Some 55 miles north of Cincinnati, Dayton calls itself the Birthplace of Aviation, and the Wright brothers' story is the reason most people come. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is enormous and free to walk through, and the Wright-Dunbar sites and Carillon Historical Park round out the history. The city has about 137,000 people.
Day to day, Dayton is one of the cheaper places in this group, with low home values and rents under the national average. The Oregon District is the spot for dinner and bars, RiverScape MetroPark handles the outdoors, and the Dayton Art Institute is worth a stop. Honesty matters on safety, though. Violent crime is well above the national average, particularly on parts of the west side, and late-night caution applies even in the Oregon District. Panhandling downtown and car break-ins are common. Weather brings icy winters and spring tornadoes, and the 2019 Memorial Day outbreak hit the area hard.
