Of course, more divides the two communities than distance.
Southwest Washington Twp. is a sprawling suburb of mostly single-family homes pocked with parks and a golf course. People who were born there between 2010 and 2015 have an average estimated life expectancy of 86.2 years, which was highest in Montgomery County.
In McCook field in northern Dayton, houses are sandwiched between factories and freight companies. Homes sit atop a “Superfund” site, and poverty is five times higher than in Washington Twp. The life expectancy there is 61.1 years, the lowest in the county.
“I was surprised that it was so low,” said Jerry Bowling III, president of the McCook Field Neighborhood Association. “That’s not good. From a personal standpoint, I’m 65.”
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
A Dayton Daily News reporter walked through the McCook Field neighborhood and talked to residents about the report’s findings. They described theirs as a quiet community, where people tend to help each other out as needed. But they also admitted the area has challenges.
The ADAMHS report was compiled by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio to detail how a web of social components can impact the physical and mental wellbeing of residents across Montgomery County.
“When you look at those two stats that are presented there, they’re pretty startling,” said Helen Jones-Kelley, executive director of Montgomery County ADAMHS, on the 25-year life expectancy difference between the highest and lowest neighborhoods.
McCook Field isn’t alone.
Other areas
Only about half of someone’s overall wellbeing can be attributed to their health behaviors and clinical care, researchers say, as the other half is influenced by their social, economic and physical environments, according to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.
Disadvantages within those individual categories are compounded when they start piling on top of each other, the Dayton Daily News found in speaking with local health experts.
Much of the city of Dayton, including the nearby North Dayton neighborhood and areas of West Dayton, had life expectancies in the range of 61.1 to 71.8 years, with some sections between 71.9 to 75 years.
The life expectancy in areas of northwest Dayton was between 71.9 to 75 years. In the sections south of Dayton, the closer to Interstate 75 the census tracts were, the lower the life expectancy in the institute’s analysis, though a similar trend was not apparent north of Dayton along I-75.
Areas like Oakwood, Kettering and Centerville had life expectancies between 79 and 86.2 years, according to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio’s analysis.
Other areas fell in between, such as Huber Heights, which was in the range of 75.1 to 78.9 years. Trotwood was similar to Huber Heights, with the section closest to Dayton being the lower end of the life expectancy range between 71.9 and 75 years.
Challenges
People living in census tracts associated with lower life expectancies are vulnerable to negative health outcomes in more ways than one.
“Some of the social determinants of health that we’d be concerned about that impact your life expectancy are going to include housing stability, income, education and access to quality education, health care, access to health care including primary care and health insurance,” said Montgomery County Health Commissioner Jennifer Wentzel.
Access to food is a challenge in McCook Field. There are a couple smaller markets in the area, like in the nearby Old North Dayton neighborhood, which has La Michoacana Mexican Market at 748 Troy St. and the Umoja African Market at 2601 Stanley Ave.
Many McCook Field residents say they travel out of the city to go to Huber Heights for food and other needs.
“There’s really no good food access,” said April Reeder, a McCook Field resident. Another grocery store had been located on Troy Street, in addition to La Michoacana, but that store was closed after getting hit by the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes.
Crime and violence also play a part into a built environment, but McCook Field residents say that’s not really an issue in their neighborhood, describing the area as quiet.
Poverty
Income can determine where you live, as well as your access to reliable transportation, food and health care, including regular visits with a primary care doctor.
Montgomery County as a whole has a higher rate of poverty compared to the state overall with 15.3% of the people in the county having an income below the federal poverty level, according to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio’s analysis using five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. Approximately 13.4% of all Ohio residents live below below the federal poverty level.
The divide gets more pronounced looking at individual communities within the county. In 2018, 27% of the people living in the census tract that contains McCook Field lived below the federal poverty. While, according to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, 4.6% of the people living in the census tract that contains southwest Washington Twp. lived below the federal poverty level.
There’s a historical context as well, Jones-Kelley said. The people who predate the current residents living in low-income areas were also living without the supports of finances, education and so on.
“Each zip code is vastly different from the other,” Jones-Kelley said.
“There’s an area of West Dayton, for example, called Hog Bottom, and there were these same kinds of lack of social supports, economic supports, educational supports. Back then, that was even before redlining,” Jones-Kelley said.
Redlining ― the systematic denying loans or charging higher interest rates in minority neighborhoods — among other racist policies, was banned by the Fair Housing Act in 1968.
