A friendly neighborhood blog is not intended to be a political forum and I have no interest in using this blog as such, but with the November 3 election around the corner I have been reflecting on several things.
In their endorsement of Mayor McLin, the Dayton Daily News said: “[she] isn’t a natural spokesperson, and she does not have the reflexes of [former Mayors]…she struggles to be a force in the room and in the wider community.” The newspaper’s assessment continued by saying that McLin is the most qualified person to manage “…Dayton’s ongoing downsizing in a responsible, smart way.” How uninspiring. [Do they mean that she has led Dayton through the past eight years of decline so who better to lead us into further decline?] See the Dayton Daily News endorsement.
I thought there might be interesting symbolism for our City in this picture, taken in east Dayton last week [at the same house pictured in the August 6 blogpost “…how does your garden grow?”
I became involved in my neighborhood association out of a desire to make a positive local contribution rather than any comprehensive understanding of City politics. The last 21 months of involvement in Dayton neighborhood leadership have been…interesting.
Last year [at about this time] Tom Biedenharn, Director of Public Affairs for the City of Dayton, spoke to a combined group of regional marketing, public relations, communications, and advertising professionals. His topic: the “Dayton Patented: originals wanted” campaign. The advertising professionals in attendance learned that the City contracted with an agency in another state to create the campaign. Despite award-winning advertising agencies right here in Dayton, it was determined that people in another state could brand us better than we could brand ourselves.
That day, marketing professionals learned that this expensive campaign is being used only “internally” around the Miami Valley, with no plans to use it outside our region to attract new business to Dayton. Communications professionals were encouraged to use the Dayton Patented logo on their own communications when THEY are trying to attract clients/business from outside our region.
It should be noted that the Dayton Patented logo bears a striking similarity in look and spirit to one local business. [How “original” is that?] This similarity renders it impossible for other Dayton businesses in the same industry to embrace it without risk of confusing clients and losing revenue. We can do better.
There are formal initiatives [including Downtown Dayton Partnership, Generation Dayton] and grassroots organizations [like DaytonCREATE and others] engaged in similar conversations: promoting and celebrating Dayton. But is City Hall engaged in the process or is it merely occupied with managing continued downsizing? I agree with Gary Leitzell. There IS a disconnect between City Hall and its citizens. We can do better.
Say what you will about David Esrati [and I know you will] but he does have a well-reasoned and articulate PLAN for addressing issues facing our City. You may not agree with some of the specifics in his plan, but at least he has one.
Say what you will about Gary Leitzell [and I know you have] but he does have IDEAS for re-tooling our manufacturing base and capitalizing on Dayton’s proximity to the major population centers of our country. Our location alone should be attractive to business—why are we losing jobs instead of attracting them? We can do better.
I get confused by the rhetoric. I don’t pretend to understand politics or City government. I don’t, in fact, know for sure who would be best to lead Dayton into the future. I just want Dayton to have a future. And I think we can do better…
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4 Responses to “rants and ramblings and reflections…oh my!”
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November 1st, 2009 at 10:07 AM
If this doesn’t read like the start of a political forum I don’t know what one would look like.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:09 AM
I haven’t had your experiences over the last couple years, but I’m heartened by what appears to be a new urgency from community leaders. I don’t see it as much in our elected politicians, but I think more citizens are beginning to speak out more often and are organizing into specific groups so that their messages are clearer than they have been in the past.
As noted by our new marketing slogan, Dayton is an innovative place. There is no shortage of ideas here. While I appreciate attempts by candidates to be elected based on their ideas, it is at least as important that they listen, consider, and act intelligently.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:37 AM
John, I think you were the one who called for more good old fashioned New England style debate!
November 4th, 2009 at 7:49 PM
Well, the outcome of the election is that we have a new mayor, Gary Leitzell.
I hope that these things serve him well: his “grass roots” in one of Dayton’s older neighborhoods, his home renovation experiences, his small business experience, and his work with citizens on volunteer committees. Sounds like he could live in our neighborhood, right? (Huffman has produced one Dayton mayor and one city commission candidate in the past 15 years.) Let’s invite him to one of our neighborhood meetings!