Happy New Year and Farewell!

2009 (OK, maybe early 2010) will be the year yer humble host departs Dayton, hence the last year for this blog. Though this would be a great stopping point Daytonology has some loose ends to tie up before shutting down.

But enough of this blog, more of Dayton:

There are some cool urban affairs things to look for in Dayton in 2009. Daytonology may or may not blog on them, but you will see them in either the DDN or at Dayton Most Metro or Esrati, and perhaps on some of the other city blogs, too (check out the blogroll to the left).

Shrinking Dayton: This was a post by "Acetone" at DMM. It'd didn't get much mention but is a real key thing as it shows the city moving forward developing a shrinking city plan, one of the very few in the US embracing this concept:

As the first part of a series, there will be a Town Hall meeting March 28 at the Dayton Convention Center focusing on a green, sustainable, neo-city beautiful vision for the garden city of tomorrow. Future Town Hall meetings are planned, including discussions on the future of historic preservation and walkability. Possible topics for the March 28 discussion could be adopt-a-lot and the Real Estate Acquisition Process, community gardening, Olmsted's 1911 vision of the City of Dayton, and population and housing trends.

Maybe more for Dayton citizens not suburban kibbitzers, so don't expect much coverage here. Still, a pretty cool and contrarian concept. And Daytonlogy likes contrarian.

Downtown Plan: Another effort to save downtown. This doesn't have an official title as far as I know, but it's being sponsored by Dr Ervin and the Downtown Dayton Partnership. This is probably the first true comprehensive downtown plan since the 1960s, aside from the 2020 plan earlier this decade. What makes this interesting as its a public/private effort, involving elements of the local business community as well as the editor of the DDN. So one hopes some extensive and positive media coverage. This will be covered at DMM a the board owner is on one of the planning committees.

Austin Road: Union Center with a Hockey Rink? Presumably we can expect the local politicos to put that hotel tax increase on the agenda again to subsidize RG Properites hockey rink/event center, which will somehow make the land around the interchange more attractive to developers and tenants. Color me "skeptical". The original plan for Austin Road made sense. This doesn't, especially if the place becomes more retail-focused.

Creative Class Stuff. DaytonCreate will have one year under its belt. One can follow the progress at the Dayton Create website, but there should be some stock-taking at the one year. Also keep tabs on the more grass roots stuff, like Dayton Dirt Collective and the Circus. DDC is one of the coolest things to happen here in the recent past. Another place to keep your eyes on is Garden Station at 4th and Wayne, which had a fun little Halloween event last year, the unnamed ground floor space in the last Cannery building on 3rd which occasionally has shows and events, and the next permuatation of the Dayton Music Fest.

City-Data Forum Dayton Board: Brand new and already has a small community of posters. alk, Give relocation advice to people considering moving to the Dayton Region (yes there are a few): Link.