Housing
When someone spends more than 30% of their income on housing costs, they are at risk of not being able to afford other essential needs.
About 45% of Montgomery County residents experience housing cost burdens, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio says. Additionally, 54% of Black households in the county experience a housing cost burden, compared to 50% of mixed/other race households and 40% of white households.
Some of the residents who have lived in McCook Field for more than three decades are still paying off their homes, but the value of their homes have been rocky.
“It’s started to go back up a little bit, the tax value and all that,” said Terry Martin, a McCook Field resident. “...I still have a loan on the house, and they valued my house almost less than what my loan is.”
A number of the houses in McCook Field are also abandoned, some residents pointed out. Some of those houses should be torn down, one resident said. Martin has seen others buy and fix up a couple of the houses that were previously vacate on his street.
Industrial area
Housing in the McCook Field neighborhood can appear wedged between industrial plants, which can lead to a potential for exposure to industrial chemicals. Exhaust fumes from trucks, traffic and nearby highways can add to environmental impacts.
“Often in industrial areas, residential property is likely to be more affordable due to the fact that nobody wants to live in an industrial type area,” Wentzel said.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Part of McCook Field sits on top of a U.S. EPA “Superfund” site. The companies involved recently settled a class-action lawsuit with residents, but a toxic plume remains below the surface and risks intrusion into homes without proper monitoring.
The access to industrial plants, though, also means there is access to jobs. While there are large industrial plants in the area, there are also a lot of small businesses, Reeder said.
“As far as the neighborhood and business opportunities and things like that, it’s really coming up,” Reeder said about McCook Field.
‘Bringing life back to it’
Factors making a neighborhood or region more conducive to healthy living include access to nature, places for physical activity, public spaces and drop-in centers.
McCook Field is home to one city park, Claridge Park near the Mahle plant, as well as two metroparks. Claridge Park includes a skate park that is often in use.
“They’re bringing life back to it,” Reeder said.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
McCook Field also sits along a bend of the Great Miami River, the shape of which leads to eagle sightings and other access to nature.
“We’re like an eagle alley,” Reeder said. “Just about everywhere we go, we’ll see the eagles either dipping into the river or just hovering over the rivers. It’s the neatest thing.”
The growing diversity of the neighborhood is also a strength, Reeder said.
“It really feels inclusive,” Reeder said.
McCook Field is also near to downtown Dayton, which is access the residents say they like.
“We’re just across the river from the downtown and the ballpark,” said Jeff Gerrior, a McCook Field resident. “I go to church right on Third Street, which is within walking distance.”
The nearby bike path is also a positive, he said.
“I do get to take advantage of a lot of the park systems in the county, the things they offer, and also a lot of the things that are offered downtown, which is nice,” Gerrior said.
There is an issue with trash, though, he said, and some property owners not maintaining their houses and lots.
Washington Twp.
The access to parks was one of the main attributes current Washington Twp. residents and people from nearby communities say they liked about the area.
“For me, the parks are just wonderful. I still have to check out a couple of them,” said Lois Vogel, who just moved to the area from Beavercreek.
The Centerville-Washington Park District operates eight community parks, nine nature parks and 34 neighborhood parks encompassing 1,000 acres in Centerville and Washington Twp.
There is a park within walking distance of every home in the community, according to the Centerville-Washington Park District. There is also access to other amenities, like grocery stores and restaurants.
“You have everything you could want on every other block,” Vogel said.
The combination of outdoor spaces, low crime and low violence, education, access to healthy food and more can make for a stronger support system for residents to maintain their health.
“Being able to provide healthy food options I think is a huge thing,” KC Schaefer of Kettering said.
Prioritizing health equity
Other conditions that can be an asset for a community include affordable child care within their same neighborhood or area, so there is less time spent traveling to other areas, as well as access to reliable transportation.
Building a community that serves all of its citizens can come from an equitable distribution of resources, Jones-Kelley said, and it can lead to a longer, healthier life as a result.
“Anything we do on the front end is going to lessen the dollars, as well as the trauma, on the other end,” Jones-Kelley said.
“We have limited resources. How do you maximize and enhance the distribution and the return on those resources. We could always ask for more dollars, but how do you maximize the dollars that you do have,” Dr. Victor McCarley, licensed practicing psychologist and the Montgomery County ADAMHS board vice chair.
A greater distribution of resources strengthens the community as a whole as a community is only as strong as its weakest citizen, McCarley said.
“We want a strong community, a strong county, Montgomery County,” McCarley said.
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