Editor, it is great to see the new editors tackling significant social issues in an article and editorial about the Forbes ranking of Dayton as a dying city. It is a refreshing change from stories about ghetto parties and other less significant issues.

Your editorial, however, and perhaps the front page article, makes the same mistakes and false assumptions as did the Dayton Daily News recently in failing to separate the "death" of the City of Dayton as a specific issue apart from the financial health of the metropolitan area. Note that your editorial makes Wright Patterson Air Force Base a part of Dayton (it is in Greene County), and mentioning NCR as being in Dayton neglects to understand the meaning of this fact and NCR's abandonment of Dayton in the 1970's which was the start of Dayton's dying process. No surprise, denial is a part of the death and dying process.

Analysis of whether the city of Dayton (or Cleveland) is dying requires insight into the process of "white flight" from inner cities, the movement of people and wealth to the outer suburban communities. If this flight continues, inner cities certainly will die. The answer is some form of metropolitan government which requires all residents of the area to take responsibility for a total geographic area including the oldest parts. Who is my neighbor takes on a new context in today's economy.