesbians (& guesses about Dayton)The recent<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span> <a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1322.xml?ReleaseID=1346">Quinnipiac Ohio Poll</a> has some ten questions on gay issues, questions #30 through #40 at the link. The poll breaks down responses by various demographic categories. The big finding is that over 60% of those polled support a statewide anti-discrimination law and support for civil unions is 50%-50%. Gay marriage is still opposed by over 50%.<br /><br />Theres's an interesting denominational split here, though. The poll asks three questions on degrees of recognition of same sex partnerships:<br /><br />1. support marriage<br /><br />2. support domestic partnership<br /><br />3. no recognition at all<br /><br />And then segements the responses by three denominational groupings<br /><br />1. Catholic<br /><br />2. Protestant<br /><br />3. Born-Again/Evangelical<br /><br />Of course full marriage recognition fails for all denominational groupings. Yet for Catholics the "no recognition" answer gets only 37%, vs 51% for born-again/evangelicals and 40% for Protestants in general. So a plurality of Catholics support some form of recognition, whether it be civil unions or civil marriage.<br /><br />This pattern of Catholic support for gay issues tracks across the other questions, too.<br /><br />Other results mirror findings in other national and state polls.<br /><br />-Support for gay rights increases with education<br />-Support for gay rights increases with income<br />-Young adults (Quinnipiac uses an 18-34 age cohort) support gay issues at a higher percentage than the middle aged and seniors.<br /><br />An interesting result is the born/choose issue, whether lesbians and gays are born that way or choose their sexual orientation. In this range young adults say lesbians and gays choose (51%), yet this does <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> affect their support for gay rights (66% support) and some form of recognition of same-sex partnerships (only 28% say "no recognition). The born/choose question also has the highest "don't know" answers, over 10% in all age cohorts and demographics. <br /><br />For entertainment value, there is question that asks: <span style="font-style: italic;">"In general, do you think society is paying too much, too little, or about the right amount of attention to the needs of gays and lesbians? "</span><br /><br />50% say too much, 15% say too little, and 24% say about right. I guess this is about media coverage of lesbian and gay issues; should gays sit down and shut up? Not likely.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dayton Opinions on Gays and Lesbians</span></span><br /><br />We don't know but we can make some guesses.<br /><br />The Dayton Daily News has taken strong <a href="http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/opinion/entries/2009/07/04/editorial_fehrenbach_was_right.html">editorial stands</a> supporting gay rights. Most recently on the don't ask/don't tell policy, which is a sore subject given the big defense community here. These editorials and news stories usually generate strings of homophobic commentary. Is the vitriol representive of ingrained local prejudice?<br /><br />Considering how long it took gay rights to come to Dayton (requiring a key vote from the reviled Rhine McLin, and perhaps one of the many reasons she is reviled) one can surmise this is the case.<br /><br />Daytonians (city and suburbs) are not highly educated, are not particularly affluent, and the supportive young adult cohort is leaving the metro area (Dayton has the highest rate of outmigration for this age group in the region based on a study from the 1990s). So Dayton is older, poorer, and less educated. Precisely the factors that lead to less support of lesbians and gays.<br /><br />One can say this is the case for Cleveland and Toledo as well. The difference is that these lake cities are heavily Catholic (more the eastern & southern European variety) compared with the Dayton area, which seems to be more evangelical/fundamentalist. In other words they are more like Chicago, possibly the most gay-supportive metro area in the Midwest. And Cleveland and Toledo did pass antidiscrimination ordnances earlier than Dayton, and have moved (especially the Cleveland area) on recognition of same sex partnerships. So maybe the lack of a substantial evangelical community is a decisive factor for making for a more welcoming and accepting social and political climate.