Is Dayton a dying city? Forbes says yes.

[poltr1]

Earlier this week, Forbes magazine had a list of 10 cities that, in their estimation, were dying. The list includes my home town of Buffalo, New York, and my current city of residence: Dayton, Ohio. Their rankings were based on population decline, unemployment, and annualized GDP growth.

I'd have to agree with Forbes. The local GM plant in Moraine is scheduled to close in two years, and last week, they announced that they were getting rid of all 2nd shift workers. Tech Town, a high-tech business incubator project just east of downtown Dayton, hasn't visibly progressed beyond the initial groundbreaking.

Dayton is the home to NCR (once known as National Cash Register), their spin-off Teradata, Lexis-Nexis, Reynolds and Reynolds, their spin-off Workflow One, Standard Register, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, to name a few of the major IT players in town. Despite the rich history of innovation here, it's tough to get a job in the area. That's one of the reasons why I'm considering relocating to either Cincinnati or Columbus.

Today's shout-outs: Happy belated birthday zencuppa!