Agh!! My town is dying fast!!!!

Oh No!!!

Forbes.com has announced that my town, Dayton, Ohio, is among the leaders in the march to the dust bowl!! Down the tubes! Kaput! Ugh! Ack! Eek! Boy, I'm scared now!

They say "Where's it worst? Ohio, according to our analysis, which racked up four of the 10 cities on our list: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and Cleveland. The runner-up is Michigan, with two cities--Detroit and Flint--making the ranking." The story is available at http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/americas-fastest-dying-cities.html

You know what's interesting? Our real standard of living here is really good. The whole "housing boom" of the early 2000s never happened here. You can get a 3000 square foot house in a great neighborhood with awesome schools located conveniently within 5 miles of a major shopping area, lots of good restaurants, services, parks, highways, etc. for a little over $200,000, not the $700K it might cost on the coasts. Wages are a little less here, but things are cheaper. We've got great parks like John Bryan State Park and Clifton Gorge 20 minutes away. We've got the Dayton Dragons and Downtown 15 minutes away. I can get to either Columbus or Cincinnati in an hour's drive. There's an outlet center 30 minutes away.

You know what the worst thing about living here is? Listening to all the whining and complaining in the media convincing us how horrible everything is! Seriously, things aren't so bad. Sure, the GM plant in Kettering (home of Rob Dyrdek, a friend of my family since the days we called him "Little Rob") is going to close, but THEY MAKE SUV'S THERE. Shock! Come on GM! Re-tool the plant for an affordable, fuel efficient car and you'll be able to keep it open! GM is so stupid. They just keep making their trucks, SUVs, Hummers and such bigger and bigger and now they're shocked when the demand is dropping off because of fuel prices. Um, what? Something's wrong with making huge vehicles that barely fit in parking spaces and get and EPA estimated 12 mpg city (Cadillac Escalade)??? My huge van (I can fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood in it and close the rear gate with no problem) gets 20 mpg city. I think GM should've seen this coming. People on Wall Street have been talking about the possiblility of $100 oil for a loooong time. Now that it's a fact, there's no reason to be shocked.

Hey, rant over. I'll sum up by just saying Dayton is a nice place, with lots of great people and neighborhoods which you can afford to live well in. Don't believe the hype.