Downtown at night.

Downtown Dayton is an interesting place to be at night. For several years my band had a practice space above the Nite Owl in the Oregon District. We had a really good view up and down Fifth Street. It was very entertaining to watch people when they didn't know they were being watched.

I watched Crackhead Phil eat food out of a garbage can, only to vomit it back up, and then promptly eat it again. I watched Ron from the Nite Owl beat the hell out of a guy who was thrown out of the bar after the guy attempted to get back in. I observed how the look-out system works among the thieves and drug dealers who work the Oregon. I've witnessed people of both sexes driving down Fifth Street nude from the waist down, never suspecting that those a couple stories up have a better vantage point than passers by do on the sidewalk.

Once you get outside the Oregon District, downtown is a virtual ghost town. Sure, some nights there are things going on at the Schuster Center, but generally they are over by 11pm. And there are small pockets of life around Canal Street Tavern, the Southern Belle, the Foundry and the few other outlying nightclubs and bars in the center city. But for the most part, the majority of downtown is devoid of people after dusk. The majority of the suburbanites probably believe that downtown is a bastion for vagrants and criminals when the last rays of sun disappear below the horizion. This fear seems to drive everyone out of town and into the safety of their homes. But my experience is that crime happens at all hours of the day and night, so I don't feel any less safe just because it's dark outside. The result of the sudden vacancy of all life downtown creates a sense of loneliness that I tried to convey in my photographs. Enjoy.