IF they are allowed to vote.

Twenty years ago, at the turn of the century, TPTB accepted this weirdly optimistic plan. (See link below)

Unfortunately, little was accomplished to attract important investors/corporations on the north and west sides of the city. In addition, the completed Rt 35 Northwest Connector did little to encourage the types of businesses that would provide living wage jobs along its corridor that extended into NW suburban communities. People buzzing by to connect with the I-75/I-675/I-70 corridors don't see the neighborhoods--just years of vacant undeveloped property. Recently, the repair of tornado damage has stressed the area's capacity for change and growth as well. Perhaps this storm will erase the memories of those "good ol' days before THE FLOOD of 1913 against which everything to do with growth and change in Dayton seems to be measured.

I've been reading articles like this one for 40 years. Being one of the most geographically racially polarized areas, Dayton and its suburban cities, especially to the central downtown areas as well as areas north and west of the city, the failure to thrive has been, IMHO, has been the result of the instilled systemic racism under high-level GOP government policies that kept whole neighborhoods of city and nearby suburban communities that quickly resolve into nearby rural farmlands, unable to work together to decrease poverty and its co-conditions, hunger and blight, to improve education in the public K-12 schools despite centrally located colleges, to maintain the quality and safety of residential projects, plats, and whole neighborhoods.

All areas of corporate business have been inhibited -- retail, manufacturing, technology, and services -- leaving small entrepreneurs to risk it all by helping themselves to eat as well as those not yet completely "licked" into the despair of poverty where once Dayton was an upcoming 90-minute market - it's really sad to see the rejection for these geographic compass points of Dayton so well connected to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and points rural areas east (all heavily RED and/or equally polarized), but I don't think DeWine's party has the least interest in making things happen. DEMS, as THE party of diversity and inclusiveness, need to turn the whole State of Ohio BLUE for recognition of what can be accomplished here and in these cities.

I'm hoping for that as much as I was when I took the leap away from family and friends to live there for 20 years and mourned the loss of those dreams, for the kids' future, for my Plan A for retirement, for the many good jobs there, for my home a mere 10 minutes from the area of this article, and for friends as close as family, when I needed to move away before I, too was smothered into the oblivion that Dayton had become for our family.

Here's that Dayton Plan, if anyone's interested: https://www.daytonohio.gov/DocumentCenter/View/107/CitiPlan-2020-PDF?bidId=