Welcome to the YellowSprings.com 'Community Soapbox', featuring letters from the community.
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posted 2/22/2007
I am trying to locate the guy who used to have the Hup Kiix tattoo parlor in Yellow Springs.
He did a tattoo for me in 2000; I need to get a hold of him - I would like to ask him about painting something for me.
mlh7162 y a h o o . com
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posted 9/16/2006
My husband and I would love to move to Yellow Springs when we retire, as there are so many things here that would make life enjoyable for us. The only problem I see with our dream, is finding appropriate housing that would accommodate our needs as we age.
If I had a magic wand, I’d create a senior enclave of small houses nestled together close to Antioch and your delightful business district. Newly relocated retirees would benefit from the college community and the established community would receive a boost to the local economy. Just a dream…but a lot of great things have come from dreams.
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posted 7/15/2006
Hi! I am a fairly new resident to Yellow Springs and am thrilled to be here. I moved from Houston, Texas in January of 2005. While I see that the village is in need of some sprucing up, I still find it a refreshing refuge from the rest of the world. The one thing that I find the most frustrating is the high cost of existing housing in the village. I want very much to buy a house here and thereby help to support the community through property taxes etc., but.........
I can however continue to support the local businesses in the village and I hope that my fellow residents are doing the same. See ya, April
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posted 12/15/2005
If you need any Yellow Springs information
(where to shop, dine, hang-out, or live)
contact me!
Adrienne Chesire
The Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce
info@yellowspringsohio.org
937-767-2686
101 Dayton St.
Yellow Springs, OH 45387
www.yellowspringsohio.org
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posted 9/30/2005
I am considering moving my family to Yellow Springs. I have often heard that the schools are great and the community is vibrant and active. My children are 1 and 3 and I want them in a good public school. But as a small college town, is it also a good place to raise small children? Are the schools thriving? Is there still a stable enough population to sustain community resources for families like the schools, arts, pools, health care options, for example. I would love to hear a resident's perspective on family living in Yellow Springs. It's a beautiful little town. Thank you.
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posted 9/26/2005
My wife and I have visited Yellow Springs and find it to be a comfortable, friendly, and unique community. Upon reading various viewpoints in this Community Soapbox I found it interesting that it even existed still...we tried a similar forum on our Village website in Edgerton Ohio...with disastrous results.
I am a former Village Administrator and I can tell you that Yellow Springs, while facing many challenges in years ahead, has one huge advantage over communities like Edgerton that perhaps it may be overlooking...Higher Education.
Edgerton is deep rooted in Agriculture and Building Trades/Manufacturing. However the insider control over growth (and politics) is astonishing.
The problem facing your quaint community is not propietary as nearly ALL smaller villages face the challenges of intelligent controlled growth, shrinking revenues, Federal & State mandates, and infrastructure improvements. Funding will always be an issue and there will always be differing views on how to obtain funding. Comparing Yellow Springs and the 'downtown' area along with interstate access and major metropolitan proximity, I'd say you are light years ahead of Villages your size around the State.
Perhaps all Yellow Springs needs is to keep doing what it is doing and stand behind it's leaders in their attempts to create enterprise zones and commerce parks or as we came to call them up here in Northwest Ohio; Industrial Parks.
I was very impressed when I visited Yellow Springs...my wife's parents recently moved to Edgerton Ohio from EUGENE OREGON...but if they visited Yellow Springs first, knowing them, I'd have to admit they would've chose your town first. It's just so darn cute and friendly. You may be wondering why we closed our Open forum on the Edgerton-ohio website? Well, we could not prevent the persistent barrage of bulk emails, 'phishers', and prank posts that were becoming vulgar, offensive and personal to the local population. Perhaps that has something to do with education (or lack thereof), upbringing, understanding of technology, or just downright apathy. It was sad, really.
But I digress... keep plugging away Yellow Springs, you have a wonderful town with great people and people are our greatest natural resource!
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posted 9/5/2005
MY WIFE AND I HAVE BEEN COMING TO YELLOWSPRINGS THIS YEAR SEVERAL TIMES AND WE REALLY FEEL SO RELAXED IN THE ATMOSPHERE THERE, THE CITY ITSELF
SEEMS SO NICE ,WISH I COULD BE THERE MORE OFTEN WE ARE SPENDING THE WKEND OF STREET FAIR THERE AT THE SPRINGS MOTEL CAN'T WAIT
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posted 5/2/2005
Re Curves, the exercise program. I've been going there for a couple of years, to one of the franchises in Springfield.
