Play Hipster Bingo @ the Dayton Music Fest.

...you get one free square...Blogger with Digital Camera.


Some memorable moments.

Folksinger at Jasper Wall:

this is a venue I need to check out more. Just a good feeling in there.


The Night Owl, which seems to have become the new "Elbos"? (meaning lots of touring bands. The DMF had a guest band from Michigan here..Minor Planets):

The scary punk/glam Luxury Pushers. They are playing later in the month at Canal Street Tavern...(27 Oct)

Finishing up at aformentioned CST. Enon plays to a capacity crowd in the humid, sweltering room...

DCDC: Excellent

Last night was one of the best collections of choreography I've seen. The Dayton Contemporary Dance Companys fourWARD show, honoring their recently retired artistic director Kevin Ward. All four dances original works, choreographed by Ward. A brief synopsis of each, from the program:

Etudes
"The ballet is a tribute to the memory of Josephine Schwarz...this is the first of a two-part homage to one of Dayton's dance icons...creating a dance wherein the tools (movement cells, motifs, space, harmony, discord, etc.) and processess(development, recapitulation, retrograde, counterpoint, etc.) are all on display seemed a fitting tribute to Miss Jos' life and work)."

Love and the Weather
"Kevin Ward recalls (tongue in cheek) that ...so much of the music coming out of Motown and other recording studios was about either love or the weather, or the influences of one upon the other. ...all this music maintains its joy of love and life in stark contast to the struggels of the time in which it was produced."

Offering to JTF
"...the dancer beigns that leap from student to artisit by discovering the dance hidden within his/herself. The inner joy and passion of moving is what will propel the student from classroom to the stage..."

Sets and Chasers
"A ballet set to Duke Ellington's orchestra recorded live on November 7th 1940 at a ballroom dance in Fargo, ND. The fusion of sounds includes the static of the local radio station, the voices of the announcer, and the background texture produced by the music and crowds..."

....perhaps the most intriguing was the first dance, as it was a showcase or interpretation of technique to some extent (the "craft" aspect was emphasised by the piano accompaniest music). Love and the Weather was the real crowd pleaser, set to some Motown songs (and who does not like Motown)...working with the music, but also interpreting attitude, too. The audience clapped along with some of the music, and the occasional applause one usually hears during a particularly fine dance passage, here turned into shouts of encourgement and affirmation.

Technically brilliant and inspired performances of outstanding work is what brings me back time and again to DCDC, and the other preforming arts events in Dayton.

For more about Kevin Ward and the other DCDC dancers and founders, click here.

For capsule descriptions of the DCDC active repertory click here.

South Park Urban Morphology

South Park is having the Rehabarama starting this weekend. So, a historical look at the development of the neighborhood.

Urban Morphology?

I discussed my interest in vernacular architecture and the urban fabric elsewhere on this blog. A related interest is urban morphology, the study of the development of city form, via analyses of street and lot patterns as well as how the city was built-out.

I only found out there was such a thing last year.

Urban morphology is an academic field of study in Europe, as there is long urban history there, going back to ancient time. Good USA works in this field are "Built for Change, Neighborhood Architecture in San Francisco", and St. Louis, The Evolution of an American Urban Landscape.

There is also a good PhD these on Over The Rhine urban morphology available via OhioLink.

USA town plans, however, are usually thought of as being pretty banal, some form of grid. Maybe not worth a second look?

Yet digging deeper, what seems obvious might not be so; analyses of platting and plan yields some history and permits a bit of speculation on how things came to be.

For Dayton, the story begins with the original town plat, including a town lot grid oriented to the Great Miami River, and an broader out lot grid extending east to about Tals Corner.

Out lots are found in the original plats of nearly every large city in the Ohio Valley; Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Indianapolis all had out lot plats, which helped generated the street pattern of these cities. The concept apparently originated in the Mid Atlantic colonies, and was brought west with the initial post-Revolutionary War town plats in Kentucky and the Northwest Territory.

The Cooper Out Lots

Though Dayton was platted in 1795, title was uncertain. Surveyor Daniel N Cooper acquired pre-emption rights in 1801 from the Federal Government, and re-platted the town and eastern out lots in 1802.

Subsequent to the first plats Cooper platted three ranges of out lots extending south of the town to a east-west section line of the Federal rectangular coordinate survey system (later Stewart Street). Apparently Cooper owned all this property, possibly extending eastward to at least a north-south section line.

