It's Springtime in Dayton

Yes, this is my counterpoint to the recent
report by Caryn Golden on WHIO-TV that male
prostitutes are soliciting in the Oregon District,
and the possibility that this might lead to legions
of zombie prostitutes demanding raw brains from
patrons of Thai 9 and Pacchia.

Yes, our local mainstream media, just like our
national mainstream media, is nothing but a factory
of fear and stupidity. And our media members know this.
I suppose they just weren't born or instilled with the
integrity during their upbringing to admit as much.



Just behind the railroad bridge, Daybreak is undertaking
probably the greatest property improvement in the
infamous corridor of pubicly urinating 30-year-old men in
the history of the area. Good for Daybreak. They are
a purely positive organization.


The old Breakfast Club is now The Brunch Club. Same good
food and the same good prices. Go there now and enjoy.


Right Toby? Arf Arf!


Off of Siebenthaler Avenue, the gardener's quarters
are still nicer than most of the homes in Dayton.


Heading into downtown on a sunny spring day
is invigorating for the neo-classicist lover in us all.


Spring is also a time for graduation pride. Here, a
family congradulates their newest graduate on the
corner of Gettysburg and Cornell with a sign
recognizing her hard work and persistence.

Congratulations Reshaunda!


General Motors has been replaced with Cricket
outlets as the new growth industry in Dayton.
This Cricket outlet, which seem to be going up
on every corner, is in the Gettysburg shopping
center.


Man waits for a bus on the corner of Arbor and Wyoming.


The Santa Clara District would be much
improved if the City of Dayton would just
dump about 100,000 pounds of horse shit
on the area and begin growing vegetables.
It's a dump inhabited by too many infantile punks.

Strolling past the now defunct Tasty Bird on Salem Avenue,
home of some of the greatest soul food on the planet. There is
still one Tasty Bird open in Dayton though, on West Third just
past Edwin C. Moses Blvd.

The Chase Bank building on the corner of West
Third and Paul Lawrence Dunbar is still going
strong.

Old fella' and his old' fella' waiting on a bus on Wayne Ave.
They can't make this kind of timeless Americana in Hollywood.


Shopkeepers Village on the corner of Salem Avenue
and Curundu has one problem with
it's name: there's no shopkeepers there.

Architecture fit for a student of 1950s and 60s
modernism sits vacant on Siebenthaler Avenue.


Spring flowers are abundant and
absolutely gorgeous for our landscape
after a winter of hiding indoors.


The old Siebenthaler Nursery on the corner of
Catalpa and Siebenthaler now houses a dentist's office
and a glass artisan shop.

This old farmhouse on the corner of Catalpa and
Siebenthaler is a testament to what we've become.


Nabali's Grocery has got the specials going strong
on Gettysburg Avenue.


The old Allied Machinery Company on Gettysburg
Avenue now looks like the Allied Decay Company.


Wayne Wheat is serving his suspension from the
Funeral Home business for being, well, let's say
just a tad bit unethical, which is an instant route
to riches in the ghetto.

Dayton is for Rent

Creative Flags on South Main Street moved a block South.

Two bedrooms on the border of The Oregon District.

Storage barn space for rent in The Oregon District.

Office Space for Rent in The Oregon District.

House for rent in the UD, Fairgrounds, MVH Neighborhood.

South Park Duplex for rent.

South Park House for Rent on Adams Street.

House for Rent near the Fairgrounds.

A one-bedroom Apartment in South Park.

Nice clean single family home for rent near the Fairgrounds.

Half of a duplex for rent near Miami Valley Hospital on Frank Street.

Nice little house in the Huffman Historic District.

House for rent on Patterson Road in Belmont.

Student apartments along Irving for the UD set.

Former restaurant/catering business space for Rent on Wayne Ave. in Belmont
right across the street from the 2nd District Police Station.

What appears to be a former neighborhood market is up for
sale on the corner of Livingston and Linden.

A photo for any of you potential rehab masters
who might want to tackle this 0ld beauty.

Space for Lease on Linden.

I think a Mexican grocery store has moved
into this space since this photo was taken.

Business space for lease across the street from

Belmont High School on Watervelite.

Commercial space for lease on Smithville.

Office space on Watervelite in
the Belmont Business District.

Drexel Dave weighs in on Ohio's 3rd District Congressional Race

Drexel Dave's Real Dayton Video Blog of Dec. 16th, 2007

Videos from the Real Streets of Dayton, Ohio USA, Nov. 23rd, 2007

Ok folks, you've always got to follow your muse. So, for right now, I'm not taking any city photographs. Should the inspiration strike me, I shall.

But for now, I'm exploring the world of video blogging. I've always had a lot to say, but realistically know that no damn television station would ever run my opinions.

