Dayton, OH is my home-city and is the birthplace of aviation (the wright brothers were born and lived here). Though I love my city there are issues facing it, especially poverty issues. During the Recession of the early 2000s, poverty increased starkly; ““Between 2007 and 2008, the Dayton Area United Way experienced a 240 percent increase in its Food Pantry Visits; a 220 percent increase in Basic Needs Calls for food, housing, material resources, temporary financial assistance and transportation; and a 160 percent increase in ‘other needs calls’ for such things as legal services, income security and mental health care counseling” (McCormack). This was largely due to offshoring of Dayton Jobs. The Recession, and offshoring of Dayton Jobs, led to over 30,000 Dayton jobs being directly lost and over 100,000 jobs that were indirectly effected (McCormack). Ohio is a center of Manufacturing for Ohio and employs hundreds of thousands of people for jobs related to it. Therefore, the recession severely hurt Dayton jobs and led to a stark increase in poverty.
Dayton is combating this poverty by maintaining their food pantry, shelter, and job finding resources, as well as by remaking their economy. Dayton still is home to manufacturing, but are moving towards businesses related to logistics. Dayton lies right along a major highway intersection where millions pass by the city each day. This makes Dayton a perfect place to move products across the country for other businesses, especially foreign businesses. This is why Dayton is trying to become a center for product movement, commonly referred to as logistics. Dayton hopes to rebuild and recover from it’s job loss through remaking its economy in this way.
McCormack, Richard. “A GM Factory With 2,100 Workers Closes, And 33,000 Other People Lose Their Jobs — Impacting 120,000.” Manufacturing News. Web. 30 Sept. 2015. <http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/10/0112/GM.html>.