For The Love Of Dayton

University of Dayton President Dan Curran tells a story about the time he was in San Antonio and the hotel clerk boasted that his room had a “river view.” He didn’t feel cheated so much as mystified when he looked out the window and saw the “stream” that has been a catalyst for that city’s vaunted downtown redevelopment.

Once back in Dayton, he said, he checked out the view of the Great Miami from a third-floor room at the Courtyard by Marriott. “Now that’s a river,” he told the crowd at this week’s River Summit, hosted by the university and the Miami Conservancy District.

On Monday, April 28, upward of 100 people turned out to talk about the development that’s occurring all along the Great Miami’s riverbanks between Hamilton to the south and Troy to the north. The goal was to encourage communities to take note of and leverage each other’s work. Why not, for example, have a rolling weeklong festival of festivals, with a different town the center of attention each day, one organizer asked.

Many of the hundreds of people who are walking the trails, riding the bike paths and canoeing and kayaking on the river are hearing rumors about plans for amphitheaters, parks, and boathouses. But — until Monday — Miamisburg officials, for example, probably didn’t know all that’s going on in Troy and how that city is focused on directing people and a critical mass of activities to its river’s edge.

Meanwhile, in Hamilton and Dayton, the push is on as well to cajole people, events and businesses to the river.

One point that kept being repeated is that the Great Miami hasn’t been tapped for its ability to bring the region together. Seamless and jurisdictionless, it can be shared as a resource. So often economic development is a zero-sum game, with one community winning sought-after businesses and jobs and the competition losing.

But riverfront development can be a force multiplier. If outdoor enthusiasts like what’s going on in Dayton, they’re more likely to paddle or cycle to Miamisburg (which is embarking on a phased plan to build a $17 million riverfront park) or to check out Hamilton.

If there’s competition over which community has the better bars, burgers or paddle nights, that’s good for everybody, too.

Since the 1913 flood, much of the region’s focus has been on keeping people away from the river. Dams were built to control the water, while treacherous low dams were more effective than any “keep out” signs ever could be. Go walking in downtown Dayton and you have to make an effort to glimpse the water; either you have to go up in a high-rise or walk down steps or a steep hill. It’s as if everybody forgot that water is like mountains. Its attraction is magnetic.

And with the surge of interest in outdoor and water sports — from cycling to whitewater rafting, to kayaking and canoeing — there’s fun to be had, the kind that especially young and creative professionals expect in a community.

What people learned at this week’s event is that there’s an entire river corridor that is remarkable in its breadth. There are almost 60 miles in riverbank trails, with more to come, and literally miles of real estate that is ripe for offices, restaurants and other development.

Meanwhile, because of aggressive event-planning and marketing by recreation departments and park districts, the region is winning a reputation for having adventurous things going on.

Most of those who turned out for the River Summit were elected officials or government employees. But businesses, too, need to be taking note.

It’s their workers, and the people they’re trying to recruit, who are going to use these amenities and may not even know that they’re here if someone doesn’t point them out.

There are historical reasons why the region’s riverfront hasn’t been developed, but that history doesn’t have to live on. A goodly number of communities, governments and anchors (like UD whose west campus will one day extend to the water’s edge) see the potential.

Their next step is to make sure they keep talking up what they’re doing and imagining still more big plans. Their ideas are so natural that they can’t help but take on a life of their own.