But the Internet killed the television star.



Please comment on, and/or rate the video, whether you agree with the views contained there within' or not. You can do that on the video's you tube page right here.

Love,

Dave

Real Photos from the Streets of Dayton, Ohio - Oct. 7, 2007

Pink Flamingos are always in season on Cornell Ave.
I feel as if I would love these people for the odd yet lovable characters
they are just by their blessed front yard decor.
Dayton is full of characters who could easily line
the pages of great novels with their quirky eccentricity.

The famed Oregon District Dayton legend,
a.k.a. "Crackhead Phil" or "The Muffin Man" has
been spotted by this photographer hanging
around the upper Salem Ave.
area recently around Catalpa and Fairview.

This dentist office on Salem Ave. has quite
the modernist tiki style architechture going on.

This home at the corner of Otterbein and Catalpa
in the fantastically grandiose Dayton View neighborhood
of Dayton is spectacular to behold.

This building at the corner of Grand and Salem Ave. has
been restored and turned into apartments for the elderly.

Grace United Methodist Church on the corner of
Salem and Harvard I do believe deserves a visit. I feel as if
I would love to photograph the inside of this beautiful house
of worship. Where, oh where have architects with pride gone?

Driving up Otterbein or just about any
street in the Dayton View area is like taking
a trip in time back to a beautiful day when trees,
architecture and ambiance mattered.

The new Cricket store on North Main Street
is the latest in a long line of businesses to inhabit
the drug store overabundance of the 1990s.

Corpus Cristy Catholic Church on the corner of
Five Oaks and Forest Ave. in Dayton.

The North River Coffee House is on the lower end of
Salem Ave just across the street from the 5th District
Police headquarters. Any reviews are always welcome here.

You know you are in the inner-city when
the beauty supply stores come into focus.

If there were any business I'd love to produce
a commercial for, I think it would be the famous
Gold 4 Ya' Mouth store. This is the North Main Store.

Woman working North Main.

A loyal visitor to this blog requested that I
take a picture of this beauty of a home that he restored
on Ridge Ave. Well, it's still beautiful.

Augustus Uloho got into a motorcycle accident there.
He was the owner of the Uloho's on North Main. May he rest in peace.

A ray of sunshine in any Daytonian's day:
The sight of Tank and his big bus taking a load
of customers to the Dayton Dragon's game from
Tank's Bar and Grill on Wayne Ave.

Benjamin's Burger's on North Main Street are still delicious.

Memorial Baptist Church, North Main Street.

We love to tease the junkies in my neighborhood.

Dayton Reggae Festival at Dave Hall Plaza.

Grandmama makes her way to the RTA.

Skater boys arrive on the scene.

The always present smell good oil and incense stand.

Porta potties bring pottie parity.

I love this woman's purple hair.

Styles for the rich and ghetto fabulous.

It might as well be another day in Yellow Springs.

Sax man Danny Sauers is one of Dayton's true gems.

Smokin' a J at the reggae festival.

Then enjoying the buzz.

May Dayton Police officer Steve Whalen rest in peace.

This old business/residence on Wyoming Street
next to the UDF store was a victim of fire.

It will take a nation of a million shirtless East Side
men to bring America back to greatness. Near the old
Hillside Tavern near Phillips and Wyoming.

High atop the Wyoming Street Hill stands a
a place that does good. Bluebook Daycare.

In some Dayton locales, the world is your very own trashcan.

One of the more graphically pointless
pieces of graffiti. This was taken just off
an alley off of Wyoming Street.

More of the same. U.S. 35 is a perpetual
construction zone. This picture was taken off of
U.S. 35. This was the Steve Whalen exit just a few weeks
ago. This is now all paved and taking traffic.

Real Photos from the Streets of Dayton, Ohio for August 8, 2007

First, a message from the Free David Cook Society:

The Dairy Point at the corner of Fifth and Burkhardt
serves up big ice cream cones for a reasonable price - $1.

Some guy sleeping one off in front of the bar just up the
street from the Jersey Street market at about 8 a.m.

East enders wait for the bus in front
of the pharmacy on Third Street.

Little Abner still burns the flag for that delicious
down home, life-shortening country cooking.

Dude near Van Lear and Fourth Street on the East Side.
I've been told you can make a hundred bucks a day in
aluminum around Dayton by collectors in the know.

One of the most infamous alcohol-related atrocities in Dayton
history happened at Pappy's Place a few years back when one
patron walked in and doused another patron with a glass of
gasoline and lit the match.

Granato's corner grocery sitting idle
in the Twin Towers neighborhood, another
victim of our big-box sprawl economy.