<br /><br />Yet, this poll was a statewide poll. And evangelicals are 46%/46% split (!) on supporting anti-discrimination protection for gays and lesbians. So there is social progress, even with difficult customers like the born-again evangelicals.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-31500059013114597122009-07-04T09:41:00.004-04:002009-07-04T10:40:34.469-04:00The Big 80s in DaytonThe big recession and Michael Jackson’s recent passing brings to mind the 1980s, when there was another big recession and Jackson made it big, really big. And how did that decade play out in Dayton, economically speaking?<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Taking an Economic Pulse via Building Permits.</span></span><br /><br />One way to measure economic activity is by employment and unemployment. Another indirect way is to look at construction; the expansion of the built environment in response to demand, speculation, and financial incentives (such as tax laws governing depreciation and the availability of credit). The way Daytonology will do this is via building permits and construction employment, the assumption being that the volume of permits reflect the local and national economic climate (even if the permits didn't lead to actual construction).<br /><br />The Texas A&M real estate center maintains an excellent <a href="http://http//recenter.tamu.edu/Data/">web-page</a> on historical stats, which is the source for the numbers here. The numbers are incomplete for non-residential permits as they start in 1980 and extend only to 1995 for non-residential permits. Residential permits extend to 2009. Yet this is enough to measure peaks and troughs of the 1980s and early 1990s .<br /><br />And, since the numbers are for the entire metropolitan area one can take a regional pulse using the building economy as proxy.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Office Permits.</span></span><br /><br />Graphing out the office permits, and laying in the two large recessions that bracket the decade. The steep “Double Dip Recession” of the early 1980s killed the stagflation of the 1970s but also helped kill a lot of manufacturing, and was a key event in moving to a non-union, low wage economy. The early 1990s end of the Cold War recession was a key part of the Clinton election campaign (leading to the campaign staff catchphrase “It’s the Economy, Stupid!”). The effects of that recession were a bit delayed, locally, really hitting after the “official” trough.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqhQoJbYt89qe0C-H8DAqToM-i-3e9ieWQ-JDbfy5_EIwc6orSTm_MMQuQANcLBdpVBULDXsl2FoBm_mCLkUguUQx2YwIJwkNqy_3m8c_uSh1pnJHlzJ0iZCcjj2r-LrnKsCtnhOE8Lh2/s1600-h/B801.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqhQoJbYt89qe0C-H8DAqToM-i-3e9ieWQ-JDbfy5_EIwc6orSTm_MMQuQANcLBdpVBULDXsl2FoBm_mCLkUguUQx2YwIJwkNqy_3m8c_uSh1pnJHlzJ0iZCcjj2r-LrnKsCtnhOE8Lh2/s400/B801.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354601109012968882" border="0" /></a><br />As for office permits, one can clearly see a spike in activity at the end of the decade, which, incidentally, was the period just after I-675 opened to traffic, The 1980s was a boom time in real estate, but the boom came late to the office construction market in Dayton. Some of the products of the late 1980s boom: Newmark, Lexis/Nexis, the Colonel Glenn developments and the build-out of the Route 725/I-675 corridor in Washington Township. Other suburban landmarks were built earlier in the decade, like the Prestige Plaza tower near the Dayton Mall and some of the high-rises on Poe Avenue (along I-75) north of Dayton. The last two skyscrapers downtown, One Dayton Center and the old Citizens Federal tower, were part of the late 1980s office permit spike.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Retail Permits.