City Manager: Dayton Recovery Plan - Inclusion, Imagination, Investment

There’s been a conversation going on in Dayton over the past year–a discussion involving neighbors, businesspeople, community activists, elected leaders, city planners and administrators, financial analysts, and many others. 

What’s the topic of that special conversation? Well, nothing more than the future of our city and an extraordinary opportunity to have a giant, positive impact on that future. 

You may have already heard a few things about the Dayton Recovery Plan–a roadmap for helping our city emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, made possible by the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and its $138 million grant to the City of Dayton.

Here are the priorities identified in the plan developed under my direction and adopted by the City Commission, following the community conversation involving meetings, a survey and other participation opportunities:

  • Demolition of up to 1,000 blighted properties throughout Dayton;
  • Park enhancements and eight additional spray parks (in addition to park improvements made possible by the voter-approved Issue 9 measure in 2016);
  • Housing construction and renovation in targeted areas;
  • Sidewalk/curb repairs and tree lawn upgrades in targeted areas;
  • Support for black- and brown-owned businesses, economic development and job creation;
  • Investment in essential City services and City facilities.

The plan provides a framework for infusion of ARPA funding into targeted areas and focus neighborhoods:  Wolf Creek, Edgemont, Carillon, Miami Chapel, Five Oaks, Old North Dayton, Twin Towers and the Wright Factory Site in West Dayton, as well as other special investments across Dayton, all with a goal of disrupting multi-generational poverty, income, and health disparities, while enhancing the city as a community attracting further, ongoing investment. 

An opportunity of this magnitude calls for what we might call a series of “I-words”:  Inclusion (a broad community conversation); Imagination (creative problem-solving); and Investment (strategic, data-driven actions that can make a difference). 

Though there’s currently a lull in the conversation, there is still much work going on to ensure the prudent finalization and then implementation of the Dayton Recovery Plan. That work involves evaluating available data to guide important decisions—for example, examination (on a case-by-case basis) of structure conditions, tax delinquencies, ownership status and more when making housing renovation plans, or analysis of neighborhood population data and trends to help determine new spray park locations. 

During 2021, the City solicited applications from community groups and local businesses to apply for a portion of the recovery funds to address community needs. There were 93 eligible applications, with 42 recommended for potential funding. We expect the successful applications to be announced by the time spring flowers are in full bloom and awards to be finalized by mid-2022.

For more information on the Dayton Recovery Plan, visit the daytonohio.gov/arpa.

Oct 26

[ARCHIVED] Community Engagement: It’s happening in Dayton

The original item was published from October 26, 2022 9:06 AM to October 26, 2022 3:58 PM

Shelley Dickstein Chatting with Mr. Larry Williams of the Westwood Neighborhood at the October 1, 20Chatting with Mr. Larry Williams of the Westwood neighborhood at the Oct. 1 neighborhood conference

In recent years you may have heard local governments use the term “community engagement” more and more without being certain just what the term means.

I know the words can seem vague, but I can assure you the City of Dayton staff doing community engagement work are involved in very specific activities that have an impact in neighborhoods.

In fact, just two years ago, the City of Dayton reorganized some programs and activities into a Division of Community Engagement in the newly named Department of Planning, Neighborhoods and Development, with a purpose of further strengthening support of neighborhoods.

The division’s staff are responsible for involving residents in City government, communicating with residents about their concerns, and helping neighborhood-driven efforts succeed through providing useful resources. The division also includes the Welcome Dayton program, which supports the growth and well-being of Dayton’s immigrant communities.

To further define and illuminate community engagement, let’s look at just some of the recent activities in Dayton, some carried out by Division of Community Engagement staff and some accomplished by other groups.

Elements of the Dayton Recovery Plan – Dayton’s own $138 million share of the giant federal American Rescue Plan Act designed to help communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic while preparing for the future – are beginning to make an impact across the city. The City of Dayton has earned praise for its involvement of residents and community leaders in the development of the Dayton Recovery Plan. Through a survey and a series of public meetings in 2021, City staff members clearly heard the community’s wishes on how funds from the largest grant in the city’s history should be applied. That was community engagement in action.

A similar community engagement effort led by CityWide, Dayton’s non-profit development affiliate, occurred in 2018-19 following the closure of Good Samaritan Hospital in Northwest Dayton. The “PhoenixNext” project was an 18-month visioning process involving 600 participant and identifying the community’s ideas and preferences for reuse of the 13-acre site. Ground will be broken this fall for the Northwest Health & Wellness Campus, a multi-tenant, multi-purpose complex reflecting the vision developed by the community.

Annually, the City of Dayton’s 10-week Neighborhood Leadership Institute offers information, networking and hands-on learning activities designed to bring out and enhance leadership skills in neighborhood volunteers. The series is presented by the Division of Community Engagement.

Recently, Division of Community Engagement staff worked to involve residents in a cleanup in the Greenwich Village neighborhood, in cooperation with the City’s Department of Public Works, the Division of Housing Inspection and Dayton Police. Their success was evident as scores of residents joined in the effort, many going the extra mile with yard work at their own homes in addition to helping with cleaning of vacant lots.

And on Oct. 1, City staff and volunteers presented the annual neighborhood conference, this year titled “Above and Beyond: Elevating Our Neighborhoods.” More than 250 residents, community leaders and businesspeople joined in dozens of workshops, brainstorming sessions and conversations about strengthening neighborhoods in and beyond the city of Dayton.

These are just some of the ways the City of Dayton and our partners make a difference through community engagement. You’ll see more in the months ahead if you follow the City on daytonohio.gov or our social media channels.