NIP Neighborhood Improvement Program [Dayton, Ohio]

Urban renewal’ in Dayton during the mid-1960s.

During the 1950s and 1960s, city planners in Dayton, Ohio, followed the same patterns as many other municipal governments across Rust Belt cities. Driven by the Federal Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954, there were considerable efforts designed to combat suburban flight, modernize downtown, and clear areas officially designated as “blight.” Due to the racial and economic status of the residents in these designated areas, these urban renewal projects disproportionately affected people of color.

Dayton officials pursued these policies with vigor. This booklet, published by the City Plan Board in 1966, outlines the continuation of efforts that began in 1955 when the city adopted its first comprehensive housing code. Initial “cleanup” efforts centered on East Dayton, Center City West, and Madden Hills, with apparent early successes justifying broader adoption across additional neighborhoods in the following years.

The contents focus on residential land patterns and housing conditions, plus individualized treatments for seventeen different areas. Interstate construction was a vital catalyst of change, as it could be used to justify the destruction of large swathes of areas (predominantly occupied by African-Americans) that had been labeled as substandard. Tables of financial data, copies of correspondence, photographs, and maps – all justification for the proposed racially motivated policies – are also included.