The fact that all this land was in private ownership is key, as that land subdivision did not have to follow the rectangular coordinate system, oriented to the four cardinal directions. Land could be platted via metes and bounds, with parcels in any shape.

This was the case with the Cooper out lots, which followed the lines of roads out of town to the south, and also the lay of the land, partially following a low bluff that marked the edge of the Miami river flood plain. Cooper may have thought of this rise as a good mill location,(which it was to be later). Lanes were included in the plats as access to the out lots, which later became Hickory and Brown Streets.

The topography probably drove the location of Warren Street, which is named as it led to Warren County to the south. The direct route out of Dayton, following Main Street, would have encountered Fair Grounds Hill, which would be a substantial grade to climb for freighter wagons and stages heading toward Cincinnati during the pre-canal era.

An alternative lower slope route out of the city lay to the east, between Fair Grounds Hill and what is now Woodland Cemetery. Warren Street angles southeast to take advantage of this gap.

There also was probably some sort of intermittent stream or watercourse that followed this route from the east, across today’s South Park.




Canal Era Plats and Out Lots

Though growing, Dayton did not grow beyond its original town plat until the arrival of the Miami and Erie Canal in 1829. The canal followed the route of an old tailrace, which followed the course of a slough or floodway between the Mad River and Great Miami. This tailrace was in existence as late as 1839, according to the map below.

The executors of Cooper’s estate platted additional out lots in 1827, possibly anticipating the canal, or in reaction to population growth in Dayton. These out lots cover much of present South Park. The out lots follow the orientation established by the Cooper plat along Hickory Street, but shift to an east-west orientation further south.

In 1832 Seelys Ditch was dug. Intended as a branch canal for commercial use, the ditch was the location of some early town lot plats, some of the first extensions of the city beyond the original town plat.


A close-up of the South Park area.

Based on an 1839 map. One can see the original streets of South Park here, as country lanes. The first town lot plat in the South Park area appears, showing how blocks of out lots could be bought by speculators and subdivided into town lots.

Though this map doesn’t show it, I speculate there still was a watercourse running through the southern part of the land, south of Oak Street. The line of Oak Street was to drive the orientation of the Park Drive plats:

Mid 19th Century South Park

30 years after the 1839 map, this 1869 map shows considerable extension of platting. Park Drive appears, as well as out lots platted into city lots along Hickory and especially along Warren and Brown.

Apparently (my speculation) the area to the east of the north-south section line was platted by the City of Dayton as out lots in the 1840s. I don’t know how extensive this was or the configuration, but it implies the city had some control over this land (perhaps acquiring it from the Cooper estate?)

Another key change was that between 1850 and 1869 Brown Street was cut through to make a more direct connection to Warren. Thus, Brown and “Old Brown” Streets. Warren south of Oak is renamed Brown.

The old out lots are outlined in red, showing how they generate the street system and lot division; the urban morphology palimpsest for this part of Dayton.


Taking a look at the urban fabric. Red boxes show a structure on a lot (sometimes more than one).
Removing the base map patterns emerge. Perhaps one can see “Slider town” (the old name for South Park), as sort of a suburban area, at the Brown/Warren/Oak intersection.? Note that this was the location of the infirmary or pest-house, where people with communicable diseases were quarantined.

In this pre-public transit era the outskirts of older Midwestern industrial cities like Dayton was often for the working class and poorer people, living in small houses. Country villas might be scattered in the fringe too, but for suburban town lots, it was for the less well-off.


A close –up of the “historic district” part of South Park. Note this map shows buildings on lots. A great resource for historic preservationists and vernacular architecture buffs. Note the streets west of Park Drive, between Park and Warren/Brown: lots of buildings shown. Are they still there? Or have they been replaced? Another interesting thing is that how much of this area was not built on yet. South Park is mostly a later 19th century neighborhood
Though some of the old out lots are shown vacant in 1869 they were subdivided in 1870, resulting in the more-or-less final form of South Park. Horse cars extended through the area in the early 1870s, first on Brown, then on Wayne.

The water course, from east Dayton is now the “city drain” , shown running down the middle of Park Drive, going underground (into a sewer?) at the west end of the drive.



I will take a closer look at the South Park platting history in a later post.

(and if you want a closer look at these maps, just mouse over them an click...they will enlarge)

Things to See/Places to Go

Dayton has a lot going on this weekend

First off...the Dayton Music Fest, which promises to be a pretty good show. Most of the venues are in the Oregon (exception being Canal Street Tavern).

I saw most of the pre-show at the Oregon Express, and was impressed by the Lab Partners.