</span></span><br /><br />This was a very good decade for retail growth nationally, and the Dayton metropolitan area was no exception. The Dayton Mall area saw major strip center and big box development, which extended east down Route 725 to Centerville. The first Wilmington Pike/I-675 strip centers opened in this decade, as did Cross Pointe in Centerville.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUowjPl5etvGpSCreLL2g2F2U-yg-k0y-QU9n30p2MEOTKI2xVSks5Sf7rKfCDbxRUi8b8sDGfeUsAz_FKD6eczWMsv_sj1IcNuS2fqHeXJz32u4hsCmmi3rw4pImEa7sAhbMPVSs1v3pv/s1600-h/B802.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUowjPl5etvGpSCreLL2g2F2U-yg-k0y-QU9n30p2MEOTKI2xVSks5Sf7rKfCDbxRUi8b8sDGfeUsAz_FKD6eczWMsv_sj1IcNuS2fqHeXJz32u4hsCmmi3rw4pImEa7sAhbMPVSs1v3pv/s400/B802.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354601107400288930" border="0" /></a>The 1990s would see retail construction activity in Greene County, at Fairfield Commons and Wilmington Pike, perhaps accounting for the recovery out of the early 1990s recession<br /><br />Retail and office construction in the 1980s was responding to the financial climate of the decade, particularly two tax laws (1981 and 1986) that affected depreciation of commercial real estate and a generous lending climate near the end of the decade. The boom did bleed over a bit into the industrial and warehouse markets.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Industrial Permits</span></span><br /><br />People were still building industrial and warehouse space during the 1980s, in fact the high spike for this time of construction permit came at the end of the decade, before dropping again to relatively low levels.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjus9BOp2AufDLaIrL-FSHLTGWLQ7qQrFSRoZT1jT8gZZFYjMRY9_JpCY47c4dokWMDM_DpJQxhTNntrKcQldo3x6f6ck3DjOu5ImD6tFXTvzeDumM2qEf-N_gIXMC_xKhbbvFOsv0R79uT/s1600-h/B803.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjus9BOp2AufDLaIrL-FSHLTGWLQ7qQrFSRoZT1jT8gZZFYjMRY9_JpCY47c4dokWMDM_DpJQxhTNntrKcQldo3x6f6ck3DjOu5ImD6tFXTvzeDumM2qEf-N_gIXMC_xKhbbvFOsv0R79uT/s400/B803.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354600620060576658" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Everything Counts in Large Amounts</span></span><br /><br />Borrowing from the Depeche Mode hit of that decade, we put the non-residential trends together for the big number and also separate them to compare.<br /><br />Adding the trends together, and laying in the I-675 construction period. A big construction project in its own right, I-675 improved accessibility on the edge of the urbanized area. Property that was held in speculation at the interchanges went under development after it was certain the highway would be built<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM5Qr3u4LzuXlGXqc04kRXFKd15_My98bGIK29-Ba6M1QshVP2b56bqeMkqfJERMgR3IPiPI8Nlyewk95J8g6rUkmDSbKNmIdlpls6ejarPSqOPEsXHIAzBEDwFKYWKkvjzKhjnXPOpElx/s1600-h/B804.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM5Qr3u4LzuXlGXqc04kRXFKd15_My98bGIK29-Ba6M1QshVP2b56bqeMkqfJERMgR3IPiPI8Nlyewk95J8g6rUkmDSbKNmIdlpls6ejarPSqOPEsXHIAzBEDwFKYWKkvjzKhjnXPOpElx/s400/B804.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354600616100105042" border="0" /></a><br />Separating the three non-residential permit types and comparing the numbers. The peaks of residential and retail construction were a bit off, with office peaking a bit later in the decade.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP0D5N1QM64a38vgpLomANfAHEa2Xq9Se6Pof5g1tnaoPyM2xfHimhFssJGoS1i_NO-4WHQq2LTu_GGerLuuohr4e-e9SyLB-_fzLqbgiICYrTxbz1XputzhFMdDc9eHHsbsiQuTZkfw83/s1600-h/B805.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP0D5N1QM64a38vgpLomANfAHEa2Xq9Se6Pof5g1tnaoPyM2xfHimhFssJGoS1i_NO-4WHQq2LTu_GGerLuuohr4e-e9SyLB-_fzLqbgiICYrTxbz1XputzhFMdDc9eHHsbsiQuTZkfw83/s400/B805.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354600614924761906" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2092439/">Robert Bartley</a>, the editor of the Wall Street Journal, called the 1980s the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/002901915X?ie=UTF8&tag=juddsbookreviews&linkCode=as2&camp=211189&creative=374929&creativeASIN=002901915X">Seven Fat Years</a> and they certainly were in Dayton for non-residential construction (compared to the nadir of the double dip recession). The 1980s (and the 1990s) gave physical form to the suburbia we know today, as well as adding two skyscrapers to the downtown skyline.