State of the City: Dayton is a ‘hot’ place but must become safer

To that end, the mayor said this year the city is helping set up and launch a new violence interruption program and a peace campaign.

“The residents of Dayton want to see progress,” he said.

On Wednesday night, Mims took part in his fourth State of the City address, which was held in a conversational format at the Salvation Army Dayton Kroc Center in the McCook Field neighborhood.

This was Mims’ final State of the City address for his first term in office. Mims, who was elected mayor in 2021, will seek reelection this year.

During a 30-minute conversation facilitated by Fran Robinson, Mims said the city made a lot of progress in 2024, and there’s a lot more investment coming in 2025 and beyond.

Mims said the city has demolished a considerable amount of blight and is helping create new housing, and there are many new jobs on the way.

The mayor mentioned the Joby Aviation and onMain projects, each of which are expected to bring about 2,000 new jobs to Dayton.

Joby Aviation plans to build and operate an electric air taxi production facility in the city. onMain will redevelop the former Montgomery County Fairgrounds.

“Dayton is hot right now,” Mims said.

City leaders said about 350 new housing units were created downtown last year, and about 250 new units are under construction. There arealso more than 430 additional housing units in the pipeline. Downtown added about 220 new hotel rooms last year and about 360 are under construction.

Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss said last year new housing projects got going in multiple neighborhoods, including Edgemont, Miami Chapel and Wright Dunbar.

She said more housing is in development in Old North Dayton, Wolf Creek and Five Oaks.

But the mayor also said the community has had an unacceptable amount of violence that the city must do more to address.

Dayton Police Department data show the city saw a sharp increase in homicides, robberies, violent crimes involving firearms and kidnappings and abductions last year.

Serious crimes involving firearms in general also increased, and young people were victims and perpetrators of some of the violent acts.

Young people have gotten into brawls at local libraries. A 12-year-old girl was shot and killed in her bed in shooting that was sparked by a social media post. Two people died and five others were wounded during a drive-by shooting.

Mims said the city is going to help stand up a new program that takes a public health approach to combating violence.

The new program will treat violence like a contagious disease and will try to interrupt its spread and transmission. A new peace campaign will try to reduce violence and strengthen the community.

Vanessa Ward, president of the Omega Community Development Corp., said young people in Dayton want a peaceful community.

“They want to live in a place where they’re safe,” she said. “They want to be part of the solution.”