# Tell Me All About Dayton, OH **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 16, 2006, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-all-about-dayton-oh/352858 "2006-04-16T05:15:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-all-about-dayton-oh/352858/41 "2017-12-09T14:31:23Z")
Dayton : like Toledo, but not as fancy. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-all-about-dayton-oh/352858/42 "2017-12-09T14:57:00Z")
the upside to Dayton is that’s where I got to drive a 100+ mph 5 liter hydroplane. the downside was that Dayton is in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-all-about-dayton-oh/352858/43 "2017-12-09T15:53:16Z")
11 year zombies are kinda creaky and over the hill. Rather like Dayton. We have several residents here who are from the Dayton area. In 2015-2017 they describe the area as mostly economically moribund. They own houses and commercial property they simply can’t sell; no buyers. They have small businesses failing for lack of customers with jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-all-about-dayton-oh/352858/44 "2017-12-09T16:29:19Z")
> [@allpurpose](#): > > Dayton was a vibrant city until they started electing funeral directors to run things. What does it say about your city when it’s run by funeral directors? Could it be a slow death? It certainly seems that way in the case of Dayton. The city directors are responsible for a tremendous revitalization of the downtown area despite the loss of a historically powerful manufacturing base. The baseball team you dumped on was once a vacant parking lot and rail head for a long defunct factory. That entire area has been completely renovated and continues to grow. Virtually every single building around it has been renovated and repurposed from old factories. It goes on for many blocks in every direction. This was driven 100% from the City’s efforts to revitalize the area. It was DEAD and now it’s spreading like financial kudzu. So your assessment of the planning efforts is just mind numbingly false. The city took pieces of it’s history and turned it into a walking parkway of delightful mini-monuments that serve as the backdrop for public festivals. They could not have done a better job of making lemonade from lemons. Gone is the vacant Sears and surrounding brownfields, replaced by a riverscape with 150’ rivery fountains, walkthrough fountains for kids, bikeways, apartments, bars, restaurants and a brand new library. > [@allpurpose](#): > > We got a minor league baseball team. Big deal…How about actual baseball fields for kids? But not many kids want to play baseball anymore so I guess that’s a wash. Yes it IS a big deal to have a stadium filled with children who enjoy watching their local team. If kids gravitated away from baseball in the past it’s because they didn’t have the excitement of a local team to inspire them. > [@allpurpose](#): > > Air force museum? Let’s celebrate being able to drop bombs on innocent civilians. The celebration would be the freedoms won directly from the efforts of that Air Force base going back to WW-I. > [@allpurpose](#): > > Dayton began dying when the big industries began leaving town with little to nothing to replace them. It seemed like the only growth industry in Dayton for quite some time was funeral homes and hospitals. Hospitals are good to have, but if the employment rate is tanked even hospitals don’t mean much if most of the people in the city can’t access medical care. That you would even take a shot at the hospitals in Dayton is mind-numbingly stupid. For a city of this size it has a substantial medical presence complete with a major children’s hospital. I don’t know what city you’re moving too but don’t let the bitter sands of time get in your way. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-all-about-dayton-oh/352858/45 "2017-12-09T18:24:54Z")
I agree with **Magiver** … Dayton has (amazingly) transformed itself over the last decade. One of my coworkers is in the process of purchasing a bachelor pad that overlooks the ball field. Since I last participated in this thread, UD has greatly expanded, and they even purchased the old NCR headquarters building. A lot of microbreweries have popped up (e.g. Warped Wing, Carillon Brewery, Toxic Brew, Dayton Beer). The hospitals have expanded and improved. I’ve heard RiverScape is really nice; I still need to visit. And then there’s the Schuster Center. And the Dayton Art Institute. The [National Museum of the USAF](http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/) is probably the most incredible thing to see. People come from all over the world to visit it. Dayton has a lot of suburbs, and the homes & land are spacious and _cheap_. You can live like a king on a modest salary. WPAFB is the largest single-site employer is all of Ohio. It employs thousands of scientists and engineers, including me. In addition there are lots of high-tech industries in and around Dayton. There are lots and lots of small, quaint villages outside of Dayton, where you’ll find restaurants, wineries, and boutique shops. If you’re into outdoorsy stuff, there are a number of lakes and rivers for fishing and boating within 45 minutes of Dayton, and the bike trails are probably the best in the nation. If you’re into whitetail deer hunting, we have the biggest and healthiest ones in the country. Of course, there are drawbacks. Winters are long, wet, and dreary. Drugs and crime are high in certain pockets of Dayton. (If you stay out of those areas, you’ll be fine.) We’re also not on a big lake or ocean. Cars rust. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-all-about-dayton-oh/352858.md?page=2)