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Housing Permits </span></span><br /><br />The Texas A&M site has a longer range of housing permits for the Dayton metropolitan area, taking those numbers to 2008. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0eKayxsVpFoej0az9n9wD6KKv0UkPoZ_wQITHV1Hbfu3B8jYQqG_ogs8ZT3L9Zf5MLemm2LTxWZ6Cx4y8ERfbt9W8K5GsEW6XcN39TSdZNoaBoStrRzPLz2zNMJo7MPC_dWlomPGfLhmz/s1600-h/B806.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0eKayxsVpFoej0az9n9wD6KKv0UkPoZ_wQITHV1Hbfu3B8jYQqG_ogs8ZT3L9Zf5MLemm2LTxWZ6Cx4y8ERfbt9W8K5GsEW6XcN39TSdZNoaBoStrRzPLz2zNMJo7MPC_dWlomPGfLhmz/s400/B806.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354600611901146114" border="0" /></a><br />Graphing residential and non-residential one can see that multi-family housing seemed to be tied more to the business cycle, with troughs corresponding to recessions. It’s interesting that the 1990’s boom didn’t see a peak as high as the 1980s, and activity pretty much collapsed in the 2000s, signaling a very anemic multifamily market in that decade.<br /><br />Single family housing peaked around 1987 and again in the early 2000s before collapsing in the latter part of the decade as the local economy slid into recession. It appears that the big run-up in the 1980s resulted in a somewhat stable plateau until the collapse after 2005. Notably, the “It’s the economy, stupid” recession of the early 90s didn’t drop single-family activity to the depths of the double dip recession.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Construction Employment</span></span><br /><br />The above were graphs of construction permits, not actual construction. One way to measure construction activity is by looking at construction employment. Using historical (pre 1997) and current (1998 and later) databases one can measure construction employment in the metro area from 1977 to 2006, a 29 year range. The only issue with this is that it would measure employment for public works construction, too (roads, utilities, schools, etc).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTox7_tbM8JKJOYBwt4-Sgv7Cg3IVBj7d0hgBFTGUpmMeMhy4shvw8N1EdIk6a40VePeNBwg0J4TZNvE0uFPM9D1Ho6ExOqQT2uQxkresfubJh5ZRJ45iQOojGFmPWZh4se8Z5HRdeoyL/s1600-h/B807.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTox7_tbM8JKJOYBwt4-Sgv7Cg3IVBj7d0hgBFTGUpmMeMhy4shvw8N1EdIk6a40VePeNBwg0J4TZNvE0uFPM9D1Ho6ExOqQT2uQxkresfubJh5ZRJ45iQOojGFmPWZh4se8Z5HRdeoyL/s400/B807.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354600599126414354" border="0" /></a><br /><br />One can see the 1990s run-up here, and also a second peak around the time of the 9-11 recession, before a bumpy slide down during the 2000s. 2008 and 2009 are not shown but employment has dropped into the 10,000-12,000 range with the recession (around 1985-1986 levels), erasing the construction job gains of the past 20 years. Still not as low as the trough of the double dip recession. <br /><br /><br />Since this time series goes back into the 1970s and knowing there was a steep recession in 1974, perhaps one is seeing the 1970s peak in 1979-1980, which seems quite low compared to subsequent peaks. Perhaps an indication on how anemic and stagnant the local economy was during the 1970s, when the metro area lost around 17,400 people.<br /><br />The 1980s and 1990s peaks actually improved on the 1970s when it came to construction employment, even as population growth was relatively minimal (15,300 in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000). <br /><br />Of course, population is an imperfect gauge of housing permits or homebuilding, as the market might be more responsive to household creation (as well as the credit market and the speculative environment) not raw population numbers.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-23193408600522855592009-07-03T12:18:00.004-04:002009-07-03T13:50:39.098-04:00Selling a CommodityThere is a smell of desperation in the air. The desperation of how to "sell" a bland and generic place like Dayton as a place to do business. <br /><br />Dayton is the average mid-sized Midwest industrial city. In other words it is a commodity, since there are plenty of average mid-sized Midwest industrial cities out there.