Okay.

So thank you everybody for being here.

This is a very important presentation.

We've been looking forward to.

So without further ado, I hand it over to you, Ms.

City Manager.

Well, you know, I'd love to be your facilitator, but I do believe this also came through your side of the house.

So I will interject if necessary, but mainly just sit here and be arm candy again.

So you know, I like that role.

Keep up the good work.

And I did have a, I do, I do wanna say I did have a meeting with Jan and her team yesterday.

It just happened to coincide.

We had had this meeting set and then reset and then reset and and whatnot.

So we're really excited.

The administration is very excited about this opportunity.

We're really excited about bringing all of the stakeholders from the NDC as well as East End and the staff to bring all of the data that we have so we can put together a real data-driven community economic development plan that addresses people and incivilities and physical environment and so really and then be able to put measure measured goals with that plan.

So we're really excited about the partnership.

We've been doing a lot of work.

You all know you get briefing memos when we do work around policing or waste collection, et cetera.

Um, but it'll be exciting to have a unified plan for all of us to rally around and live together in.

So I will turn it over to someone who needs no introduction and let Jan have her show.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um thanks a lot for um allowing us to be here today.

Um actually, Paul is gonna push that mic so it's the mic.

Um Paul, Woody kick us off.

I'm Paul, Paul Woody.

Hi.

Whoops.

I'm uh president of the NBC.

And uh this is our little planning team.

Uh, and I'll let each person introduce themselves and what they do.

I'll okay.

Uh Stephanie Zonars, I'm representing New Hope Church.

On this one.

I'm David Stempler.

I'm working with Jan at the NDC.

I'm Jim Barrett.

I'm the vice president of East Dayton in DC, and also Tim Towers president.

Thanks.

So we're gonna start off with Jim.

There's gonna be two presenters, Jim and uh Jan.

So Jim will begin.

Uh Jim Barrett, who's the vice president of the NDC.

Thanks, Paul.

Um Dayton and specifically Mazzini Avenue in 2013.

You may remember 2013 was kind of a tough time period uh for the city of Dayton and particularly East State.

Um the height of the opioid epidemic.

Um this picture was taken out of my kitchen window.

Uh those apartments almost across the street were um a particular problem at this time.

Um absentee landlord owners that really didn't pay much attention to what was going on there.

Um at one point, the City of Dayton police and um East Ending the meeting with the owners of real estate group out of Columbus and uh Christine Hamilton brought the information that um one in six calls to East Day and police um for the last six months had been for these two properties.

It was absolutely off the hook.

Um basically uh the the owner was warned if this continues, we're just gonna nuisance this whole property and shut it down.

Eventually uh Dayton came um out of the worst of the epidemic.

Um it seems like this got to be less common out my kitchen window.

And um I think it's important to remember that a big part of at least what I could see working in in my neighborhood on C Avenue is that it wasn't just City of Dayton police enforcement.

It wasn't just Sheriff Phil Plummer and the County police enforcement.

It was uh Adamus, it was East End, it was programs like the GROW program, get recovery options working, um programs that had a fishing counselors riding along with police cars, visiting people who had overdosed in the morning after saying, Hey, we can get you into a bed.

Uh it was organizations like families, uh, addicts, FOA that you know, brought people together around a subject that they were passionate about.

And I think it was this um mentality of that this is a crisis that is gonna uh severely impact our city.

And we need to all hands on deck, and there was public interest in it, and there was private interest in it, there were nonprofits, and there were community activists, and all of those organizations and players came together to make scenes like this not so common out my window.

And so this is a picture that I took two years ago of the same apartments.

Eventually, a local uh investor purchased those from the Louis and went through and renovated every apartment because it was somebody that could see the possibilities of what was here, and um brought some families to move in, some families that are willing to take a chance.

And before you knew it, instead of the dope boys standing out against the fence, um it was Brock and his friends in the pool splashing, and it's just a whole different thought.

And so that's one side of Zenia Avenue across the street from my house, and how I've seen the transformation.

The other property that I want to talk about specifically, and I think most of you were at the in this picture back in November.

Uh, when my wife and I moved into the house where we lived, this convenience store was next door, and it was a constant problem.

They were had been, I think they lost their liquor license the 14th time they were caught selling underage.

Um, they were trading food stamps for cigarettes, there was all kinds of bad stuff going on.

Eventually they got shut down by the health department and other actors, and the store sat empty for a while.

