Used To Love Kettering...
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6/5/2007
I have lived in Kettering for 25 years and, sadly, am strongly considering leaving. It used to be a wonderful place to live, but while shopping is convenient, crime is low, and the schools are good, the city is in a state of decline. The housing stock is generally old and its value is not appreciating at a rate anywhere near that of surrounding communities, much less nationally.
Kettering is a bedroom community closely tied economically to Dayton and to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Both Dayton and Kettering have and are still suffering huge tax base hits caused by the decline of General Motors and closing of many of the factories it has had in this area. As well, NCR (Dayton's flagship corporate son) is but a shell of its former self, Mead Westvaco is mostly gone, and scores of other companies have downsized or just plain disappeared. WPAFB continues to thrive, but it seems to be the only decent hope for this area. Unfortunately, there are only so many jobs there to be had given the U.S. Defense Department's mandate to cut costs.
Most distressing, Dayton's political and business leadership is impotent and there is little hope that will ever change. Oh - one more thing - Dayton is racially divided and it seems there are plenty of talking heads that love to make headlines by keeping tensions stirred up. Sadly, there are seldom any ideas about how to make things better; there are mostly only complaints. Dayton will still be racially divided long after I am dead and gone.
Dayton and Kettering and other local communities are stuck, stuck, stuck. Lots of well-meaning folks have in the past tried and many still attempt to make things better for the community - and a few they have succeeded! - but mostly they seem like a bunch of tongue-clucking docs trying to shock a long-dead corpse back to life.
Richard T. | Kettering, OH