Melodies of Germany and Austria: 89.5 FM

The 89.5 FM frequency probably has the most unusual programming in the Dayton area. I've already mentioned the Hungarian Program on Sundays. On Saturdays 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM one can hear Melodies of Germany and Austria, “Melodien von Deutschland und Ostereich”, hosted by Dieter, Eva, and Marita. Usually its Eva und Marita co-hosting, but occasionally Dieter hosts by himself.

The show is a mix of schlager and volksmusik. For example one can hear songs like 'Patrona Bavaria' (a good example of volksmusik) as well as music from the Alps, a popular volksmusik source. Some of this straight volksmusik, but sometimes with more of a pop arrangement and orchestration.


The show also plays schlager, German pop music from the postwar era. Schlager used to be considered very uncool (probably still is) and not worthy of study, but with the advent of cultural studies there has been some interesting scholarly things written on this musical style, which interprets the genre in terms of postwar German culture as well as musical influences
One can hear old standards (called “Evergreens” in German) like Seeman, (Deine Heimat ist Das Meer) and artists like Freddy Quinn…
Freddy, known for his sailor/nautical themed songs, was Germanys entry in the first Eurovision song contest:

The show also plays more modern schlager, and schlager translations of US pop songs, where German words are sung to the American tunes (often having nothing to do with the English lyrics).

The show also has announcements of what the local German clubs are doing: dinners, dances, and so forth. They also do PSAs for non-German ethnic clubs, like polka dances at the Czechoslovak Club.

For a metropolitan area as small as Dayton to have a radio show like this is, I think, pretty special. The show is certainly a window on a musical culture that one doesn’t hear from very often in the USA, sort of an alternative style of pop music

Freinds to Save the Arcade

The FSA group has a nice revised website out, done by one of the volunteers...its also linked on my blogroll to the left.


Readers should surf on over there and print out the pledge forms and make a pledge to the back taxes fundraising drive. Just send in the pledge, no money yet. Also, there are some additional fund raising things they are doing, like selling bookmarks and buttons and raffle tickets for a new car.

Note that the next community meeting is next week, Thursday 23 August. There will be three times: Noon, 5 PM, and 7 PM

The website has links to two really good pix collections of the vacant buildings (surfing into those are worth the time); the vast majority are interior shots. Interestingly, both collections use a female model (different models, I think) in various poses:




Come to the meetings and volunteer, or contact one of the contacts listed on the website.

Changing Kettering

The discussion around the Section 8 issue in the DDN comments section indicates that Kettering people perceive a deteriorating situation in their suburb. This is probably true, probably quite noticeable to people who lived there a long time.

The thing you need to know about Kettering is that it's not a monolithic stereotyped postwar suburb. There are some very wealthy areas like "Kettering West of Far Hills" (a continuation of the Oakwood estate country). There are some old streetcar suburbs and Pre WWII/Roaring '20s plats. And then there is the Pearl Harbor Suburbia of, say 1939-45, which was the start of the build-out of the 1920's plats. Finally then there are the postwar plats, a mix of modernist ranches, split levels, and cape cods of various sizes, from cracker box to really spread-out. There is also a substantial amount of apartment construction.

Kettering had a substantial population of blue collar workers, between 20% to 50% in most of the census tracts east of Far Hills in 1970, the last good year for factory work that paid a living wage, This kind of job has seen a long term decline to 2000, and is probably even lower now with the industrial contraction since 2000.


One can see this declining income in the near term by tracking the earned income tax credit (EITC) filings as a proxy for income stats. The EITC has a ceiling of around $36K for families with children, so an increase in filings would indicate an increase in lower incomes. And indeed these filings have been increasing since 2000:
Another way a lower income area might be visible is via the prevalence of fringe banking:

“…the vast majority of their customers are people stuck on the bottom third of economic ladder. John Caskey, a Swarthmore (Pa.) College economist who has studied pawn shops and check cashers, says many of their customers are the forgotten suburbanites -- working people who live above the official poverty level but still have a hard time getting by.”.

...as well as thrift and discount stores and increasing retail vacancies.
And then there are the home foreclosures and sheriff sales. This is a problem all around the Dayton area, but Kettering does seem to have a clusters of these:


Putting it all together paints a picture of a deteriorating socio-economic situation in the north and east reaches of the suburb:

For a detailed look at Kettering's deteriorating socio-economic situation, with additional charts and maps of lower income areas, income declines, demographic changes, the housing burden, rental rates, crime stats, and "street photography" illustrating all the maps & charts click here.

After reviewing the thread at the link, one can infer that northeast Kettering is really becoming an extension of East Dayton, with incomes and rental rates equivalent to the city. There are also indications of a competitive rental market (about 30% of the housing units in Kettering are rentals), so there is no price barrier for Dayton people wanting rent in Kettering, though there is probably a differential in home sales prices.

I think this is what people are perceiving, that their suburb is under more economic pressure, and there might be more people moving up from Dayton.


Sources

MVRPC studies


2006-20010 Dayton-Kettering Consolidated Plan (homeless housing plan)


American Factfinder
& the Urban Atlas published by the Census in the 1970s (available in the WSU government documents department).

Brookings Institute EITC database

…and the "field research" of just driving around Kettering and thinking about what I'm seeing, and thinking about other similar areas I lived in.

Dayton Daily News gets it right re Kettering's isolationsim

I really don't mean to pick on Kettering. I really like that suburb. I really do. It is just such a nice suburb. And, can a place that produced Bob Pollard and Ted Rall be that bad?