Um, East End Community Services managed to uh buy East End NDC, when it was back when it was part of East End Community Services, uh managed to purchase the property with the intention of opening some kind of a neighborhood market.

Um the property was in too bad of condition to do that, and so that ended up becoming Ruskin Commons, which I think all of you were at the dedication last fall.

And um, so this is a picture of what it looks like with uh six months of maturing growth.

It's a beautiful property.

I see families out there and kids out there enjoying the space.

It's a great way to connect Zenia Avenue to Rustin School, which is uh one of the more popular landing schools in our city.

And I look at this out my window, and I see on one side of the street, I see um a private investor who saw possibilities and who wasn't scared to take a chance.

And on the other side of the street, I see a things like that to take down a nuisance property and make an attractive area.

And so those two.

Thank you, Jim.

Hello, mayor, thank you for being here.

Um I'd like to um roll the clock back just a little bit.

So Jim, by the way, has been on the NDC board since our inception 2015.

So he's been at the table with us for a very long time.

Um I'm I think I was here uh to brief you um about 18 months ago.

Uh we had well, the first thing that we did after we became independent from East Satan, the EastX Community Services, and we moved down the street, our little team here.

Um the first thing we decided to do was a plan for housing development.

And I um uh talked to you about how we divided the neighborhood of Duana Shugaman.

Um we we kind of took some liberties here and um divided the neighborhood up and looked at the housing stock in each one of those four areas.

And um what we concluded is or what we learned among many other things that we're a single family neighborhood, we got very few multifamily units, although Jim just talked about one of the old the biggest lots and the old ones that we have.

Um we have we're down to about a 3% home ownership rate in this neighborhood.

Um when when I was uh doing code enforcement at the city, so many years ago, we were um the whole city was close, much closer to 50%, 52%.

There were times when it was a lot higher than that.

So we've seen a gradual erosion of homeownership throughout the city.

I think the latest census says it's down about 48%, and here in Twin Towers, we're down to 30 percent.

Um, and as Jim mentioned, we have we we counted about a hundred vacant lots.

Uh, and this was about 18 months ago, and there have been more demolitions since then.

Um with the loss of home ownership comes a loss of community connections, right?

Um, and uh pride willingness for residents to invest in their property and to spend their time investing in the future of the rest of the neighborhood.

Um what we have found is that both residents who are homeowners and actually a lot of renters who love being in the neighborhood, uh, have said we we're ready for a change.

This is unacceptable, this loss of homeownership and of the pride of the community.

Um we think there's uh a demand for change.

Um, we had um four properties that the NDC owned, residential properties, and um we sold them off to fund our NDC actually.

The last property we sold was to a family who moved in from Kettering with two children, and it sold for 1699 homeowners.

So we're really encouraged that there is a market demand for new housing and new construction for affordable homeownership in our neighborhood.

Um we are targeting what you see there is Ruskin West.

You may have heard me talk about this before.

So if you know where Ruston School is on Senia Avenue, north of Senior Avenue, right behind uh where uh Ruston Commons is that Jim pointed out, uh the um uh the area to the west, all the way over to Target Ministries, uh Huey Street, um north of Xenia Avenue.

We had tremendous disinvestment in the last I don't know, 10 years, um, a recent uh say of arson fires, um, a couple of years ago took out a lot of buildings, and um we're worried it's gonna um uh um cause disinvestment throughout the rest of the neighborhood.

There's a spiral going on, right?

And um it's threatening Ruskin School.

It's our anchor institution.

We're not about to have that school compromised in any way by neighborhood blight.

So that is our target.

Okay, so I've got two big announcements here.

The first one is that um we are in the process of completing a renovation of 43 George Street.

This is a uh little house.

You see in the lower right-hand corner, what it looked like when we bought it.

The porch was collapsing.

Um other people had looked at the house uh for, it was in the nuisance program.

They had looked at it, and the just the cost to take on the porch, which is went down into the basement.

It had collapsed, collapsed into the basement room underneath.

Um was it was prohibitive.

Um we then said, well, it's a stable house, it's 140 years old, and it's frankly representative of a lot of the houses in this Ruskin West area, and we decided to take it on.

Um, and we're almost finished with it.

It will be put on sale at 1725 for um affordable homeownership.

Um we're working with County Corps, uh, the Housing Opportunity Center.

Um, and then it'll be it's fully rehabbed.

