Thanks to our great readers like you, this eyesores page has become a hit!

But this time our eyesore is a serious problem and embarassment for the City of Troy...and a sign that things are not all good in the county seat!

Let's go back to last spring. Over a year ago some prankster with a spray can decided that he would risk his life to walk onto the rusting but very active CSX train bridge spanning the Great Miami River, just feet upstream from the deadly lowhead dam. Upon making his way onto the bridge, it was this vandal's mission to tarnish a particular family's reputation publicly by spray painting a vulgar proclamation onto the side of the dark colored bridge in bright white letters. Apparently the culprit had enough time and luck to successfully carry out his plan without being struck by a locomotive or falling into the river to be swept into the dam. As you can see in the photo, whomever is responsible for this childish act wanted the community to know that, and I quote, "the carters blow dick!". Highly original.

Yet our eyesore isn't the bridge. It's big and ugly and it's not very attractive, but neither are the high voltage lines running over it. That's just the reality of having a railroad through town. Our eyesore is the vulgar graffiti, and more so that fact that it hasn't been mentioned, addressed or cleaned in OVER A YEAR!

Now, for those not 100% familiar with the location of the eyesore, it is clearly visible to EVERY CAR that crossed the river on Market Street, a major through way into downtown. What is worse is that with the impending Strawberry Festival expected to welcome over 150,000 visitors to Troy on the levy (again, in plain sight of the eyesore) that no one had even the thought to do something about it. Nothing.

Essentially, the city of Troy, by its obvious neglect, is welcoming each visitor to it's city by proclaiming in big ugly letters that "the carters blow dick!". Makes this Troy native all warm and fuzzy inside. No wonder the city has spent so much money recruiting Japanese businesses to town...they can't read the train bridge!

Obviously this eyesore is very upsetting. Not so much due to the vandalism. That's fairly common even here in Miami County, but the fact that while the City makes a huge fuss over having newspaper boxes in front of a downtown store, or FINING a local restaurant for putting up a nice tastefully rustic sign before being given "special" permission by a local bureaucrat with an ego...yet allow this eyesore to exist for over a year without a single word said about it! Our local government has truly gone off it's nut and failed us.

Since this could be fixed with a trip to Lowes and a can of paint, it doesn't seem like a biggie. But because of it's ineptitude with "aesthetics" and ridiculous enforcement while allowing this to welcome visitors every day for over a year, we here at MiamiCountyPost.com will begin a petition to Troy's City Council on behalf of our readers, informing them that they screwed up.

Please fill out the form below to join our cause and tell the city that it needs to clean up it's act and remove the eyesore that has embarrassed the city for way too long!

Last week's local eyesore was all about driving by it...but what about an eyesore here in Miami County that was intended to be driven through?

Ahhhhhhh is the sound heard around the world for refreshment (thanks to Coke's prolific marketing) and here in Ohio, we sure do love our cars and the convenience that comes with them. Just like we were once the Drive-In Movie capital of the world, Ohio motorists have had the benefit of many vehicle-modified conveniences of our modern day such as the drive-through bank teller, drive by mail boxes and god forbid we ever step out of our cars for fast food!

Yet what is perhaps most mystifying to my non-Midwestern relatives is the concept of a drive-through convenience store...what we commonly refer to in our regional vernacular as simply a "drive through". A store...you can DRIVE though! It sounds so American and so Midwestern every time I hear that; something that beckons back to our automotive mastery and culture.

There is a chain of drive though convenience stores in our county where motorists can purchase such items as alcohol, tobacco products, snacks, pop, candy, beef jerky and more without ever taking their foot off their pedals. Once prominent, the Troy Beverage Dock as it was called competed directly with local Troy competitor Carl's Cruise In (which had a much better location closer to the heart of the city on Main Street), yet the Beverage Dock was constructed in perhaps the strangest place one could think of...behind the Trojan Village Shopping Center...next to the dumpsters.

Oh, but they had a tall sign! Surely that would snag traffic off of main street as they headed into town, hopefully before they caught a glimpse of a much newer, renovated and relocated Carl's. Unfortunately for the Dock, the sign, as you can see in this photo taken this week, is almost impossible to decipher from the street. You can guess what eventually happened from there.

All in all, I have to give the Dock "props" for sticking with it for so long, basically a local secret. Yet, as time wore along, more and more gas stations, convenience stores, discount grocery outlets and yes...more drive throughs "drove" the Troy Beverage Dock out of business. It's not known for sure when exactly the store closed, but it continues to stand it's less than desirable ground with all it's signage mostly intact...like a hibernating brick-clad bear or something of that sort.