Yes, it's worth the money. The folks that set this one out are brilliant. It is a 30 minute program. You start as soon as you walk in and change your shoes to non-outdoor shoes. No waiting for a class to start.
The exercise is in a circle; 30 seconds on an "exercise mat" moving as vigorously as necessary to get your pulse to the right level, which is checked every 7 minutes or so. (young folks have to exercise hard; old folks -like me - have to back off until our heart rate comes down to OK status) and 30 seconds on a machine that has the capacity to work you hard or work you easy, depending on what you put into it.
So, as of today, I've been there 105 times. Not bored yet. Arthritis pain definitely related to exercise at Curves.....regular exercise, less pain. Other participants agree.
One of the best aspects? It's only 30 minutes, full work-out and cool-down stretches. Who cannot find 30 minutes in a day to improve their life?
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posted 3/22/2005
I live in Cincinnati and am looking for a gay friendly place to move to. Is Yellow Springs that place? I am a 45 year old lesbian. pinkckm@yahoo.com
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posted 2/15/2005
I would to know what the YS community thinks of the exercise program offered by Curves...does it work, worth your money?
937-767-1234
blueski12345@yahoo.com
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posted 11/26/2004
I had a professor at Antioch who spoke out against the use of “labels”. In an election year, labels abound: “liberal”, “conservative”, “family values”. And locally, we’ve heard a few others, like “strip mall”. In an ever more complex world, labels, he said, were excuses to stop thinking. We hear a label, stop listening and fill in the blanks with our own assumptions, and assumptions are an enemy of constructive dialogue.
In the case of the “strip mall” label, the explanation that followed its use by Mr. Miller made it clear that he was not seeking to create competition for downtown Yellow Springs. His intent is to provide space for service-type businesses that would support the proposed Center for Business and Education, including Antioch University McGregor. Additionally, this was just one part of his overall development plan, and the total space for these service-type businesses would be a fraction of the over 100 businesses located downtown. In the end, “strip mall” to him meant a building for more than one public-oriented business, with a parking lot in front of it.
However, if all one heard was the term “strip mall”, and not the subsequent explanation, many of the fears expressed in letters the past few weeks are logical. I understand these fears - I have had some of the same fears myself. Change is usually a scary thing for most of us. But I could not let my fears stop me from looking for solutions to our community’s problems. And our community does have significant problems.
Years of declining population, local job losses, rising costs and crumbling infrastructure are combining to form a “perfect storm” threatening our community. Our community is in a struggle – but it’s not a struggle against growth or development, it’s a struggle for survival.
Much of the quality of life we have enjoyed for so long in this community depends on the full range of services we have had. Strong schools, abundant recreational opportunities including a community pool, local owned utilities, our library – these are the kinds of services we pride ourselves on and count on as a community. Our diversity is also vital to our quality of life. It’s an essential part of what has made us different from other communities.
However, our quality of life is a like a tree trunk, rotting from the inside out. On the surface, it looks strong, but it’s been hollowing out for over 30 years and it’s ready to crack. Rising costs and lack of new housing have eroded our diversity. Our school population continues to shrink. Our streets, water lines, sewer lines, pool, library – all face significant costs for repairs and replacement, and the bill is coming due now.
We are in a struggle to sustain our quality of life. But we can’t afford to be frozen by our fears. We can balance our community values with our community needs. We can maintain character of the Village and maintain the services we have come to expect. We can respect the values of the community and respect the rights of property owners – no special exceptions, but no special restrictions, either.
We are starting a long process of change. In the last century, Yellow Springs went through several such cycles of change. The important thing is we can and will retain the essence of what is Yellow Springs. Each step in this process will provide opportunities to participate, ask questions, express our hopes and be heard on what is most important to us. We can, we must, work together through cooperation, collaboration and compromise to find solutions that we can embrace as a community.
Tony Arnett
Village Council
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posted 11/26/2004
The concerns of numerous citizens about development on our western edge have prompted me to write this letter.
