Dayton: The Rise, Decline, and Transition of an Industrial City

by Adam A. Millsap

The Rust Belt was once the crown of American manufacturing, a symbol of the country’s economic prowess. But now it is named for what it has a deteriorating stretch of industrial cities left behind by a post-industrial world. In  The Rise, Decline, and Transition of an Industrial City, Adam A. Millsap turns his focus to his hometown, an archetypal Rust Belt city, to examine its history and discuss its future.Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, Millsap’s book explores the economic background of the region made famous by J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy. From early twentieth-century optimism, through the Great Depression and post-WWII manufacturing decline, to Dayton now, with its labor-force problems and opioid crisis, Millsap tracks the underlying forces driving the city’s trajectory. Race relations, interstates, suburbanization, climate, crime, geography, and government policies all come into play as Millsap develops a picture of the city, past and present. By examining the past, Millsap proposes a plan for the future, claiming that there is hope for Dayton to thrive again. And if Dayton can rise from its industrial ashes, then perhaps the Rust Belt can shed its stigma and once again become the backbone of American innovation. 

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 6, 2019

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Above all, I am thankful that an accomplished economist set his sights on my community and provided insights into our past, our decline, and our transition. Even while giving the author the benefit of the doubt because he has more education and has done more research on the topic than I have, I find several things that I disagree with.

First and foremost, the author neglects the economics effects of Dayton’s struggles with racism. He spends a full page defending Dayton being the 3rd most segregated city of the top 50 US cities by population by claiming personal choice to live in segregated neighborhoods, or the fear of declining home values in an integrated neighborhood. Then after making his argument that the community is segregated, but not fundamentally racist, he mentions in passing the FHA redlining policies and restrictive covenants. He completely neglects the economic impact of racism.

The author generally makes arguments for how the city should change to be more attractive to middle aged, college educated, white people rather than making arguments for bringing our community up as a whole. That is not to say that the author doesn’t make any good points, but his personal opinions based on his demographics are apparent in this writing.

I think the thing I agree with most in this book is that if Dayton cannot embrace innovation and change, it is unlikely it will compete with warmer climate, less regulated communities; however, I disagree with the author in his recommendations to oppose a living minimum wage, destruction and replacement of our historical districts, pro-business/anti-worker policies.

Below is almost all the author had to say about race...in a city that is obviously still struggling to heal from our racist past.

“Dayton home builders and owners often put restrictive covenants in their deeds forbidding the sale of the home to a black person, and from 1934 until 1950 such covenants were required if they wanted the FHA to insure the mortgages against losses due to defaults. This was done to protect the FHA from a decline in home values that may have resulted from racially integrated neighborhoods. The only homes that did not have covenants were located on the west side of the Great Miami River. Thus, blacks migrating from the South were more or less required to find housing on the west side of the city.”

[Helen Cho · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, wonderful to read about because it's a topic I've had questions about--the reasons why a city thrives or dies. Adam Millsap dispassionately slices and dices the attributes that made Dayton a leading city of America in the early 1900s when the Wright Brothers and other visionary leaders like Charles Kettering, Edward Dees, and John Patterson made Dayton a happening city.
The book was interesting in that the author had many negative views about FDR's efforts during the Great Depression that I've never heard before. "The public works and relief spending didn't have much of an effect on total income or private-sector employment, though it did help lower mortality and crime rates." Definitely an interesting take on the current thinking that has mortality front and center.
On slavery and the migration of blacks into Dayton, he says, "the influx of poorer southern blacks in the mid-twentieth century...explains some of the subsequent decline in Dayton's population of higher-income, educated whites along with its overall population. That said, the underlying cause of this effect is American's unfortunate history of chattel slavery that fostered racial animosity and prevented the South from industrializing." Yep, slavery kept the South from industrializing. A carnal sin in the annals of economics, I guess. Kind of like this point of view because it's such a 180 degree view from all the hand-wringing today's writings contain about slavery.
The book is dispassionate and prescriptive about what Dayton needs to do to get itself out of the hole it's dug itself into and the steps it needs to take to return itself to its former days of glory. Hope author is correct in his advice. Hope Dayton succeeds.

[TheCalloftheLibrary · Rating 1 out of 5]

i've never hated a man more than this guy. i hate economists. really took it over the top talking about how dayton can "improve" by destroying its historic buildings so housing is more profitable. literally the rage i felt. ohio isnt even that old imagine living anywhere else other than the fucking united states and wanting to destroy a building less than a hundred years old. all the history of dayton thats been torn down for condos and baseball fields and you think MORE is the solution. god. everything about this book is about how growth trumps all and obv its dismissal of the core racism found in northern segregation and white flight as simple class conflict is so stupid as to be basically untruths. multiple dayton suburbs were unofficial sundown towns and black people couldnt buy housing outside of certain neighborhoods which decimated their capability for the generational wealth to have nice schools like millsap constantly complains black neighborhoods don't have. reducing the opioid crisis to men staring at the tv all day, its all about jobs and how they dont want to work. honestly kill yourself. i hate where i grew up because people like this are a dime a dozen in southwest ohio. shouldve just cut my loses and DNF'd when this fucker said the implementation of a city manager was a good thing because it stifled the socialist party in dayton since socialism would have impeded growth <- no fucking shit dumbass. this guy writes for forbes about how planes are more convenient than high speed rain. GOD worst thing ive ever read.

[Micah Derry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read on the history of Dayton and contributing factors that brought one of the most promising cities in the country to its knees as another struggling Rust Belt town.