This is an interesting eyesore, as it's very location could almost qualify (the shopping center has deteriorated to having only one tenant on the west side) but the fact that is old brick box sits next to the steel boxes of the dumpsters with torn signage and a rusting doorway isn't as worrisome as the possibility of having a deteriorating building sitting empty in the dark completely obscured to the rest of the city...this sounds an awful lot like an incubator for mischief.

There are a lot of types of eyesores out there...run down houses, abandoned property, destroyed piles of lumber, and structures that pose to create negativity for the surrounding community. Do you have an eyesore in your neighborhood? If so, we would like to share it with our readers and shed light on the problem. Snap a pic, and send us a description of the situation to submit@miamicountypost.com. Till next time!

There's just something about Troy's main street, leading from the interstate all the way to the historic and beautiful downtown. Designed ahead of it's time, the wide, double lane "main drag" into town ensures easy and hassle free travel into town, complete with a plethora of shops, stores, eateries, banks and boutiques all adoring it's sides. A true MAIN street.

Yet, for as much as we travel along Main Street in Troy (which is also known as State Route 41) busily coming and going, it can be surprising how easily we overlook and ignore various less than preferable structures and tenants along the curb. Today's eyesore is just such a case.

A former floral shop, this empty white Victorian-inspired two story house sits on top of a shrubbery-obscured hill overlooking and gawking at the thousands of passersby each day and night like the home of the Grinch in Dr. Seus's famed book.

What is amazing is that for as large an out of place this house is, it is often overlooked and ignored by motorists who simply don't notice the eyesore sitting between such busy locations as the Domino's Pizza restaurant and the relocated Carl's Cruise In.

Now, to be fair, the sign out front tells us it's for sale. And it has been for years.

As our first unassuming eyesore, it is amazing that this building has gone largely unnoticed for so long despite sitting smack dab in the busiest location in the city. Just don't let city hall catch you with an "unapproved sign" or LED display! (we will explore the ridiculousness of local officials and their percieved power over business owners at a later date).

As always, is there an eyesore in your neighborhood? Send us a photo and brief description for us to share!
submit@miamicountypost.com

We're back with another local eyesore structure, and after being live for a week, our brand new eyesores page has been one of our most visited! It's little wonder why it's such a popular page...people want to know what is lurking in their neighborhoods (see: sex offender look up on our blotter page). And perhaps the best evidence that eyesores are something of an attraction, is the fact that "coincidentally" one week from the launch of our eyesores page, WHIO-TV (channel 7) has decided to do a special on local Dayton-area eyesores, promoting it up the wazu during their weekend programming. Now, i'm not much for conspiracy theories, nor am I officially insinuating any connection....but it makes one wonder. Way to be original 7!

Ok, so with my spiel firmly tucked away, let's get to our next eyesore. Once again, our structure comes from the county seat of Troy. Nestled on Troy's Elm street, this abandoned house sticks out like a sore "green" thumb, and for good reason. Admittedly not the most prosperous area of town, the residents of this street noticeably try their best to maintain their aging structures and property, yet as one drives by our eyesore...the first thing noticed is the vast lack of attention this building has had since being vacated. Aproaching the house from the street, the unmowed grass at the curb actually surpasses knee height! Looking from a safer distance, the house is obviously empty with passers being able to view directly into the emptiness inside. Ahh, and how the infamous Monty Python characters "The Knights who say NI" would appreciate the abundance of disheveled shrubbery around the perimiter of the building, as well as partially obscuring the main entrance.

In keeping with our goals for this page, there is hope for this building in the form of a little bit of love and attention...and a decent glop of hard manual labor. With a new owner, its not too late for this house to be repaired and landscaped to be the highlight of Elm street once more. Question is...who will see the potential in this house and location before it is too late?

For our very first "eyesore", this downtown anchor building made headlines back in February of 2007 when the entire third floor and roof collapsed under the weight of snow after a recent storm, destroying everything inside. Fortunately, no one was in occupancy at the time of the structural failure.

Yet, for nearly three years this historic building has stood largely untouched aside from shoring up the large hole and cleaning the debris. An ownership change was reported by the local media a year ago, and most recently, there has been some activity at the site of the former Sound City Studios and Lone Wolf Gifts (lone wolf went out of business as a result of the collapse, while sound city moved to a much better location on main street). What will replace those two tenants, and more importantly what is being done to the building are surely questions on Troy residents minds.

Time will tell what will become of this nineteenth century structure...yet today it has the dubious honor of being our first Miami County Eyesore.