I had the same problem with Dayton when I first arrived here; there's even less culture than there is in Cincinnati, and the City of Dayton is pretty poor. Then I spent some time here and starting figuring out what Dayton has going for it. It's honestly not bad if you like biking and community stuff. ActiveDayton.com has a lot of social events, Xenia has great Community resources, and Yellow Springs is a straight-up hippie town with fantastic coffee. Most people enjoy checking it out for a day. We have a ton of well-developed metro parks (hiking, rock climbing, and mountain biking). Cincinnati honestly seems like a more interesting city, but I rarely finding myself wanting to drive an hour each way to spend time down there. Columbus is great, too, but I don't go there very often for the same reasons. If you ever wanted to spend a weekend in Dayton, let me know and you can stay at my place.