When hundreds of Nato delegates and thousands of ancillaries, protesters and security forces descend on Dayton, Ohio, next month, the visitors will see a town that’s clawed its way back from the brink.

White flight in the late 20th century and the 2008 Great Recession saw thousands of jobs and residents leave. More recently, the pandemic forced many downtown businesses to allow staffers to work from home, erasing a key daytime customer base for cafes and restaurants.

But in recent years a host of hotels, breweries and eateries have sprung up alongside concert venues and galleries.

So, when it was announced that Nato’s spring parliamentary assembly was coming to town – 23 years since it was last held in the US – many saw it as an opportunity to share this former Rust belt city with the world.

“I want people to talk about what a great time they had here and what a success it was,” says Larkin Vonalt, who runs Rabbit Hole Books, which sells used books for $1.

“It really could be a wonderful event.”

Bringing Nato to Dayton is the brainchild and a career-defining move for Mike Turner, a Republican Ohio congressman and former Dayton mayor who has been a leading advocate of the transatlantic military alliance for years. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Bosnian peace accords, which were negotiated at an air force base outside Dayton.

However, many say communication and clarity on the five-day event, which will center on a “Nato village” in the heart of the city, have so far been lacking.

Rabbit Hole Books is set to see a security fence dividing the Nato village from the outside world go up right outside its door, says Vonalt.

“People attending the conference can’t come in, and for the public, nobody wants to go up to a police line to go into a bookstore,” she says.

Vonalt says she was later told a tunnel would be erected to allow people access to the bookstore, which has added to the sense of uncertainty.

“We should either be in or out. Give us the people inside the Nato village who don’t have very many places to shop, or give us the regular customers,” she says.

“We want to know where we fit.”

Locals are also nervous that the violent scenes that unfolded during the most recent Nato parliamentary assembly in Montreal last fall, which resulted in millions of dollars in damaged property, could be repeated here. Nato doesn’t typically contribute anything to a city’s hosting of the parliamentary assembly.

Turner, who was ousted by the speaker, Mike Johnson, in January as chair of the US House intelligence committee, has been heavily criticized by some in Ohio for backing Donald Trump, whose recent government cuts have hit the Dayton area and its tens of thousands of air force employees particularly hard.

“It’s going to be a holiday weekend which is already a tough weekend for businesses as a lot of people travel,” says Michael Harbaugh, who runs a food truck and plans to organize a protest during the Nato gathering.

“Crowds are usually down, and businesses are not going to be compensated for anything by the city or state.”

Harbaugh ran as an independent candidate in last year’s congressional election in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Turner.

“I feel like they are not representing a sizable portion of the people here. They are bought-and-sold politicians; the two political parties are a disaster in many ways. It sounds good; it’s something for politicians to pat themselves on the back.”

Despite being a congressman for an area of Ohio that includes Dayton since 2013, Turner rarely visits his constituency and has refused to hold a town hall in recent weeks, to the fury of many locals who are upset at attempts by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to eradicate thousands of jobs.

Harbaugh says the millions of dollars set to be spent on policing and security fencing during the Nato event would be better used elsewhere in the Dayton community, where several years ago opioid deaths were among the highest in the country.

“There are so many people going without here,” he says. “We should be spending to feed and house people rather than on the rich and powerful.”

While Vonalt says she supports Nato and hopes the US remains a leading force within it, she’s also critical of Turner and his handling of Nato’s trip to Dayton.

“If you were in charge of this and it was going to affect your town, wouldn’t you come home, have a town hall meeting and say: ‘I have wonderful news for you – Nato has agreed to come here. It’s going to make life a little interesting for a week but think of all the great things Dayton will get from this,’” she says. “It should have been done that way.”

Numerous emails sent by the Guardian to Turner’s communication staff seeking comment received no response.

Seen as a relative moderate Republican in a party increasingly dominated by far-right insurgents, Turner’s single-handed efforts to get Nato to come to Dayton could mean his political career is tied to the success of the parliamentary assembly. Last year, his congressional district was one of a handful that saw a Democratic politician win more votes than a Republican in any race in Ohio. A repeat of the kind of violence that marred the Montreal event could see Turner’s longstanding congressional seat threatened.

Still, for a part of the world that’s more often characterized for loss and decline, having the world’s largest security organization come to town for an event that is more commonly held in capital cities is viewed by some as a win.

About $1.5m is being spent beautifying the downtown core, and a host of ancillary events are set to draw diplomats and analysts to Dayton.

Some business owners were happy that a previous, larger version of the Nato security zone was downsized after organizers consulted with local businesses who feared footfall would be wiped out.

The event is happening against the backdrop of criticism of Nato by Trump, who has claimed the US may decline to defend other member states in any conflict, as the Nato charter stipulates, if certain countries don’t increase military spending. The US pays 16% of Nato’s budget, the joint-most of any member state alongside Germany.

Given these and other Trump-related tribulations, some Dayton residents are wondering if the gathering will actually ever happen here.

“I think there is still the possibility that this will all grind to a halt,” says Vonalt, “that we won’t be in Nato by the time the assembly happens.”