Everything is new, including the porch.

Um it's got four beds, two baths, um a suite, old looking um renovated pantry in the kitchen.

We're bringing back the hardwood floors, and it's heavily insulated.

So for us, this is a big deal because we're saving a property in George Street is parallel to Bruston's parking lot and play graph.

So we're trying to shore up that section of George Street because that's the first line of defense.

The second announcement that we have is that the last time I was here, I talked to you about Twin Towers Healthy Homes project.

And we uh developed it.

Uh we worked with the landmade to purchase all the land, these vacant lots that were in the Rust and West neighborhood.

And we were successful in getting a city commitment from the manager's office for 60,000, another CDG grant for 150 that was awarded in the uh spring, and then we uh were just awarded uh this is a partnership that we have with County Corp and the Land Bank in East Aiden NDC.

We were awarded a $1.2 million welcome home grant from the State of Ohio Department of Development, and um they've been very generous.

Um the um the decision was made to give us half of that award, and the other half goes to troplyn.

So we now have 810,000, and we think we can build seven houses of the original nine that we had planned.

So they're all being clustered within uh four blocks, and this this neighborhood is only about uh a block and a half to two blocks deep.

So uh we're gonna really uh concentrate the these new homes in the rest of the West area.

So where these are the addresses.

One of them is going to be a rehab, we're doing another rehab on Hawk Street.

And in fact, we're putting four houses on Hawk Street.

So, and it's pretty off right now.

Um there's two pretty horrific public nuisances there that we were waiting to hear yesterday that um were on list to take down the one of the one of them, and I'm not sure about the other one, but um the neighborhood has really struggled with disinvestment on that block.

Um, these houses are going to be um the new houses will be in partnership with Unabilt.

Um, and I'm delighted to say that we're partnering with County Corp.

They are going to be our production um agents or manager.

Um it's there's um two and a half of us in the offices, me and Lisa and Carl Dougherty, who I know you all know.

Um Carl's not here today because he's in 43 George, finishing up the rehab of it.

Um, but we couldn't manage, and we sure didn't want to make any mistakes on our first big project.

County Corp is building the capacity to do in fill housing.

You know, they're working very aggressively up in Northwest Dayton, and um they are willing to expand their capacity taking on our East Dayton project.

So um it's just kind of a dream come tree.

We did all the pre-development work, and now we're turning it over to the people who know how to build houses, Univilt and then uh County Corp.

These are going to be on basements, by the way, but we don't have enough money for garages.

So in our neighborhood, the houses that have basements are the ones that people love of the 84 that we did about 15 years ago.

Um so um the other thing I want to mention uh is the reason for the steep subsidy.

Um we know that it's gonna cost about 270,000 for this model to be planted in our neighborhood.

So it you know gets trucked in because it's a it's a factory-built uh product.

Um at today's prices.

It is about 1,250 square feet, a bath and a half, three beds on a basement, uh parking pad in the back, landscaped porches, front and rear.

Okay, 270,000.

That's what County Corp is paying also, and these catch our numbers as well.

Um we know we can sell them, we've had appraisals done for about 170,000.

So roughly speaking, we have a hundred thousand dollar gap.

Everybody is looking at that kind of a gap at minimum.

Okay.

So that's what's making housing so friggin' hard to do in any kind of volume because the subsidies we are enormous.

Um, you know, we're we're working through this.

Um, that 20 million dollar pot of money, department of development pad, the way in the welcome home pot.

Um, I don't know, they they they send every bit of the 20 million, but most communities only got enough for under four.

Okay, so we're taking this big pot of money and spreading it all over the state, and we're we're four new houses with public money.

That's the financial reality that we're dealing with.

I mean, we have a housing crisis in this community in every community in the country.

We all understand that, but we wanted you to understand what the real what the real issues are.

So um we then said, okay, yay, we finally got all of the money.

Um what else you need to do to make the twin towers neighborhood attractive for homeowners to invest.

This is going to be a first-time buyer family, and they're nervous, and they want to know that their investment is going to go uh to somewhere where it's going to be protected and will grow over time.

So one of the things we we've done recently is we convened a whole group of neighborhood institutions that are working in the neighborhood.

Um, this is the list of folks at the table.

We've had two meetings with them, and um everybody was really eager to tell us what bothers them about the neighborhood, but that they want fixed, and they also told us they want to help, and we're really excited about this.