<br /><br />So how do the economic development people sell a commodity? By selling a commoditity. And not just any commodity but the most basic, bland commoditity of all.<br /><br />Water.<br /><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="on down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span><br />Yes, thats right. They're trying to sell Dayton because it has a reliable water supply. Not really <span style="font-style: italic;">that </span>special in the Midwest; the home of the Great Lakes, largest freshwater supply on the planet.<br /><br />The Dayton Development Coalition has their <a href="http://www.h2openforbusiness.com/">H2Open website</a>, which is actually sort of clever with its watery animation....<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNoxX44ophAZ94TaU3R_iuClC1uFbcEtN7fHM6mQTskastBvWUll6e-Yl3RGqm3awEVpkT_BbMNOAZeBvwj569FhXAPWN6o4U76_ektM6I7vh4Iko4UUBkyWADyq6e_KuOxkr_zBAPYiEA/s1600-h/H20.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNoxX44ophAZ94TaU3R_iuClC1uFbcEtN7fHM6mQTskastBvWUll6e-Yl3RGqm3awEVpkT_BbMNOAZeBvwj569FhXAPWN6o4U76_ektM6I7vh4Iko4UUBkyWADyq6e_KuOxkr_zBAPYiEA/s400/H20.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354272497057665714" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The site asks the question <span style="font-style: italic;">"...need water for your daily operations?"</span> Which makes one ask what sort of industry need a lot of process water?<br /><br />A <a href="http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wuin.html">USGS fact sheet</a> on industrial water withdrawls suggests a few:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >"Some industries that use large amounts of water produce such commodities as food, paper, chemicals, refined petroleum, or primary metals."</span><br /><br />Well, the area already has some paper industry. In fact the big Appleton Papers off I-75 plant has expanded while other manufacturing operations have shut down. But, so far, nothing in the way of chemicals, refined petroleum or basic metals (in other words steel mills and and metal smelting). And since Dayton is surrounded by primo ag land one could see food processing. In fact there already is industrial soybean processing at that impressive Cargill plant on Needmore Road.<br /><br />So, perhaps this is more plausible than it looks at first glance.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-41587038158057537752009-07-02T23:36:00.002-04:002009-07-02T23:47:20.257-04:00The Return of the Tea PartyThe Tea Party folks produced one of the best-attended political events in recent memory back in the winter, and <a href="http://daytonology.blogspot.com/2009/04/images-from-tea-party-i.html">Daytonology was there</a>.<br /><br />The organizers have continued on, hosting a website, and organizing community groups to further the cause. <br /><br />And they are trying for a reprise, a second Tea Party rally combined with a good old-fashioned Fourth of July fireworks. But this time it's in <span style="font-weight: bold;">Brookville</span>: at "Golden Gate Park", 3 July, starting a bit late, at 7 PM. Check out the excellent <a href="http://http://www.daytonohioteaparty.com/Home.aspx">Tea Party</a> site for details.<br /><br />Unfortunatly this conflicts with the Cityfolk Festival for yer humble host, but if past is prologue there should be an even better turnout since the weather is going to be a darn site better than at the last event.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-48521636121919123052009-07-02T21:08:00.003-04:002009-07-02T21:47:25.164-04:00Tracking the Recession in Metro DaytonAn update of the <a href="http://daytonology.blogspot.com/2009/04/recession-comes-to-dayton.html">Recession comes to Dayton </a>post measuring how the Dayton metropolitan statistical area (or MSA) slipped into hard times. This time Daytonology investigates the past few months of job gains and losses and compares them with the last two "good" years, 2006 and 2007.