Why moving back home to Dayton makes perfect sense
At the end of October, my wife and I moved from Columbus back to Dayton, where we grew up. We got a lot of confused looks when we told our Columbus friends — as if leaving a thriving capital city for a struggling Rust Belt community a fifth of its size isn’t a perfectly reasonable choice to make.
It’s nothing against Columbus. In the past few years, we have both hit our stride professionally. We each picked up master’s degrees from Ohio State, though neither of us acquired any interest in the Buckeyes.
Columbus is a lovely, growing city that is thriving economically and culturally. Which is exactly why we felt compelled to move home to Dayton.
As in much of the country, people and resources are being concentrated in fewer places in Ohio. While Columbus has seen strong economic growth and investment, much of the rest of the state — particularly older industrial cities like Dayton — still struggle. If you were to pull Columbus out of Ohio, our state’s economic outlook would look much more bleak.
Data indicates that much of Columbus’ growth has come at the expense of other communities in Ohio. This has certainly been my experience. Many of the folks I have met here moved from smaller cities for school or work, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do — it’s exactly why we came here. But there are repercussions for these other places.
Dayton has experienced all of these challenges. But like so many other small and mid-sized Rust Belt cities, it has seen a remarkable resurgence. Population is inching up for the first time in decades. New development is coming to downtown and millennials are fixing up homes in historic neighborhoods. There are more new cocktail bars, breweries and coffee shops than I can keep track of.
Unlike the gentrification seen in Columbus, the high rates of vacancy that Dayton is still struggling with means that no one is getting displaced. The city is not without its problems, and development has yet to fully benefit historically marginalized communities, particularly African Americans. But Dayton has turned a corner.
None of this is unique to Dayton. Small and midsized cities across Ohio — and across the Midwest — are being revitalized and recreated by young people who know that not everyone has to live in New York or San Francisco — or even Columbus. Cities like Akron, Warren and even Chillicothe are becoming vibrant again because folks are choosing to commit to them. You can find a hip coffee shop in Youngstown and a good brewery in Mansfield, and you also have the charm of a city with a deep history that can once again be something special.
I’m not saying you should move to Dayton (even though you should). But if you’re from one of these cities that are reinventing themselves, you should give some thought to moving back. Not as some sort of big city savior, but as someone working to build a community that is better than what was there before. It’ll also make your mother happy.
The thing is, Columbus and cities like it will be successful regardless of whether you or I are here. But if you’re from a city that is still trying to make its turnaround, your presence might really make a difference. Authenticity has become a millennial trope, but it’s truly what these cities have to offer.
I loved my life in Columbus, but I’m excited to jump headfirst into a new community that has incredible potential. There’s opportunity like this all around Ohio; you just have to be willing to give it a chance.
If you’re from one of these cities that are reinventing themselves, you should give some thought to moving back.
Michael McGovern, formerly of Columbus, works at Innovation Ohio. This column first appeared in the Columbus Dispatch.