So what they talked about, um if you roll it all up into a nutshell, are incivilities now, and this is our word for what we've gleaned from all of our conversations with our partners.

Um incivility, incivilities are physical signs of neighborhood disorder, neglect, and anti-social disruptive human behaviors that create a perception that harmful conduct is tolerated by the community, which results in a continuous spiral of disinvestment and further decline.

Okay, so if you put that word on it, let's let's talk about what we're we're looking at here.

You can say, well, you know, we got speeding problems, we've got people behaving badly, we got drugs, all of that.

Everybody knows what the issues are, but we can never assume that I mean this is not just the city's problem.

You know, we're not looking at the city to solve this problem for us.

We know there's gotta be an attitude and an action change among the residents and the people who whose livelihood comes from Z Avenue and environment to help try to change the culture.

Now I realize that's a lot of high in the sky, but we're we've given a lot of thought to this, and we are um convinced that this is the only way to save that neighborhood when we're starting in such a hole with home ownership levels being what they are.

Okay, so um Shelly mentioned that we um had a great meeting yesterday about how we are going to work together.

Okay, so we've got some things um in the neighborhood on the neighborhood side, and then um we need the city to have our back on the enforcement issues, obviously, both property as well as um behavioral.

Um so these are the kind of things that um that we listed when we had all these meetings.

Frankly, because I think we are so used to seeing the physical deterioration of the neighborhood.

That's kind of become the norm.

And that's obviously not to change too.

So obvious signs of disinvestment and lack of attention in the neighborhood.

This alley is right behind George Street, right behind where we're rehabbing the house.

My little car goes right into that hole there.

And it's a little hard to get out some days.

That is a house on Hawk Street, the one that is coming down.

Unfortunately, that sat there for over three and a half years now.

Now it burned once, and we thought maybe it could rehab and then it burned again.

You know, it's a whole whole problem area.

But it's coming down.

We're very happy about that.

The um this is you know, a property owner lobbed away.

This is unacceptable.

There's uh a letter on my desk.

We're gonna copy it tomorrow and send it out.

I went through the county property reference and picked off all of the absentee owners in Ruskin West, and they're all getting a letter, and they're saying, we're gonna do seven new houses.

Your property values are going to benefit, but you've got to help.

And if you don't, here's the yard standards, here's what's expected of you.

I got the city to make me some copies.

So we're sending those out, but the neighborhoods that hold those people accountable, in addition to code enforcement working with the community um to deal with this.

So the property ownership has been allowed for whatever reason, because it's kind of been accepted, uh, but no more.

It's a it's a new day.

Um, so our challenge challenges are reverse the spiral of disinvestment, restore the physical attractiveness of the neighborhood, because you can't just beat people up, you've got to make it pretty.

Um, and then the big thing because we've lost the social connectedness in the neighborhood, is work on rebuilding the fabric of the community, the social fabric of the community.

And that's what new home is is gonna really help concentrate us on.

So we have a call to action, which is a coordinated approach.

We need all hands on deck, and we're mobilizing that now with the city.

We're trying to figure out what the best communication linkages are going to be, how are we going to do this so that we're efficient?

Um, because you've also got lots of people calling with specific complaints.

But in Rust and West, we want to be willing to plan and action to get control.

We we're calling this planning framework, because we're really in the planning stage at all in Rigas.

Um it's a collective impact model.

Um, and so we've got these three pillars, public safety and adherence to public standards, public standards meaning property standards as well as behaviors.

We're not putting up with the guys walking down Zenia Avenue carrying 40 answers anymore.

And police have been great.

I mean, they are just stopping people and dumping the alcohol out and you know, really taking people to test.

Physical improvements, Paul and I um and Jim, well, we're all involved in looking at the improving the um physical amenities on Xenia Avenue.

We have a little neighborhood identity sign and uh Kiwi and Xenia that you can't even see anymore.

You know, it's time to improve the lighting, um, you know, maybe pretty.

Um, you know, let's add some texture to the community um in the public spaces that we control.

I will say that we are um writing uh for a PDAC um uh uh designation, if you will, and working with um Congressman Turner to see if maybe we could get an earmark to fund some of these public improvements, and then we're also gonna add in a plan uh housing um expansion uh project and then social connectedness and support for struggling families.

We have an amazing collection of social service agencies in our neighborhood.

They're all at the table.

Start working together a little better to see if we can reach out to some of the homeless folks that we've got.

