This infrequently updated blog/website has been around since this fall, but has not recieved
very much mention. 
There is a thread parented by yer humble host over at Urban Ohio which has some interesting discussion, but nary a word from the other local bloggers.
Probably because they don't want to touch it.
On one level you can get mad.
On another you can see the blog owner working out some personal grief over the loss of his son, and this is how he's doing it. It is a tragic tale; the son was a star athelete in Bellbrook, and was apparently a contractor, too, while living out in Colorado. Apparently the son got mixed up in drugs, and was killed by two drug dealers. The full story is at the site, including DDN and City Paper coverage.
You can read the full concept at the linked page, but here's an excerpt:
You will never get the right answer unless you ask the right question?
"The question is what should Dayton’s Civic Leaders do about all the dysfunctional families in Dayton, Ohio that produce one addict & co-dependent after another that end up being criminals that victimize law biding tax paying citizens & innocent children & the elderly that have no choice.
"They are going to have to figure out how to get these people into organized programs of recovery or crime & violence will continue to escalate & end up here in the suburbs.
He has a point. Crime & violence certainly did end up in the suburbs, specifically the Dorothy Lane Wal-Mart parking lot before Christmas, where someone was shot during a stick-up.Makes sense that predators go were the prey is, and Dayton is too damn poor to provide much picken's for the bad guys. Yet this is just an assumption. One would like to see some hard data as to where the perps of suburban crime live (in many cases like family disturbances and such, probably in the suburbs, too).
What you'd do if find the residences for felony suspects and map them out to see if they are indeed coming out from Dayton (assuming this is public record).
But that's just verifying (or disproving) the Boycott Dayton hypothoses, and doesn't solve the high crime rate problem, which has been with us since the 1960s.
6 comments:
That is an ill-informed and simple-minded idea at best. It makes me angry... I'll paraphrase my comment there in case he winds up deleting it. I can't just let simple-minded proposals be swallowed whole by simple-minded voters and blog trawlers who might think it's a good idea, without at least putting in my $0.02.
"Boycotting Dayton is crazy. Completely, utterly bat-shit crazy. The answer is obviously not this. This is just crazy.
"It’s terrible that his son died, but this is not a solution. Depressing the economy of a city already in the shitter will only make things worse and force people and their problems, criminals included, out into the suburbs, or to other cities. Letting Dayton rot because we're angry at her apathetic residents is a stupid idea - one that i’m sure comes from good enough intentions, no doubt - but a stupid idea nonetheless.
"I don’t have any answers, but i can smell a turd… and boycotting Dayton is that turd. Statistics will show you that the more economically depressed an area is, and the more impoverished the citizens are, the higher the crime rate jumps. What do people do when they have nothing but bills and nothing to lose? They do desperate, crazy things. Boycotting Dayton won’t help, it’ll only punish the poorest of the residents here. Because businesses and the rich won’t take the hit, they’ll just pass it off to the people propping them up: employees, customers, etc. The city government won’t be ABLE to do anything because they won’t be able to collect taxes from the growing mass of impoverished citizenry.
"So that’s why i say that this idea is stupid and irresponsible. It really angers me that anyone would think that kicking Dayton when it’s already pretty famously down could possibly do anything but fuck this city up even more than it already is. It’s simple-minded AT BEST. It’s as bad as taking money away from schools which perform poorly; it’s not a solution at all, it only serves to make things worse. On this scale, that’s just dangerous and crazy."
This Boycott Dayton guy sounds a bit extreme and crazy, but I'll bet that there are a ton of other suburbanites that share some of those same anti-Dayton feelings - they just didn't go out of their way to publish a blog about them. In those feelings is an inevitable overlap of racism - covert and overt.
Imagine if everybody (including they Boycott Dayton guy) believed in the notion that we are all only as good as our weakest link. There is some truth to that statement, because as Jeremy just mentioned - the region cannot ignore the problems of the inner city and not expect to see those problems creep out into the rest of the region. The inner-ring suburbs are the most vulnerable - especially Kettering and Huber Heights, not just because they are the closest to Dayton, but also because they have older and cheaper housing options that are similar to those in the city proper. And as Jeffery stated, criminals go to where there is stuff worth stealing.
Another important fact that is often overlooked is that an overwhelming majority of crime in Dayton is between people who know each other and is usually gang and/or drug related. Random violence exists but is relatively rare - especially downtown where so many people are still afraid to go. Unfortunately the media does not make that differentiation, and people who watch the news can't help but be scared.
Finally, there are too many people in this region that act like Dayton is the only city in the country that has crime problems. EVERY urban city has a crime problem, and EVERY urban city has suburbs full of people who will not venture into the city.
This region will never prosper as long as it continues to let its urban core rot away.
I feel for his situation but have a big problem with his way of dealing with it. He didn't approve my below comment (which I had written before I read his background story).
"I’m amazed that your concern is purely for the suburbs. What about the citizens actually living in Dayton? The people that abide by the law? Do they have no value?
More confusing than that selfishness is this boycott of yours. These “organized programs of recovery” are not free. How will your action of potentially decreasing tax money brought in to Dayton help in this effort? That money has to come from somewhere. You’re assisting in preventing Dayton from doing the very thing you ask it to do.
If you were really serious about your boycott you’d quit your job in Dayton, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t even use the sections of the freeways that run through Dayton. But you won’t do that. You just want to kick Dayton around a bit, make asinine, illogical statements about it but still use it when you really need to. You’re a part of the problem not an answer to it.
So I’m boycotting you and this blog until you decide to really stand up for your beliefs—quit your job and never enter city limits."
He apparently did post my comment that it would be tough to boycott Dayton if you have jury duty or some sort of court date.
But I don't take this too seriously, except as a peculiar response to a personal experience with crime. What other city but Dayton would you see this as a response? Perhaps illustrative of a generalized rejection thats in the air here, hence this guys response takes the form it does.
I guess the situation in Detroit were people move buried loved ones out of city cemetaries would be a similar thing, but just maybe.
Yet this site has piqued my interest in Dayton crime..I want to blog on this a bit more.
someone said (i forgot who it was) :
"if you don't visit the bad neighborhoods, the bad neighborhoods will come visit you..."
What can be said about this that hasn't been said already? This sick man is perpetuating the very thing that is responsible for his anger. Maybe he can go in help those who need help. Lead by example, not by blame.
Thanks for the post.
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