A Look Back at October here at Civic Capacity
Vol. III, No. 159 - Last month was another busy month for our publication.
We Are Feeding our Neighbors here at Civic Capacity
Throughout November, this publication is giving our readers an opportunity where our readers can support local food pantries. Every dollar received from our “Buy Me a Coffee” Page will be given to New Path Food Pantries.
We started November with a modest goal to raise $750. After the fifth day of our campaign, our community has raised $1,825! Our new goal for November is to raise $2,500. You can be a part of this effort by making a donation here:
Busy days ahead!
Just like October, November is promising to be an amazingly busy month. . Piqua recently passed legislation welcoming data centers, Tipp City said no to stand alone gas stations and most local governments are working on getting the final touches on their 2026 budgets. And before we know it, Thanksgiving will be here.
This October, Civic Capacity completed it’s sixteenth full month of daily coverage on topics important to Miami County. The original goal of our publication was to come up with an original analysis or story every three days. But, as the stories and the audience grew, that there was an opening for something more — something daily. In fact, this is the 781st edition of this newsletter.
Many times, our readers ask me questions based along the lines of, “How do you come up with so much stuff to write about?”. Well, if there is one important lesson I have learned about creating this type of content, is that the ideas for new and interesting stories come quickly. There is never a shortage of things to write about, but sometimes there is a shortage of time to get all the ideas on the screen, in a clear and concise manner.
As much as I might be the one producing and creating this publication, this is certainly by no means a “one man show”. There are scores of folks that have invested time, money, suggestions, and perhaps most importantly, encouragement, into this endeavor. This continues to underscore the fact that Civic Capacity is a community-based project. If things weren’t happening in our community, if people weren’t interacting, there wouldn’t be much to write about. That is why your support as either a free or contributing subscriber to this project is critical!
And this is where I really need to thank you —- the readers of Civic Capacity. The readers of this work are some of the kindest, most generous, and most encouraging people I could ever ask to be a part of this project. The notes, the texts, the phone calls are all welcome, and it’s exciting to know that we are on this journey together to make our hometowns great places to call home!
The Big Story
This past month’s most read story, by a country mile, was an article talking about the City of Piqua’s short lived effort to rebrand itself. The City spent $50,000 to hire an outside consultant to create a new brand identity for the City and the results were immediately panned. In fact, the City Commission took the measure of passing a resolution to stop the rebranding effort from moving ahead.
Civic Capacity: Inside the Numbers
Throughout the month, our publication was growing. Our free subscriber list grew at a 5% clip, we currently stand at the point where 2,522 people are receiving this newsletter when a new edition drops. Those generous individuals who make a financial contribution to our effort grew by an impressive 10% — Thank You Supporters! In fact, our newsletter is a “Best Seller” on the Substack platform!
Our publication also had 43,210 separate views throughout the month; each day nearly 1,400 views of our work occurred, which means more and more individuals are finding value in this project and that is heartwarming!
This actually a pretty impressive number. From what I have learned, efforts like this usually have a pretty hard slog in the latter months of the year, so to see our readership remain strong in the face of other distractions, like getting the kids back to school and settling into our post-summer routines.
If you have not become a paid subscriber to our effort, please consider it. With your paid subscription, you have access to all back issues of our newsletter and access to our paid-subscriber chat and the opportunity to comment on all our posts!
Perhaps, even more importantly, you are supporting a community based publication without annoying paywalls (like the Miami Valley Today) or annoying advertisements that disguise themselves as stories (like the Dayton Daily News). And I am not trying to knock those publications, they are running their own shops, and they are providing a service to the community. However, this publication believes that the news and analysis that are provided here should be as open and widely shared as possible.
A New Handbook to grow Civic Capacity!
Recently, we created a new digital handbook, “The Citizen’s Guide to Public Records”. This handbook is designed to help residents have a better understanding of public meetings and meeting records. It’s filled with templates, ideas and other information that will open a new world of public affairs.
Also, if you have ideas for future handbooks, please let us know at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
Want to Learn More About Troy’s Businesses?
Our publication has recently released our September 2025 Economic Abstract, the most comprehensive and up-to-date report on the businesses and industries in the City of Troy. For those that want to understand our community’s business and industries, this is a must-have report.
Thank you to our New Media Partners!
Recently, many of our stories has been showing up on the local news website, www.mymiamicounty.com. We are grateful for the good folks for sharing our work with their audience and we would encourage our readers to check them out at their website!
Our publication would also like to recognize the good work being done at www.piquanewsnow.com. Piqua News Now is a new web-based news and information site for the Miami County area, with a specific focus on Piqua!
In addition, the good folks at Piqua News Now have started a new, 24-hour streaming YouTube channel. This channel is awesome with continuous weather updates and more importanly, it provides a 24-hour audio feed from county wide dispatch. Check it out here!
Also, thanks for reading today’s Civic Capacity Newsletter! Please feel free to share this information with your friends and neighbors.
Also, please consider subscribing to our work. If you are a free subscriber, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. For less than $1 a week, you can get timely and conversational updates about the decisions that are impacting your hometown!