Tank's Bar and Grill on Wayne Ave. is expanding it's
kitchen and bathrooms. Tank's is truly one of the Gems of Dayton.

This little place across the street from Tank's grows
award-winning Orchids and other exotic flowers.

The Liederkrantz Society on East Fifth Street
is a club that promotes German Culture, food, music, and
all that good stuff we wallow in during the autumn months.

Page Manor Cinema on Airway Road serves
as a reminder every day of the real face
of our new areas of blight - our inner-ring
suburbs.

Waiting for an RTA on Xenia Ave.

These are some of the lost children of post-industrialism in
East Dayton on Hivling Street. They don't have much to do, so
they find things like Wheelchairs and run up and down the
street all day playing nursing home.

Waiting for an RTA on East Fifth in front of the Circle K.

Man and woman getting out of the car with some
groceries off of Wyoming Street.

A man dressed stylishly for summer at the corner of
Sperling and East Fifth Street.

Meanwhile, just a few blocks up from the lost boys,
two girls who look like they could be up for a scholarship
on the Ohio State swim team prepare a yard sale for their home.
Within a couple of block area on East Third much of the citizenry goes
from debaucherous and largely uneducated, into a totally
different world of well-kept homes and apple-pie Americans,
at least from the outside. This is a phenomenon of larger
cities that many suburbanites do not realize exists. Yes, there are LOTS
of very inhabitable areas within' the city limits. And lots of times,
neighborhoods can be completely different
worlds block to block.

Pinky's on Airway Road looks, well, stinky.

The beer and wine drive through next door on East Third/Airway
provides a testament to the REAL true love of many
Riverside residents - beer and smokes under $3 a pack.

Two men waiting on the RTA bus outside of the Airway
Shopping center in Riverside.

Due to the overwhelming economic advantages
of moving to a 2X4/plywood and drywall wrapped
in vinyl style of corporate construction, architectural
greatness like this on East Third Street has pretty much
put on moth balls until a reality-based economy
based upon something other than petrochemical
exploitation is devised. That, and the fact that
entire industries who make their living doing
nothing but shuffling financial documents from place
to place to make money would go broke ensure this
is the way we will go for some time now.

The American Saloon on East Fifth
Street is open for business, still. I hear it's a
gay bar now, but haven't been there since
the days of my youth, when I was told what it
means to be man.

Chicken Louie's on East Third and North. They have the greatest
fries on the planet. They come soaked in garlic butter - not too great
for the arteries, but they are truly divine.

The redneck wall of intellectual disdain.

Mom's Diner on East Third. Where drexel got its start.

The amazing face full of tattoos on a
child's BMX Appalachian anger boy.

Waiting for a bus on Wayne and Wyoming in front of the Sunoco.

Stiver's School for the Arts is almost ready for
students to return after the fall break at DPS.

No amount of camouflage will make this attractive.

If you want to see one of the multi-facted faces
of poverty, check this guy out. He's eating salty
potato chips on a 90 degree afternoon. Then he goes
around bitching about how hot and thirsty he is.

Passed out on malt-liquor at 9 a.m. on a Saturday
morning on the corner of Wayne and Wyoming at the
hobo-super party complex. This tough guy biker is
so tough that he can't handle a little beer without
looking like an old man in a nursing home.

Just off of Xenia and Wayne at the corner of Clover and Quitman
sits the Bauer Roofing Company. These folks have one
of the grandest homes in Dayton right in the middle of it all.

The new American mega industry.

Waiting to cash in some cds for cash at Second Time
Around on Brown Street near UD.

I love riding my bike late at night. REAL late.
And there is nothing more fun than to drive by a
scene at a good rate of speed and take pictures of
houses/apartments that are doing drug deals.
It really freaks the people out when a flashbulb goes off
at 3 a.m. and a large man on a mountain bike rushes off
into the darkness. This woman was hanging out
of a window at the Fourman Court apartments (an infamous
place to live if you just got out of jail), handing things
to people below in the middle of the night. She was
actually stupid enough to call for me to come back too!

I surprised these three jakelegs one night recently off of Xenia Ave.
after a night a the Trolley Stop (only one is visible).
When I came chugging around the corner, one of them jumped off of his
bike and ran the other way. You can only see one of these thieves
in the photo, although the reflection of the one thief's
bike that he abandoned can be seen. I believe that if we can start
to organize packs of bike riders with cameras who patrol the
streets at night taking pictures of our underbelly, our
underbelly will be much more reticent to be taking advantage of
the darkness to do bad things. They are just like kids. They
start behaving when they think they are being watched.

Fifth Third Field as seen from the Main Street bridge.

Down and out in front of Gilley's and the Greyhound station.