Tickest are $10 (gets you into all the clubs). Here's the schedule:

Saturday October 6

CANAL STREET TAVERN
9:00- 9:35/ The Audible Influence (Dayton Band Playoffs winner)
10:00- 10:35/ Shawen Acres
11:00- 11:35/ Shrug
12:00- 12:35/ The American Static
1:00- 2:00/ Enon

OREGON EXPRESS
9:30- 10:05/ Blaxeed
10:30- 11:05/ Fairmount Girls
11:30- 12:05/ The Story Changes
12:30- 1:30/ Luxury Pushers

NITE OWL
9:30- 10:05/ The Goody Two Shoes
10:30- 11:05/ Minor Planets
11:30- 12:05/ HQAX
12:30- 1:30/ My Latex Brain

THE TROLLEY STOP
9:00- 9:35/ Wes Tirey
10:00- 10:35/ The Sweep
11:00- 11:35/ Melonballer
12:00- 12:35/ The Sailing
1:00- 2:00/ Joe Anderl

THE TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION
9:30- 10:05/ Kentucky Overflow
10:30- 11:05/ Once-ler
11:30- 12:05/ Human Reunion
12:30- 1:30/ Sleepybird

CREATIVE SOUND CAFE (free and all-ages)
9:00- 9:25/ XL427
9:35- 10:00/ Joe Anderl
10:10- 10:35/ Kris N
10:45- 11:10/ Wes Tirey
11:20- 12:00/ Towhee

(cut & pasted from Audendi)

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The Dayton Art Institute has their Oktoberfest. This apparently is a pretty good place to get better beer, but I recall, from going years ago, they also have an arts and crafts fair.

Adults $5. Heres' the schedule:

Saturday, October 6
Live Entertainment
Time Band Location
10:00-12:00 Future Site Main Stage
12:00-2:00 Oakwood Accordion Band Food Tent Stage
12:30-2:30 Sauerkraut Band Main Stage
3:00-4:00 The Fries Main Stage
3:00-5:00 Buzzcats Food Tent Stage
5:00-7:00 Stranger Main Stage
8:00-11:00 The Hathaways Main Stage


Sunday, October 7
Time Band Location
12:00-2:00 Dayton Jazz Ensemble Main Stage
1:00-3:00 Sauerkraut Band Food Tent Stage
2:30-4:30 24/Seven Main Stage
4:00-6:00 Dayton Jazz Quartet Food Tent Stage
5:00-7:00 Ticket to Ride Main Stage

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The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company has their fall concert this weekend. If you have not seen the DCDC this is a must -see. A nationally recognized dance company based in Dayton.

This concert is a tribute to choreographer Kevin Ward. 4 dances: Etudes (2006), Offering to JFT (1996), Love and the Weather (1984) and Sets and Chasers (1998).

A word on dance. Dayton is quite unusual for a city its size to have three professional dance companys. I have come late to the dance scene here, but am hooked on this art form.

I am not particularly a balletomane (yet), but the Dayton Ballet is excellent. Possibly Dayton's premier performing arts institution, and a presenter of new work, too. I particularly like their repetory concerts, where they do a set of more modern dances, but informed by the classical tradition. Their story ballets are probably more popular with local audiences, though. The one I recall as being quite good was America's Robin Hood.

DCDC and Rhythm in Shoes are more contemporary, and have collaborated in the past. DCDC has recieved national recognition and is equal to the Dayton Ballet, but in contemporary dance. DCDC tours quite a bit.

I've posted on RiS below. RiS is more local, but is beginning to tour more, so one can expect them to become better known with time.

Politics: (big) Early Money.

Most of the Dayton blogs are either political or have a political subtext. This "political" character is either ideological (usually some species of conservatism) or national (talking about aspects national politics). I'm not really into politics anymore, but still enjoy the mechanics/horse race aspect of it.

To run campaigns, particularly statewide and national campaigns, one needs money. One way of tracking money and the popularity of candidates with big donors is via the Fundrace site. This was a lot of fun in 2004 as they not only listed large (over $200) contributors by street address and also by zip code, but also provided maps of the US by county and 3-digit zip. The larger US metro areas had maps showing donor clusters (for Ohio I think they only had Cincy and Cleveland).

In 2004 Fundrace was stand-alone. FundRace2008 appears to be hosted by left-liberal blog "The Huffington Post". They have the early money primary race contributors online. This was my source for Dayton area donor data.

Taking a closer look at the Dayton area, I tabulated the results for 47 zip codes (including Tipp City, Springboro, Waynesville, and eastern Greene County) for Dayton & suburbs.

