Local Young Inventors on TV

Invention lands local fifth-graders on national TV

An invention to make canines everywhere more comfortable has landed Huber Heights fifth-graders Holly Thomas and Becky Goerling on national television.

The girls will appear on the Ellen DeGeneres Show today, May 15 at 4 p.m. on CBS for a segment on kid inventors. Eric Pierce, a third-grader at Valerie Pre K-8 School in Dayton, and two other elementary school students are also featured.

Look, it's cute. And they're in 5th grade and thinking outside the box. That, my friends, is important.
Technorati Tags: dayton, inventors, young, celebrity

City Statues: The best - and worst - of Dayton

Not that the statues are bad. I really like them:

Statues enliven downtown Dayton

When you see them, go ahead and stare all you want. Take a photograph if you like.

That's what the organizers of City Life '08 want people to do when they view the 20 lifelike bronze sculptures by contemporary artist J. Seward Johnson Jr.

The worst comes in when you read some of the comments at the bottom. Dayton has a huge history - like much of Southwest Ohio - of minorities living in one section of town and whites living in another. This is changing, but it's a slow change, and sad prejudiced comments like this one by "Wordell"

Bronze…low melting point. I suspect your statues will be gone and at a recycler and melted down before you all can flail your arms up in disbelief and wail: “It can’t be!!! How can one not appreciate the arts!!!” Daytonians>>>You live in a city run by the scum of the earth. Make downtown safe for white “honkey/crackers”, and all complaints will stop. You then will see an increase in tax revenues, (honkey/crackers spend money when they’re safe), and we then can fleece them even more.

That person has probably lots of reasons (in their mind) for feeling that way, but it has got to be painful to live in a world that mean and frightening.

It must be painful to live in a world that doesn't really exist. I think commenter dsto summed it up well:

Welcome back creepy life-like statues! I personally love ‘em. We used them as part of a scavenger photo hunt for my daughters birthday.It was a blast! It’s real dangerous downtown?…Have any of you people actually been here? EVER? Or does Mister Rogers lock the door to your room? Pulease. Anyone scared of downtown..stay away..the look of fear on your faces ahould be an embarassment to you. It is nothing but a lie and a bigoted self delusional response to things you will never understand.

Technorati Tags: dayton, statues, race

Area Elementary Students Invited to Participate in Coloring Contest

Miami Valley South Health Center (MVSHC) and Washington-Centerville Library are
teaming up to hold a children's coloring contest. Between May 18 and 24 coloring
forms can be picked at Centerville Library, 111 W. Spring Valley Rd., or Woodbourne
Library, 6060 Far Hills Ave. The coloring contest is being held to celebrate
Emergency Medical Services Week.

Any student in preschool through fifth grade can enter. A winner from each grade will
be selected from each library location. Winners will receive a $10 gift certificate
to a local bookstore and will be invited to a special tour at MVSHC on June 6.
Students will be coloring a picture of "Abby" the mascot of the children's area at
MVSHC.

Library patrons can help kick off Emergency Medical Services Week on Sunday, May 18
when both libraries host guests from the Washington Township Fire Department and
Miami Valley Hospital's Mobile Intensive Care Unit. Personnel from both units will be
on hand to offer sneak peeks of equipment they use to fight fires and rescue victims
from accidents. Stop by the Centerville Library between 1 and 2 p.m. or the
Woodbourne Library between 3 and 4 p.m.

Building Green In Dayton

Energy-efficient housing cropping up in downtown Dayton

"For Dayton, building green is now a reality," said Margie Rivera, of Dayton-based Litehouse Development Group.

The Litehouse team combines Rogero Buckman Architects, the marketing and design firm Visual Marketing Associates, and Burhill Financial Services.

The development under way in Dayton, at First Street and North Patterson Boulevard, will contain 40 midsize townhouses. The West Carrollton project along Pease Avenue will contain single-family homes.

Dayton Land Bank

Dayton plans to acquire 1,000 properties this year

The city of Dayton plans to aggressively snatch up properties for land banking, with a goal of acquiring up to 1,000 properties this year.

The eventual goal: reduce the supply of excess housing in the city, identify potential areas for new development while creating parks, neighborhood squares even nature preserves.

Congressional candidate David Esrati has some negative things to say about this plan on his blog. While he has some good points (the need to figure out why these properties are abandoned is a good start, I agree), he seems to have missed this final paragraph in the paper:

A quasi-government authority, composed of city staff and volunteers, would hold the properties, but input from the citizens of Dayton would determine future reuse. There is no time frame set to establish this authority, but Whaley said she expects it to happen quickly...

For now, the city is merely acquiring the properties. The second step, according to Whaley, is creating a vision for what the city will look like in the future.

"The city in front of us is probably going to look different from the city behind us," John Gower, the city's director of planning and community development said. "We can take the best in the community and move those forward with us."

Esrati's right - you have to figure out how you got where you are at... but you can't afford to let things stagnate while you're busy ruminating either.
Technorati Tags: dayton, ohio, land bank

Local Dayton-area Parks

The Dayton Daily News has a local park guide so you can find all the dozens of parks and picnic areas in the Miami Valley. If you've never looked at the available park system before, you'll be amazed at how much there is, and how nearby as well.
Technorati Tags: dayton, parks, ohio

Oklahoma! - Playhouse South

My wife is a theater geek, and loves the musical Oklahoma!. So it was a no-brainer to take her to see the Playhouse South's production of Oklahoma.

I have been a long-time fan of community theater; I spent enough time at small Army bases where the only theater was community-based. When Playhouse South used to be based in Miamisburg, we saw (and were blown away) by their production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

But we moved to the far side of the greater Dayton area, and that was a heck of a drive.

Now, they're more centrally located in Kettering, and still have the same great values. For a reasonable price you get great live performances in an appropriate - but intimate - setting. Their next production this year is MacBeth, and I'm looking foward to the rest of the 2008 season.

There is still one more weekend left to catch Oklahoma!; it's well worth it.

You can also see them on MySpace.