This chasm is also evident in income inequality. It ranked as the 15th most segregated city in the nation on a 2017 list compiled by news outlet 24/7 Wall St, based on data from the US Census Bureau. “So the infusions of bailout cash are particularly welcome in these areas,” he told Al Jazeera.ĭayton is deeply divided along racial lines. This shrinkage, Muro believes, has steadily reduced their “fiscal space” – the ability to undertake projects comfortably. “Some of these towns have seen constant winnowing of people, businesses and tax revenues for decades.” “The key point here is that industrial cities have often been in recession for years, long before the pandemic hit,” said Mark Muro, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The City of Dayton said it plans to spend $138 million in ARPA funding to demolish more than 1,000 vacant homes, shore up its own income tax revenue lost during the coronavirus pandemic, develop park and support other community projects.Īnalysts say that while communities across the country stand to benefit from the cash injections, those struggling with depressed economies will particularly benefit. “In these neighborhoods you’ll almost exclusively find these low-wage jobs.” “There’s this problem between food, jobs and housing – the reason people can’t afford houses is because we don’t have jobs that pay for those houses and for food,” she told Al Jazeera. There is this intertwined issue between food, jobs and housing.
She believes, however, that tackling one problem in isolation will not solve the region’s problems. Tens of billions have been allocated to Ohio.Īll of this begs the question: where should the money be spent? what people thinkįor community leader Cherrelle Gardner – who helps run the Co-op Dayton business incubator and a makerspace in West Dayton, a predominantly African-American poor neighborhood – the priority should be on human infrastructure, such as care children and the elderly, as well as reducing the urban scourge. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in November will see $1.2 trillion spent nationwide on roads, bridges and other infrastructure needs. And the much-needed injections of cash don’t stop there. The city of Dayton is expected to receive $138 million from these funds. Now, thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus package championed by US President Joe Biden that was signed into law last March, Dayton and hundreds of struggling communities like she across the United States is counting on $350 billion for state and local governments that they hope will improve the daily lives of their residents. As in many Midwestern communities, gun violence, fallout from the opioid crisis, and segregation sit alongside new breweries, a burgeoning arts scene, and popular outdoor trails. With a metropolitan population of approximately 800,000 people, Dayton today is a city in flux. In the case of Dayton, this experiment ended with the closure of a General Motors plant in 2008 with the loss of 2,400 jobs. Since then, it has suffered the same fate that has befallen many American factory towns: the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs and the gutting of entire communities. Dayton, Ohio, USA – For much of the 20th century, Dayton, Ohio was a pioneering powerhouse of industry and innovation, home to the Wright Brothers, LexisNexis, and numerous automobile factories.