What Is Going On with Ballpark Village?

The Dayton Business Journal today has two articles dealing with economic development in this region. One on the front page discusses ongoing questions about the feasibility of Ballpark Village. Another article on the third page talks about a firm headed by Dave Lightle interested in developing an aviation and space indoor theme park in the Dayton region. One prospect is Riverside, home of the Air Force Museum; another is downtown Dayton. There is no mention of Ballpark Village in this article. Nor is there mention of an anchor attraction in the article for Ballpark Village. What is wrong with this picture?

Is the Trolley Idea Gaining Traction?

There are two items on the DDN opinion page concerning the construction of a trolley system in the urban center connecting Dayton's historic sites and amenities. Obviously, this isn't something new. There have been several studies done, but nothing has come of them as yet. Money is always a challenge; i.e., is it the best place to put the scarce development/transportation funds the region has?

A growing answer to that question could be "yes." Perhaps investment in infrastructure connecting what we already have would be better use of funds than building another attraction. There are some examples around the country showing that economic development follows these kinds of projects.

RTA is downplaying the "Historic Trolley" proposal of 16 miles and suggests a minimalist approach, starting with a three-mile line connecting UD with downtown via the Oregon District. If that proves successful, add additional trackage to Carillon, Wright-Dunbar, etc. There's to be a meeting on the subject at the Dayton Convention Center on Thursday, at 2:30 pm.

Richard Florida's Dayton Lecture Tonight on WYSO

For those of you who missed Richard Florida's visit back in March, WYSO (91.3FM) will be rebroadcasting the lecture that was part of Wright State's Presidential Lecture series in partnership with www.soche.org tonight (11/27/2007) at 7pm.  The program can also be streamed on WYSO's website at www.wyso.org.

More details on the ongoing efforts with Florida's Creative Class consulting group will be coming soon.

Rumor Alert

MostMetro has learned that the GS Outfitters property has been purchased by Miami Jacobs College.  We're not sure what they have planned for the property but it is likely that they will be using the parking lot as a replacement for the current PMI parking lot they currently lease across the street from their building on Patterson.  That PMI parking lot is to be developed into another townhome project, and those plans should be coming out soon.  It is also believed that those townhomes are to be LEED Certified - in other words, GREEN!

It will be interesting to see what Miami Jacobs does with the GS Outfitters buildings - perhaps they are expanding.  If you know any more info on this, feel free to comment...

Laws of Urban Energy

There's an excellent article linked to Richard Florida's website called "The Laws of Urban Energy," written by Anya Kamenetz in Psychology Today. It points out that geography and location do make a difference when it comes to creativity and inspiration. Urban locations, both big and small, have this advantage even in the age of teleconferencing and . . . yes, even blogging. Check it out.

Miami Valley Planning & Zoning Workshop

The Ohio Planning Conference (a chapter of the American Planning Association) is hosting the 21st Annual Miami Valley Planning & Zoning Workshop on December 7th, 2007 8am at Sinclair Community College.  Among the many speakers will be keynote speaker Mayor Jay Williams from Youngstown, OH.  As you've read previously on DMM, Youngstown is a national leader in Smart Decline strategies, and Dayton leaders recently visited Youngstown to determine if some of those same strategies will work in Dayton. 

Also, ironicallly timed with our previous post about Flint, MI's ideas to demolish abandoned/obsolete houses and sell the properties to adjacent homeowners for $1, the folks from the Genesee County Land Bank Authority will be discussing this land bank strategy that includes different strategies for dealing with foreclosed properties.

Additional discussions will include:

• Bike-friendly Strategies
• LEED/Sustainable Housing and Development
• Religious Land Use
• Economic Development around Riverfronts (ie Ballpark Village)
• Senior Citizens and Transportation
• And others

For a complete agenda and other info, visit the event website.  And afterwards if you participate in the event, please let us know what you thought about the workshop.

Correction: I had previously posted that this event was being hosted by the City of Dayton, but it is in fact being hosted by the Ohio Planning Conference.

Another Smart Decline Idea for Dayton

Ok, we've now all heard about the Smart Decline initiatives being implemented in Youngstown, Ohio and being considered (?) in Dayton.  Here is another great idea from the king of struggling American cities - Flint, MI...

Creative Class in Dayton

Jeff over at Daytonology has a pretty good post about the Creative Class in Dayton, including maps of where the majority of "creative class" types supposedly live in the region.  I'm not surprised to find that while the expected neighborhoods of OD, South Park, McPherson Town and Grafton Hill ranked high, so did several suburban areas.  The Dayton region is very divided in terms of suburban and urban, with so many younger people who unfortunately have very little connection to the inner city.  Thus, there are many young creative types that continue to live in the burbs.  I also have to wonder if Dayton neighborhoods would rank even higher were it not for the fact that so many of the so-called "creative-class" people simply leave this region altogether for cities like Chicago, Boston, NY, SF, etc. 

Because of Richard Florida's broad definition of who actually belongs to the Creative Class - basically ANYBODY who works a job in which they use their mind to create or does creative things outside of work - I'm not sure it is meaningful to actually try to map out where they all live.  And as Jeff points out, the census statistics he compiled do not take into account all of those creative people who work menial "non-creative" jobs to simply survive while pursuing truly artistic endeavors (such as every single struggling musician I've ever known).

Progress on Saving the Arcade

Jeff at Daytonology and the DDN report on a new plan being advocated by Dayton developers for reusing the Arcade complex. This particular plan, first briefed on October 21 by Bob Shiffler and David Bohardt, holds great promise.

UPDATE 11/06/07: I just found out from Susan Gruenberg, the person who honchoed the Urban Nights event at the Arcade on September 15, that the Arcade rotunda will again be open for public tours the evening of the Grande Illumination, Friday, November 23. More information to come!