<br /><br />The Bureau of Labor Statistics employment numbers are used instead of unemployment due to the funky way the unemployment numbers are arrived at. People who fall of the unemployment rolls don't count as "unemployment". So the unemployment numbers can improve as people exhaust their benefits and are no longer counted, even if they still don't have a job.<br /><br />A better measure is counting how much employment--jobs--a local economy is producing, or shedding. So that is the number used here.<br /><br />The graph is monthly <span style="font-style: italic;">private sector</span> employment, which rises and drops based on the month and season. If one graphs enough years a pattern emerges, which one can see in 2006 and 2006:<br /><br />1. A low in January<br />2. Increases in jobs during the winter, spring and peaking in June<br />3. A dip in the summer.<br />4. Another seasonal high in December.<br />5. A big dip between December and January.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi67BVk552_MlI-B9-KkHf-H3MO_Wj4140v-uRrm4Vl9xWTCOqrIAQUxOXf6dmSuxS8HCyScFzJBAfcJ_Ua0248VI5cQB-ss7xGUlOIhrP1RKFKH3JB5cMWUwaoitO57Zwi1QN03TY2InC9/s1600-h/Recc1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi67BVk552_MlI-B9-KkHf-H3MO_Wj4140v-uRrm4Vl9xWTCOqrIAQUxOXf6dmSuxS8HCyScFzJBAfcJ_Ua0248VI5cQB-ss7xGUlOIhrP1RKFKH3JB5cMWUwaoitO57Zwi1QN03TY2InC9/s400/Recc1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354035443433918914" border="0" /></a><br />And one can see how 2008 deviated from the monthly employment "pulse" , losing job sover the year before crashing in the fall and winter.<br /><br />Yet, it seems that the local economy is following the pattern of employment growth after January.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Comparing 2009 with 2006 and 2007</span></span><br /><br />A closer comparison of 2009 with 2006 & 2007 demonstrates that job creation in 2009 has been quite anemic, with February being the trough, losing about 800 jobs over the January low, but then making them up again in March. There is small employment growth in April and May. Compare this with the fairly robust seasonal employment gains in 2006 and 2007.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJNaVNVa1Svo7NBzuf7j7GjMngKj6GEzTa5PzPa-rDv0BUHqSvsOa7d7-Ttym8dJ-NDnEkZArZAFyLl7uFZQV0abcOOqBW5t7p5uvCXVb_oLLypCvY8dv4Q2hG_VEy6W4_VUKV6v1_cSq/s1600-h/Recc2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJNaVNVa1Svo7NBzuf7j7GjMngKj6GEzTa5PzPa-rDv0BUHqSvsOa7d7-Ttym8dJ-NDnEkZArZAFyLl7uFZQV0abcOOqBW5t7p5uvCXVb_oLLypCvY8dv4Q2hG_VEy6W4_VUKV6v1_cSq/s400/Recc2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354040928370799218" border="0" /></a><br />Yet doing a side-by-side comparison of month-to-month numbers it's interesting to see the close match in the April-May numbers, which seems to indicate that the 2009 economy is performing close to 2007 and 2006 in generating jobs, for that one month. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM6UPnLU-VGM91DaLz91x5Igrbs7OCtqn3LBK_yxEmir26CGSWr2qvcc_5wQV1MjIBJ42SSZRfwCjJYnDLCl3AXDJRQzPsiI8HjtVLNDnDbR5nCAFX9bjW8md3sWLSNcJcTB2Eeocuumzr/s1600-h/Recc3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM6UPnLU-VGM91DaLz91x5Igrbs7OCtqn3LBK_yxEmir26CGSWr2qvcc_5wQV1MjIBJ42SSZRfwCjJYnDLCl3AXDJRQzPsiI8HjtVLNDnDbR5nCAFX9bjW8md3sWLSNcJcTB2Eeocuumzr/s400/Recc3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354040921437916898" border="0" /></a>It will be interesting to see if the economy starts to follow the 2006-2007 pattern for the rest of the year. If so one can expect one more month of job growth (from May to June ), then a dip in July and August.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7572205562498024454.post-31380144609920872442009-06-28T09:54:00.006-04:002009-06-28T10:23:21.056-04:00Capital Strike against DaytonDaytonology usually doesn’t post much about partisan politics, but things are getting interesting so a brief excursion to the “paranoid style in American politics”.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">What is a Capital Strike?</span></span><br /><br />The concept of a “capital strike” comes from neo-Marxist theory. The basic concept is that capital (i.e the business community, including banks and investors) can go “on strike” if they don’t like a political regime, withholding investments and relocating work out of a country until resulting hard times forces the unpopular government to capitulate to the demands of capital or be voted out of office.