Neighborhoods

Monday, April 21, 2014

On Saturday, April 19th, volunteers from YNDC, the Idora Neighborhood Association, Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and Youngstown State University participated in a workday in the Indian Village neighborhood on Youngstown's far south side.

Volunteers cleaned and cleared brush surrounding several vacant homes on Neosho Road that are soon to be rehabilitated by YNDC to create quality housing for new homeowners. Thank you to all of our volunteers for another great workday!

The next neighborhood workday is schedule for Saturday, April 26th from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in the Briar Hill Neighborhood, where we will be cleaning up vacant lots and addressing 3 abandoned homes in partnership with Green Youngstown. Volunteers should meet at 689 Norwood Avenue (corner of Belmont and Norwood).

For more information about the next workday or to get involved in other neighborhood revitalization efforts, please contact Jack Daugherty via email at jdaugherty@yndc.org or via phone at 330.480.0423.

Members of America's Military are being asked to take part in an important mission in Youngstown.

The city has applied for a grant to utilize Department of Defense personnel to provide demolition, trash and brush removal services at no cost to the taxpayers of Youngstown.

The activities would take place in the neighborhoods between Indianola Avenue, Midlothian Boulevard, South Avenue, and Glenwood Avenue in efforts to stabilize the area and curb further population decline.

Should all activities on the south side be completed, work will also take place in the neighborhoods between Gypsy Lane, Broadway Avenue, Logan Avenue, and Elm Street.

Properties will be cleared of trash, brush, and debris after demolitions take place and will be available for adjacent property owners to purchase at fair market value.

The city would still be responsible for asbestos abatement costs and dumping fees.

The work would take place in 2016, and DOD personnel would be housed at the Vienna Airbase.

The effort would be carried out under the Department of Defense Innovative Readiness Training, which according to the DOD web site, provides real world training opportunities for service members and units to prepare them for their wartime missions while supporting the needs of America's under served communities.

To see the full story from WFMJ, click here.

The city is seeking the assistance of the military to help with its blight problems.

“We’re requesting assistance from the Department of Defense to help with demolition of vacant houses and the removal of trash and brush,” Mayor John A. McNally said. “We’d be responsible for the abatement and dumping fees, but we’d receive free labor and equipment from the DOD.”

The city placed public notices in Monday’s and Tuesday’s editions of The Vindicator, a requirement before applying to be selected by federal DOD for its Innovative Readiness Training program. The application will be submitted later this week with the city finding out this summer if it is selected, McNally said.

If the DOD chooses Youngstown under this program, the work would be done in 2016.

“Demolition and blight and neighborhood cleanup are the biggest concern of citizens,” McNally said.

The city is proposing work at two locations, though the Newport/Cottage Grove area on the South Side is the top priority, the mayor said.

That area is bounded by Indianola Avenue to the north, Midlothian Boulevard to the south, South Avenue to the east and Glenwood Avenue to the west.

“We think it’s one of the top areas in the city that is in need of demolition,” McNally said.

The other location is the Upper North Heights area bounded by Gypsy Lane to the north, Broadway Avenue to the south, Logan Avenue to the east and Elm Street to the west.

The DOD program provides real-world training opportunities for service members and units to prepare them for wartime missions while supporting the needs of this nation’s underserved communities, according to its website.

If the city is chosen, it will compile a list of houses in those communities that are in need of demolition, McNally said.

The city has demolished about 3,000 houses since 2006. About 4,000 dilapidated structures remain in need of demolition.

To read the full story at Vindy.com, click here.

Mayor John McNally expects the city to submit an application by Friday to the U.S. Department of Defense to assist the city with demolition efforts on the South Side and North Side.

Youngstown, at the suggestion of its Small Cities, Small Communities fellow, Scott Smith, is submitting an application to DOD’s Innovative Readiness Training program (CLICK HERE) to provide engineering and demolition services. Smith has been in touch with DOD officials who oversee the program “and they let him know that the city could apply for assistance, for example, in dealing with the demolition of vacant and abandoned homes and commercial structures,” thereby providing engineering training for reservists, McNally said.

“What happens is the Department of Defense will float that out there to all the reserve units. If anybody is interested in taking that on as a training project, they will come in to Youngstown and do that,” said Bill D’Avignon, the city’s director of community development and planning. “We’re going into this knowing it hasn’t been done before. We’re not sure when we will receive word but the project probably won’t start until 2016.”

McNally said the city is “aware of at least two or three other municipalities that [the Department of Defense has] talked to about a similar type effort, and we expect to be probably the first entity to apply.”

The two areas the city has identified are, on the South Side, bordered by South and Glenwood avenues to the east and west, and by Indianola Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard to the north and south; and, on the North Side, bordered by Crab Creek to Elm Street east to west, and by Gypsy Lane to the Madison Avenue Expressway north to south.

The city ran advertisements for two consecutive days announcing its intent to pursue the project, as required by the application.

“T public notice notifies the public of what the city would like to do, the areas they would like to do, and provides an opportunity for private companies, if they’re interested in performing that same work for free as the engineering folks from the Department of Defense would do, so they would provide such notice to the city, McNally said.

“We think it’s a very interesting way to address the problem,” the mayor said.

The city has made substantial progress in recent years regarding identification and demolition of nuisance properties but much work remains to be done, McNally and D’Avignon acknowledge.