We've got a lot of Melbourne, you know, in the community that finds its way on the senior avenue.

Can we do a better job of taking care of folks than maybe we're doing right now?

So we're going to be asking that hard question.

And then Stephanie is leading this whole business of how do we get out on the street and start connecting people to each other.

We have six basic goals.

Again, we establishing the civic order in a very broad term, getting people to do what they're supposed to do, you know.

Encouraging voluntary proactive maintenance of properties.

I mentioned that, implementing the housing project, improving the physical environment, engaging residents, and coordinating the social services.

So those are the goals we're setting up.

We're looking at how do we measure change over time.

So that you know, presuming everybody we're all buying into these goals, we also have to have a way of measuring our interest.

So we're all working toward a shared vision.

The question has come up: how is this different from promised neighborhoods that I know we know that um uh uh East End Community Services is going for?

We're thrilled about that.

Promised neighborhoods.

Um, if we can get it as a community, improves outcomes for children and families primarily at rest and then as they age up.

Um that's so critical.

Um we're just so we're supporting that and are excited about that.

If we can clean up the neighborhood, um, you know, start making a dent, it's going to add value, certainly add housing opportunities for home ownership, which is gonna create families that are gonna get involved with the skill and become anchors for that school.

So it all works together.

Promise neighborhoods is about people.

Our work right now is largely around physical standards and and positive change for the neighborhood.

So these are our key partners.

I think I counted 15 local community organizations at the table.

So we're all working in the same direction.

We're all working together.

Thank you very much.

Uh turn it over to my colleagues for any questions or comments.

Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, first and foremost, thank you all for your leadership.

Um really um just excited about the work uh that you all are doing uh in Twin Towers and the surrounding neighborhood.

Um obviously this is what it takes, right?

Uh the collaborative effort, the kind of deep um engagement, uh the kind of keen and unrelenting focus on improving um you know blocks, right?

So I I appreciate uh first and foremost you all uh staying committed to this work.

Um not easy and uh certainly looking forward to seeing the progress right on the east side of our city as well.

Um again, I I just want to uh lift up the partnerships that you formed, I think.

Uh bringing county core um as well as the other additional partners you have to the table makes all the sense in the world, um, and I'm I'm glad to see those partnerships.

I I only have uh um two points or maybe more of a question and a point.

Um first uh clearly you all are doing some rehabbing, right?

But you're also doing um some new bills and based on a lot of the meetings I've had lately.

I'm just really trying to understand uh for organizations that are engaging uh in housing right now.

Uh what are you finding is more costly, or what are you finding is more profitable?

Is it uh the new construction or is rehabbing um more cost effective right now?

I'm just curious.

Obviously, both are necessary, but I'd really like to understand uh which one is kind of producing what.

Obviously, both are necessary, but I'd really like to understand uh which one is kind of producing what well I would say on 43 George, we're gonna spend 160,000, and we're selling financing that we because we had money in the bank, and if we can sell it for 170, we're gonna be thrilled.

Um we've had lower appraises.

So the best we can hope for is a breaking, and that was a such the property because it was strategically located and very deteriorated.

Um so with rehab, you have to be a lot more careful that we learn just can't go in and put 160,000 in a house.

But the numbers may balance out uh compared to a hundred thousand dollar gap for new construction.

So I would have to argue that it's rehab.

Um the housing stock is worn out in this particular part of the neighborhood, it's very old, and um it costs that much to rehab.

Paul the probably comparable, the real issue is human energy.

When you rehab, for example, we have spent enormous resources doing the rehab, which means we're not doing something else.

So uh in terms of efficiency, clearly in field new construction is better for an organization like us, simply because we can produce more housing.

And and it's about volume, yeah.

You know, if we can do if we if you can do 50 houses and they have the commitment for 50 houses at a time, um, they can lower the cost.

But since we can only do handfuls, um it's it's not uh efficient to do that.

One of the things you have to worry about is you don't want to be building a house on a street that's in trouble because it's the only house you're actually putting the person who buys the house in jeopardy, and that's not right kind of thing.

You have to have you have to have a critical mass of control of whatever is your you're working in.

And that means you've got to do multi-number of units, otherwise the project won't be successful.

Doing onesie twosies, one on a block and one over here doesn't work at all.

Well, thank you for that perspective.

Uh, just one last quick question.

