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Dayton Business Journal...
Mayor: Dayton’s
future bright despite challenges
by Joe Cogliano, DBJ Staff Reporter
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Photo: Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell
As Ohio cuts funding to local municipalities and the federal stimulus
runs its course, Dayton is on its own going forward.
However, that reality that should be empowering, not disheartening,
says Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell.
“This new economic world requires us to be faster, sharper, leaner,
more creative,” Leitzell said. “Whether or not we agree on Governor
Kasich’s proposed $6.5 million dollar cuts to our Local Government Fund
is irrelevant — we have to hold the cards we’ve been dealt.”
The message was part of Leitzell’s state of the city address Thursday
evening at the The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community
Center in Dayton.
Leitzell opened his address by telling the crowd of about 100 he would
not follow the traditional state of the city speech formula, which
overplays the good and oversimplifies the bad.
Looking comfortable at the podium, Leitzell said Dayton must reinvent
itself and that collaboration would be needed to get things done.
“In the past people on both sides of the political fence were critical,
but in Dayton it should be that you can no longer be critical unless
you offer solutions,” he said.
At the same time, Leitzell touted a laundry list of recent successes in
the city and lauded each of his fellow city commissioners for various
efforts.
“Our future is bright even if our present is filled with challenges.
But let’s be realistic — change will not happen overnight,” he said.
“You don’t solve decades worth of decline in one year or four years,
and any politician who will tell you otherwise is a flat-out liar.
Growth is happening — slower than we’d like — but it is happening.”
Following the address, Dayton City Commissioner Joey Williams said he
agreed with Leitzell’s assessment of the positive things happening in
the city.
“There are challenges ... but I also think we can’t get so wrapped up
in the challenges that we don’t recognize some of the successes that
we’ve had,” Williams said. “Let’s celebrate the victories as well.”
Some of the positives for the region that Leitzell mentioned in his
address include the recent groundbreaking for GE Aviation’s $51 million
research and development facility at the University of Dayton. GE
Aviation, a division of General Electric (NYSE: GE), chose Dayton and
the former headquarters building of NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR) out of a
number of different possible locations.
He also mentioned new construction at Grandview Hospital, a new
building in Dayton’s Tech Town campus and Premier Health Partners for
keeping 700 jobs downtown as positives.
Leitzell also mentioned NVR Inc., parent of homebuilder Ryan Homes, has
purchased a building in Dayton’s Northwest Industrial Park and will
locate a manufacturing operation there, with hiring set to start this
summer.
While not mentioned, Dayton also is near a deal for the redevelopment
of the former United Parcel Service hub at the Dayton International
Airport. Overall, the region is growing with a new Caterpillar Inc.
(NYSE: CAT) facility and Boston law firm WilmerHale opening a large
facility just 10 minutes from downtown Dayton.
The region also is close to finding the first new tenant for the former
General Motors (NYSE: GM) assembly plant in Moraine, which hit the
region and the city of Dayton hard as it cost thousands of jobs locally
and hit suppliers to the plant as well.
The mayor’s full address is posted at his Web site.
Read it with links at Dayton Business Journal
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