The Ghosts Of Suburbia!

Dayton, Ohio's inner suburb is officially a "ghost town".

Sometimes I've often talked about the situation in my community of Dayton, Ohio. Back in 2007, I've went to YouTube to do "A Tour of Poor Dayton" series. I've outlined the situation of my community in video and shared it with those who were familiar with the situation.

I've won praise for being an advocate for my community. But with this praise came the harsh criticism.

Often, the "you can't fix stupid" crowd would go off on me because I apparently dogged on the city.

How I've would even consider Dayton, "poor"?

I've never said the city was "poor". The situation where businesses are dying and the community is facing a terrible future is the only thing I've talked about. It's a process that is happening in most rust cities where manufacturing was the only thing that kept it going.

Target is closing in the suburb of Trotwood.

Dayton does has revenue. It's just not enough people to experience the joy! People are leaving this city in the masses. Dayton lost its metropolitan status when Springfield broke off to be a micropolitan area.

Now Dayton's metro area includes its inner and outer suburbs with the addition of Troy, Xenia and Eaton as its extended areas.

I want to tell you that so much stuff have happened over the past years, but none so than the situation happening in the suburb of Trotwood, Ohio.

The inner suburb of Dayton is now officially a "ghost town".

I've grew up on the west end of Dayton, Ohio off Gettysburg Avenue. I used to live only a mile from Trotwood. Nowadays, I've often bypassed the city

Back in the early days, Trotwood was once a tiny village. It was just a blip on the county map.

It would merge and annexed the rural Madison Township in 1997 and become a city. During its time, the city was proud to have the Salem Mall, the opening of Ohio State Route 49 extending from U.S. highway 35, and the benefits of one of the finest police force in the nation.

Sears in Trotwood has closed in 2013.

Now it's been over 15 years since Trotwood became a city. And the results are really depressing.

Think about it. With the extension of Ohio State Route 49, I thought the city was going to grow.

There's nothing much over there.

Just a few industrial parks, a food processing plant and a bunch of empty big box stores.

It was confirmed by Target, Inc. that due to insufficient sales, the retail giant is planning on closing its Trotwood and Middletown locations. This puts the nail in the coffin of a community robbed of the big box giant.

Joyce Cameron, mayor of the suburb of Trotwood.

So far this comes as a major blow after Sears and K-Mart left the Trotwood area, respectively. The downfall of Trotwood began when the Salem Mall lost its two anchor stores J.C. Penny and Lazarus (now known as Macy's). Soon all the 90 named brand stores would go out of business or the mall would have mom-and-pop stores. The Salem Mall was officially declared dead in 2003. The mall would later be razed in 2006 and Sears until 2013 was the only store left of the original building.

Then the downward spiral continued through Builder's Square, Bowl-A-Roma, Franks Garden Stores, Gold Circle, Child World Palace, Toys R Us, Elder-Berman and its furniture store (Bon Ton Stores), Walmart, Red Lobster, Arby's, Wendy's, Circuit City, Value City, Best Buy, Cub Foods, MC Sports, Woolhan Lumber Company, Sun Electronics, the West Dayton Drive-In, Loews (The Kon Tiki) Movie Theaters, Rex Electronics, Best, Noble Romans Pizza, Pizza Hut, Applebee's, Drug Emporium, Salem Chrysler Dealership, AJ Wright, the Dayton Jewish Federation, Pier One Imports and not to mention every other business that been in the city.

Yeah, the CSX Railroad Corporation closed the portion of railway went through Trotwood. The City of Dayton bought the remaining short line and once in a while a train would go through the area.

The Salem Mall (circa 1998). The mall was demolished in 2007 after all its lost all its stores.

The only big box stores still in the area include but not limited are JoAnn Fabrics Store, Evans Arena Dodge car dealership, Big Lots, Office Depot, Burlington Coat Factory, Home Depot and Lowes Home Improvement stores.

Sooner or later, these businesses will close or relocate.

The United Theological Seminary, the Greater Dayton RTA Northwest Transit Center, Greyhound, and the Hara Arena are the only things of interest left in the dying suburb.

The racial makeup of the city was 38.66% White, 58.34% African American, 0.32% Native American, 0.24% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.43% from other races, and 1.98% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.82% of the population.

Since this a majority-minority (mostly Black) suburb, many White people are leaving the city.

This gives the racist right (conservatives or Republicans) a talking point about the status of cities being in "ruins" because of Democrats.

I hate to tell you this, but it's not a Democrat or Republican problem. It's an American problem!

The Dayton Daily News adds that Trotwood City Manager Michael Lucking conceded as much in an interview with Dayton Daily News reporter Kelli Wynn.

Target is the latest store to announce it will leave the area once anchored by the Salem Mall.

Trotwood lost its opportunity to grow when the corporate owners of The Landmark backed out of the development deal. It was supposed to be the revitalization of the dying suburb. The town center is indefinitely suspended.

“No city wants to lose a business within its community. It is disappointing,” he told Wynn when asked about Target’s closing. “As a community, we understand that our future is not retail oriented based upon the changing market place and how stores operate. We have to be proactive in terms of figuring out how we re-purpose those retail buildings.”

So if you're from the Dayton area, what's your take on this situation?

Could Trotwood regain its glory?

Will Dayton survive as a city?

Send us some feedback!

Here's a video from My Tour Of Poor Dayton series. It's back when I actually found interest in driving around with a camera.