But darn it they can be so parochial.

The DDN has a great op--ed condemning the place for rejecting that dispatch center, and calls for the county to press on with the concept without Kettering.

"Kettering critics of consolidation have gotten enough signatures to put the issue of whether to participate in the talks on the ballot in November. Some people think that voters probably would endorse keeping things the way they are, and that city council members don't want to be seen as being on the wrong side of the public."

"OK. But if voters are only hearing from those who want to keep their jobs or who think this is still the 20th century when it comes to public safety technology, that doesn't bode well for the future. Even Mr. Schwieterman admits that by going it alone, Kettering citizens will pay more — about $3 million over 10 years."

"The Montgomery County communities that are dedicated to finding ways to save taxpayer money and that can see the benefits of a bigger, more modern system need to go forward even without Kettering — and the other cities that, unlike Kettering, never sat for even a minute to discuss consolidated dispatch."

"One day the price will become too much for all of them to pretend they're islands."

Amen to that! And I will be exploring that soon, how Kettering is not an island.

Kettering's Hidden Poverty Pocket

The area in the red circle. While the recent "Section 8 Controversy" was about Oakwood folks up in arms about poor people living across Shroyer from them (which has been the case since at least the 2000 census), there is also a poverty concentration in the southern reaches of Kettering, off of Whipp.

Let's take a look:

I will be taking a closer look at Kettering's deteriorating socioeconomic situation later this week.

Tschermans!

The German Fest was relocated this year, to the Fairgrounds. Carillon Park raised their rates so they relocated to the Fairgrounds. I am not a fan of the Fairgrounds, but the new venue did permit the event to expand. There were more vendors (inside the round barn), and kiddy rides.

And, of course, lots of good beer. They always have a good beer selection here, both bottled and on tap. And friendly volunteers to serve it, too.
Dayton’s German ancestry community has managed to maintain an institutional presence more solid than one would expect, as this wasn’t as big a center of immigration as Cincinnati was. There are three German clubs in town, the Edelweiss, the Eintracht, and the Liederkranz-Turner. I think it’s the Liederkranz that sponsors this event.

Dayton’s “Deutschtum” was mostly an east side community, moving east on 5th, and then south down Wayne to Xenia Avenue (nicknamed “Dutch Boulevard” for its Germanic character). The German community helped support a decent sized brewrey industry here, too...check out Curt Dalton's excellent history of the brewing trade here.

German neighborhoods were the Oregon, Haymarket, St Anne’s Hill, Xenia Avenue, and probably South Park. The Germans also drove the formation of some of the older Catholic parishes here.






I really don’t know the history of this community as well as I should. There are a number of archival sources, but they are in German, as this was probably a bilingual community during the 19th and early 20th century, using German among themselves but English in dealing with others. This persisted until WWI, and perhaps even later.

Yet, by now, the German-Americans of Dayton are thoroughly assimilated, though new Germans do move into the area, supporting a German language radio program on Saturdays and German items in certain local food stores (like Charlie’s on Troy Street and the Brotzeit Deli in Lebanon, which has a strong Dayton-area patronage).

And, of course, this fun festival: food, music, dance, beer, sing-alongs (they give you a song sheet), makes it all very gemutlich!



For more pix click here

The Arcade Story in Four Parts

When I was heading down to the library to do some research back in June Leon Bey, who used to work in the local history room and still volunteers there, handed me a flyer for "Friends to Save the Arcade". After reading that I knew I had to help out.

Curious, and knowing there is a lot of hearsay around the Arcade, I decided to find out how the dire situation came to pass, and what was the history of these buildings at the very heart of downtown. I became totally engrossed in the subject. I even some vacation time to research it, spending days and evenings in the history room poring over musty city directories, yellowed news clippings and grainy microfilm, as well as online research using the DDN archives, the digital Sanborns, and the libraries Lutezenberger photo collection.


Here is the result of this, a history of the Arcade in four parts. Hopefully this won't end up an online memorial to a building left to die from neglect.

1, The Arcade Block in the 19th Century An illustrated prehistory of the block, including some "rephotography" using modern pix taken by yer humble host, combined with images from of the libraries Lutzemberger collection plus old city and Sanborn insurance maps.

2. The Arcade 1904-1975 This is a history of how the building was used. I look at public markets in Dayton, the construction history, and the types of shops in the market and the arcade, the different apartments, and the interesting businesses in the office parts (including the involvement of the Beerman interests. Lots of graphs, diagrams and colored floor plans. I did a lot of work with the old city criss-cross directories to reconstruct the Arcade occupancy and what type of businesses where there, through time.


The next two would be of particular interest to those of you interested in local politics, economics, and political influence.

3. Redevelopment and Bankruptcy..Mid 1960s to 1984. I spent a lot of time on this part, which required a lot of work with the news clippings and microfilm, as well as old planning documents from the 1960s. Fortunately the library had things on file, and the D J-H and DDN did some good coverage of this project, including the financing, which was all well-preserved in the clipping files, so the record is out there.

4. Bankruptcy, closure, the "Danis Era", to today. This includes that Arcade Centre urban renewal project, the food court, and the fishy dealings & motivations (IMO) that brought control to Danis, and that long closed period, with some personal speculation from yours truly to wrap it all up. So, pour yourself some nice cold iced tea or lemonade, put some good music on, and settle in for a (I hope) interesting history of this downtown landmark.