Um there things on uh I I would say things in the process um that potentially the city could be uh uh doing to help further right you all's capacity and your ability to do this work.

I'm just curious.

Obviously, there's the safety, right?

And showing up uh in terms of some of the um the the uh kind of uh loitering and the incivility, right, Jan that you spoke of.

But I'm curious from a just that infrastructure standpoint, like what if what has worked, what have you guys seen?

Uh what are the needs?

I think the city's primary role in efforts like this is public infrastructure, sidewalk curved streets, making this the infrastructure of the of that neighborhood work of thing.

And and uh that's important.

Now, of course, you need to have police coverage and that kind of stuff, but really when it comes down to it, building a house on a street that has no sidewalks, broken curves, an alley that doesn't function as an alley, that's not that's not gonna work.

So and so public infrastructure, this is basic good old public infrastructure is probably the number one thing the city ought to do for neighborhoods like this.

You know, we did it in right dunbar.

If you look at a right dunbar, we did the whole network of streets.

We closed off this street, we we created a network of streets that function in a loop.

There's no dead-end streets in in right dunbar.

And and it worked.

And it was just basic public infrastructure.

Commissioner, Commissioner's out.

It's one of the model, I think it'll demonstrate what it's gonna take for engineering.

So thinking for all the key pieces that are there that we'll learn from the service or work.

Um Paul, I'm curious because it seems to me if I understood Jacob's presentation correctly, code influence will be really important for the city.

And so I would add that to the infrastructure.

So we're going to be working planning department.

When I read code enforcement, I have 29 inspectors.

And that's a big problem.

As you all wanna see me change.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you all for being here and thank you for the work that you've been doing in the neighborhood.

Well, at the Child Development Center over there.

So I still I still get over that way pretty frequently.

But yeah, I appreciate all the all the information.

I was just uh over at East End, I think two weeks ago.

So I had a really good conversation, was kind of being caught up on the work that they're doing on uh over there.

So what what are most likely uh mostly want to hear about is kind of the um collaboration and the partnerships with the other organizations here that you're working with and how does that work?

How are you all working together?

I know that our police department has been uh working heavily with East End and uh other parts of the organization, but I just want to hear how the collaboration is working with.

Is it working?

Is how's that going?

Well, we're at the front end of establishing three work groups.

Okay, so um the uh business community has sorted itself out and they know they've all said which group they want to be in.

Okay, and we're kind of in the process of bringing that forward now.

So that's the forum, and that's where we are um so the so the um the first work group is gonna be on um Sonolis, you know, and everything just talked about so um that's gonna involve the twin towers neighborhood association, you know, they've been burned on all of the issues in the neighborhood for quite some time, and there is a mayor's walk next week, so you will you will see some of this yourself.

Um, but the forum is gonna be these work groups where we get all this input and then we we convert it into the plan and the specific actions that we need taken, you know, and some of it's gonna be long term, some of it's gonna be next week, you know.

It it just depends.

So it's evolving.

All right, well, yeah, that's kind of what I want to do here and what that's what I thought, and I wanted to hear that how you all are working together in that.

So there's been a convening of all of these the neighborhood associations and everyone else.

And then the plan is to use that and develop some kind of a strategic plan on on how to solve and what identify what the barriers are on all that.

Right.

Okay.

And then we will come, the city will come alongside and and uh you'll report out to the city, and then we'll develop a strategy to address that.

Were you about to say something?

So we're gonna come alongside them, you know, with our service delivery, you know, so that we're so that we're all lifting the one plan, right?

And and addressing um all of the issues and bringing the resources we have to be able to come alongside as a partner um for the geography.

Right.

Well, that's that's that's awesome.

I um you know I talked to you, Jan years ago um about kind of the collaboration that's happening between um East End and Hope Center, and how that kind of was having sharing information working together, and I just thought that was just a fantastic way to kind of scale everyone up, right?

Oftentimes the neighborhood associates, let's say that share the information that you had, so share the successes with other neighborhood associations.

So that's why I'm asking these questions about the collaboration.

I think that it's just critically important.

So um, yeah, I look forward to to uh hearing reports out and uh and and staying involved and connected.

Thank you.

Commissioner, Commissioner Joseph.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh just want to say first that we often say that neighborhoods that are the most active uh have the most potential, and you all have proved that time and time again.

Thinking back a couple of decades, uh three decades or so ago, and looking at how well you all have done advocating for your neighborhood and being active in the neighborhood over the years.