For many years, income tax money from three large companies has been a major source of financial support for our Village government and utilities. For example, in 1996, the Village received 46% of income tax revenues from these companies. Five years ago, Community Resources recognized the need to diversify our business community, and to reduce reliance on these large companies should their employment decrease. That actually happened when our locally founded Vernay Laboratories decided to leave Yellow Springs. We also saw the need to provide room for expansion of growing businesses. For many years small growth companies looking for more space to expand, have been forced to leave Yellow Springs. Land they needed was not available in our village.
The solution that Community Resources visualized was acquisition of land for a business park on the west side of Yellow Springs. Thanks to the financial support of the Village and the generosity of the Community Foundation, we were able to purchase the 46-acre Vernay property in June. We expect that local companies wishing to expand will do so there. We also expect to attract companies that want to locate their business in Yellow Springs because of the unique features our village offers.
Recently, we were fortunate that Antioch University selected this site to locate a new 10-acre campus for the McGregor School. The impressively designed McGregor building will be the anchor for our newly renamed Business and Education Park. The remaining 30 acres will be for tax producing businesses in an attractive park setting complementing the McGregor School.
Finally, to allay concerns of village residents, we want to be very clear that the Business and Education Park will not compete with businesses in downtown Yellow Springs. We very much support the vitality and economic health of our downtown. We are committed to a Business and Education Park that does not contain retail storefronts.
We hope that, as residents see the construction of the new McGregor School campus next year, and the location over the next few years of tax-producing businesses compatible with Yellow Springs values, they will come to appreciate the significance of the Business and Education Park to the vitality and economic health of Yellow Springs.
Sam Bachtell
Community Resources
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posted 11/26/2004
I have to offer my opinion about recent development efforts on the west side of town. I am a board member and past chair for Community Resources (the CIC). CIC is a non-profit board of fifteen volunteer community members that work very hard to keep our business sector healthy. Very recently CIC bought acreage on the north side of Dayton Yellow Springs Road for a business and education park. Soon after, it was announced that the anchor of the park is McGregor. McGregors new building will meet the goals of CIC by retaining jobs and expanding McGregors ability to serve the region.
Just to be clear, I am not writing a letter that our board has seen in advance, but I am writing it as a person who cares about our Villages future and knows something about Community Resources plans on the west side of town. Near as I can see, no matter how folks feel about growth or no growth - the only problem occurs when folks take action without factual information. Id like to add some factual information to the discussion.
We have some real concerns to address if we want to keep our lifestyle and wonderful schools. Our area has lost 20% of its population in last 30 years, and 15% of its local jobs in last 10 years.
All of us have a story of a business that couldnt expand here because of lack of suitable space. That is an important goal of our Community Resources volunteers. We want to keep our businesses and bring in business compatible with our community values. Therefore it is not in our Villages best interests to develop anything that will pillage the downtown or empty out existing commercial buildings like Jonathan Browns Dayton St. art and office building or Millworks business spaces on Walnut St. It flies in the face of common sense to put retail outside the central business district (and current Village zoning supports common sense). It would be wrong not to involve stakeholderslike Tecumseh Land Trust in early discussions. These are just some of the factsof how Community Resources has looked at development plans.
But for those who feel that all growth in and around town is bad I ask you to consider where we will be in fifty years without planned growth and vision? After all, developers do not necessarily have to annex for development. They generally have to rezone. That is where your voice and mine is heard - in zoning hearings and letters. If what the property owner wants to do on their land is legally possible within zoning and other regulations, it probably will occur despite how anyone else feels about it. It may create wonderful or not so wonderful side effects for our community.
The key to having your way on land you dont own (short of buying up the land) is to propose a development plan that reflects our village needs as well as our values and to make it profitable for the owner. Help the developer or property owner see how the shared vision works for whatever their ultimate goals are for the land or for their business. Help them see the light to do what you can support. Then seek participation and input to make it happen. It is planned growth, not no growth, but it works.
This is hard work but it can bring about the kind of growth that protects what we hold dearest, our quality schools and our lifestyle. Isnt this better than having two or three property owners who own the acreage you care about, perhaps acting with or without a vision, but most certainly acting within their legal property rights, while some hold out for no growth?
I hope you will see that Community Resources is doing this very thing (working for win-win development and vision) and that soon we will be sharing some of our work with the community, asking for your participation, and seeking input.
Sincerely,
Ellen Hoover
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