Of these 27 had contributors, with the top zips in both # of contributors and money being in the Far Hills corridor: 45458 and 45459 (Centerville), 45429 (Kettering), and 45419 and 45409 (Oakwood/UD/Southern Hills areas). Th anomaly was a large household contribution (3 people at the same address giving to the same candidate) in the Germantown area: $9,200 to John McCain. I don't count that as in the top five.

Here is how the donors sorted out by the familiar Red & Blue color scheme:



How it breaks out by party. The GOP has the expected distribution, with Romney #1 followed by Giuliani (this data is probably from before Fred Thompson joined the race). For the minor candidates, in this area Brownback leads Ron Paul (the single military officer donor contributed to Brownback) for large contributions.

The Democrats show Obama being quite popular with the local donors, followed by Clinton. Unexpectedly, New Mexico politician Bill Richardson came in number three, beating out Edwards.

Note again these are large contributions. The volume of small donors...the $20 and $50 contributions...is not shown here.

I might revisit as we head into the primary season and general election.

If one is interested in 2004 contributions, that info is still online.

Daytons Dying Public Transit

..... article in the Dayton Daily News:

RTA Director: Budget Cuts Needed

"Executive Director Mark Donaghy outlined preliminary numbers and said trustees will need to carve nearly $2.4 million out of the $58.9 million budget unless they want to use reserves.

"Beginning last year trustees set a policy of balancing the budget without using reserves. Those reserves have dwindled from $51 million in 1999 to $31 million this year.

There's more at the link, including mention of flat sales tax receipts (a sign of a weak economy, or that retail expansion is now occuring outside of Montgomery County?)

RTA is not a particularly pleasant experience to ride, as the vast majority of customers are either quite poor...too poor to run a car.... or have some sort of mental or physical disability. Service cuts to save $$ make RTA less and less convenient and less and less viable.

I suspect that it's recognized that RTA isn't a viable form of public transit, as that explains the emphasis on putting in parking garages that are connected or associated with new office development, both withe Caresource, Workflow One, and in Citywides planning document that I mentioned elsewhere in this blog. The idea is that people will prefer to drive to work downtown rather than take the bus.

The Dying City

An experiment using Ian McHargs overlay technique to map out the decline of Dayton.

Ian McHarg (d 2004) was a landscape architect but is known more for his contributions to planning than for his design work. He helped originate the concept of ecological landscape design, and developed an overlay technique of site analysis. McHargs book, Design With Nature, explains all this with a series of philosophical chapters alternating with case studies & examples from McHargs practice and teaching at Penn.

The overlay technique, before computer graphics, was done using thin transparent paper. It mapped out various environmental constraints or values, then overlaid, resulting in a composite. The darker the area in the composite, the more constraints. In this example it is used to determine the least ecologically sensitive route for a highway or railroad



Though used to map ecological and environmental constraints/values this technique could also be used for social and economic factors, using composites to map out the heaviest concentrations of urban pathology in a city.

There is an example in Design With Nature, where the various social and health pathologies of Philadelphia are mapped out, then overlaid in a composite.

The following is an example for Dayton for housing, but a limited example due to the limitations of my computer software.

The source for the information is the “2006-2010 Dayton Kettering Consolidated Plan":a 2.19MB file available for download at the city Planning and Development On-Line Document Library.

The following are the composite maps made from the data:

This map overlays the following factors (economic/demographic factors).

1. Decline in House Sales Price
2. Foreclosure Rates
3. Vacancy Rates
(an additional factor could be rate of population decline over time., by census tract)


This map overlays additional factors (physical factors)

1. % structurally sound
2. Demolitions
3. elevated blood lead level clusters in children (from leaded paint)(an additional factor could be reduction in number of units over time, by census tract)

Then a composite map, showing areas I identify as areas one can expect to decline into slums in next 20 years or so, or end up abandonded:
One could also overlay the income/poverty rates to show that the areas with declining housing are also the ones with the fewest means to repair deteriorating property and abate health hazards like lead paint and asbestos. The vicious cycle ensues, as property falls out of the housing market and eventually ends up boarded up and demolished.

The inescapable conclusion from these maps is that large areas of Dayton are dying. Perhaps this accounts for the unofficial urban triage going on, where some neighborhoods are unofficially written-off (Santa Clara)and resources committed elsewhere.

Eventually the city will look more and more like this:
..sort of an urban savanna ecosystem, once the last houses come down.