Uh it's it's wonderful to see.

Um that said, you all are taking on some of the toughest problems that we face today.

Uh we're facing it all over, and it's not just us in Dayton, that the whole country is facing these things, but it's hitting us particularly here in Dayton.

So your your fearlessness in the face of these is wonderful.

Um, and I'm glad that you're working closely with with our staff with Shelley with all these good partners to try to move things along.

Um, I know I just want to say that and say thank you for your engagement.

Uh Commissioner Beckham asked the question I was going to ask, and uh Commissioner uh Shaw just reinforced the one thing I want to reinforce.

So mostly I just want to say thank you for not being afraid to take on these tough problems.

Um really we're we're glad to come alongside you and we're interested to see how it goes because we want to copy you in other places too.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

I just wanted to echo my colleagues' comments.

Um then I will also note too.

I literally wrote it on my on my desk and laptop with the housing uh code enforcement.

Um I'll also add to that um again, thank you so much for your leadership.

I know you've been at this for for quite some time, along with all the group board members, the entire staff, um, the commitment is there, and is there, and we really do appreciate the you all continuing on that path.

So, with the the letter that is sent, um, my question and this you know, so geared towards the administration, how is the city complimenting that letter?

I know that there is the potential letter that is being drafted, but I think it goes a long way if in fact the city is signed off on that letter as well, even if it is on the city's letter head with the signature block from um, you know, the eastern um uh towers development, east end neighborhood, Davy Neighborhood Development Corporation should kind of give it some weight, if you will, to know that hey, if you don't want to abide by these particular uh code enforcements, here are the the uh penalties that will potentially be charged, knowing that we went from criminal to civil, and we need to have that chart in there, and that needs to be a model across the city because that picture that is the depicted um on chart 10, that's request Dayton.

That's all of Dayton.

There are so many neighborhoods that look just like this across the city of Dayton, and we have to do a better job enforcing, and we need to make sure that there is a level of education and awareness.

And so my charge and my ask is that how do we complement the work that is being done with Eastern community um neighborhood development, excuse me, and seeing if this is in fact a way for us to educate, to bring that level of awareness, but to also have that that weight and that um needed support that is needed to help with this with this plan that they have in place.

I wasn't involved in the meeting that the group had with Shelley yesterday.

Um, I don't know if that came up as a topic of menu.

But no, this is a wonderful suggestion.

And if if that was that'll strengthen this letter.

Um, so you know, and see we can work on that.

And maybe enjoying letters, yeah.

Thank you, Mayor.

That was very helpful.

Right, of course.

And maybe it, I don't know if I'm getting into too aggressive with it, but maybe it's also having the chief sign in the fire department.

Like these are hazards that are caused in the city.

We need your full undivided attention.

You need to um mitigate this situation as soon as possible, or you will in fact incur these following charges or whatever have you.

Um again, thank you very much for bringing over.

I think the other thing is, and this is a conversation we need to have internally, because it goes to the notion of if you see something, say something.

And we have staff members that, and this is Commissioner Fairchild's point on a number of occasions, like when we have our trash trucks or our police trucks or a housing inspector, uh vehicles that are riding through these various different neighborhoods, report it, turn it in, allow us to work collectively together.

So it's not just all on the 16 housing inspectors that we have, because I think back in our day, Ms.

Jackson, we had 36.

Um, and to see where we are now, we know that it's a heavy lift for all of us, and we know that the ban which at this point in capacity is very slim.

So those are some internal conversations that we were having.

And so I would just ask Ms.

Jackson and Mr.

Parlett if we can have some support on that to figure out.

I will tell you that that does happen.

Um one specific example I can think of is our uh fire prevention unit when they focus on a certain area and they move around the city based on what the issues are.

If they see something, they've report it on date delivers.

And it does actually I appreciate that.

Like when I look at this burnout and I look at this paw, the question is okay, did we report that?

How long has it been standing?

Like all the questions.

And I have no doubt in my mind that staff is reporting it, but how do we make sure that that is truly in fact encouraged and that there is this uh collective effort that is uh encouraged across the board because it's not all on the city, right?

And it's not all on our residents.

Residents have made a a commitment to live and stay in the city of Dayton.

And I know I'm putting you to the choir, but I'm I'm very grateful.

I appreciate you all's work, your commitment.

Um, and I just hope that we can adopt this model so that we can move it across the city.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you all very much.