<br /><br />The concept has maybe too much of a whiff of conspiracy theory to it, but perhaps it’s more correct as a description of a set of individual uncoordinated decisions over time by individual actors holding the same or similar values, indicating both a loss of confidence and a refusal do business in a place for various reasons.<br /><br />This seems to be the case in Dayton due to the lack of investment in the city and the steady drumbeat of critique. This has come to a head in recent weeks with the departure of NCR.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Business Loss of Confidence in Dayton: A Soft Capital Strike?</span></span><br /><br />The Dayton Business-Journal has a front page story on the business community having issues with the city: <a href="http://dayton.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2009/06/29/story1.html?b=1246248000%5E1851033">Businesses Critical of City Efforts</a><br /><br />It has some prominent quotes from Raj Soin, who has his headquarters at the old IBM building 1st and Ludlow, about his difficulties with the city.<br /><br />Soin is not just a local businessman having problems with the city bureaucracy. He is also a heavy contributor to the Republican Party, particularly the former mayor Mike Turner. Perhaps there is also a political interest in removing the current leadership in the city?<br /><br />Then there was the exclusion of the city manager, mayor, and entire commission, except Joey Williams (who is part of the business community, being the local CEO for JPMorgan Chase), from the politically connected Dayton Development Coalitions’ attempt to re-direct Strickland’s’ NCR bribe money to various econ dev things. Politically connected in that leaders of the DDC were heavy donors to GOP candidates.<br /><br />One wonders if it’s the Dayton Development Coalition who’s meant by the unnamed “regional officials” in this excerpt from the D B-J article<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >"<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Regional officials acknowledge a pervasive view exists in the business community that it is hard to work with the city. They add there also is an underlying lack of confidence in city leadership, both elected and hired, to overcome the challenges that lay before it, no matter how much effort is given".</span></span><br /><br />Then there are is the Dayton Daily News commentariat, with their steady attack on mayor Rhine McLin (see <a href="http://daytonology.blogspot.com/2009/06/dragging-down-dayton-for-political-gain.html">previous remarks</a> at this blog), most probably politically motivated to drive up the negatives of McLin<br /><br />It could be that McLin is a poor leader, but it is impossible to say due to the questionable motivations of her critics. But it is interesting that unnamed sources pretty much signaled that the business community doesn’t have confidence in the current leadership.<br /><br />Which might be why there is no movement on investment in the city or any private sector support of urban regeneration except from the central area planning effort privately funded by Dr Irvin (who is usually a GOP political donor, but has contributed to McLin in the past).<br /><br />It is noticeable that the only two large downtown private sector investments during the McLin era, Caresource and the announced renovation of the Arcade, are by outside businesses and investors without Dayton connections.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Local</span> investment in the center city is minimal. <br /><br />Contrast this to when a conservative Republican was mayor. During that era there was substantial involvement by the business community and other members of the local power structure in building the Shuster Center. Which proves that there are enough resources to make things happen downtown, it just required the will (and financial committment) to execute.Jeffereyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01294969786619943530noreply@blogger.com2