“There’s an active list of well over 700 homes that are being processed and identified,” and many more have yet to be identified that need to be processed, D’Avignon said. Some 4,000 properties throughout the city are in need of demolition, he noted.

The city will partner with Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to do an inventory of the designated areas to help identify specific properties that need to come down, as well as properties that need to be addressed through code enforcement, McNally said.

The city would be responsible for environmental studies and abatements of the properties to be demolished, as well as disposal fees for the waste from the structures.

To read the full story from the Business Journal, click here.

The U.S. military soon may help Youngstown demolish abandoned areas of the city.

Mayor John McNally said the city is requesting assistance from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Innovative Readiness Training program. The request would ask for personnel and equipment help to come into two areas of Youngstown to assist with demolition of abandoned houses and neighborhood blight.

The two areas would include a large part of Youngstown’s south side and an area of the city’s north side. If the city is granted the request, the personnel and equipment would be free.

The city will start working on the abandoned properties that would be included in the demolition.

“We are going to be working with YNDC, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation. They’re going to have staff inventory those areas this summer so we’ll have a little bit of a head start as to what properties we want to come down,” McMally said.

At least two other cities are expected to apply for the same funds. McNally said he expects an answer by the end of the summer.

If Youngstown is selected, work would begin by 2016.

To read the full story from WKBN, click here.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. paid a visit to Youngstown State University’s campus April 14. They talked about issues facing the city and where students stood on the matter.

Here’s Rick Pollo.

The YNDC spoke to a handful of YSU students at the Kilcawley Center on Monday, explaining the major issues facing Youngstown and it’s neighborhoods. Population loss and a devaluing housing market were among the issues presented.

YSU student Eric Shehadi says city issues parallel those of the university.

SHEHADI: We face a lot of the same challenges. YSU has seen enrollment decline. The city, we’re seeing a population decline. How can we attract residents to the city? How can we attract students to the university? A lot of these issues go hand-in-hand.

Shehadi, who is also a student trustee, is happy YNDC had a meeting on campus.

SHEHADI: I was glad to see that they were having one at YSU. Like I said, I think that YSU plays perhaps the most integral role in the future of this city.

YNDC Neighborhood Planner Tom Hetrick says residents view YSU as one of the city’s top assets.

HETRICK: We will be identifying where it makes sense to make improvements, and that would be around where the major assets are to kind of improve the conditions right around and make them more attractive, make them places where people would like to go and visit.

The YNDC expects to work with interns from YSU’s Center of Urban and Regional Studies.

To hear the full story from The News Outlet, click here.

There’s a new plan to fight blight in the city of Youngstown:

Keeping neighborhoods clean with a trailer named Ruby.

First News Reporter Miriam Hobbes was there today for Ruby’s unveiling– and shows us how it all works.

Green Youngstown introduced its brand new community beautification trailer during a neighborhood cleanup on the northside.

Ruby is our trailers name. It’s the revitalization and urban beautification of Youngstown,” said Jennifer Jones, Green Youngstown, program coordinator.

You can find every cleaning tool you can think of on this trailer. People can use Ruby, free of charge to help spruce up their neighborhoods.

“We have all kinds of shovels and spades and hedge trimmers and pruners and weed wackers and mowers,” said Jones.

Green Youngstown was able to purchase RUBY through a 15 thousand dollar grant from the Ohio EPA. The city also pitched in some funds.

They got the idea for RUBY from other community cleaning groups in Akron and Columbus, where it was very successful.

Ruby was used for the first time at a cleanup project on Norwood and Covington.

“We were looking for a location to stage Ruby’s debut, and one of the local block watch groups asked us, said this was a really great place. It’s very visual,” said Jones.

Valeria Goncalves was one of the people who helped plan the project. She’s lived in the neighborhood for nearly 30 years.

“I think this is just wonderful. I think more of this people coming out from the neighborhood and different areas of the northside helping us. I think that’s just wonder and really appreciate it,” said Valeria Goncalves.

If any neighborhood group wants to use Ruby, all they have to do in go the green Youngstown website, find out when Ruby is available and get all their volunteers together to start a neighborhood cleanup.

“We can provide bags, gloves and everything you need for the project. You just have to supply the people power,” said Jones.

The neighbors are looking forward to cleaning up other areas on the northside, now that they have the tools they need to do the job.

“You gotta take pride in your neighborhood. And if you don’t take pride in your neighborhood, then it will go down,” said Goncalves.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

Monday, April 28, 2014

On Saturday, April 26th, YNDC volunteers participated in a Green Youngstown cleanup project at the intersection of Norwood and Covington on Youngstown's north side.

Volunteers cleaned and cleared brush and trash surrounding several vacant homes utilizing tools from the City's new Ruby (Revitalization and Urban Beautification of Youngstown) trailer. Thank you to all of our volunteers for another great workday!

The next neighborhood workday is schedule for Saturday, May 10th from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm at Crandall Park, where we will pick up litter and complete native plantings with Treez Please. Volunteers should park on Tod or Redondo, not at the pavilion, and meet at the pond.

For more information about the next workday or to get involved in other neighborhood revitalization efforts, please contact Jack Daugherty via email atjdaugherty@yndc.org or via phone at 330.480.0423.

Monday, April 28, 2014

On Wednesday, April 23rd, The German Marshall Fund Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Fellows took a tour of Youngstown, featuring the work of YNDC.

The morning started with a presentation on the City's planning provided by Deputy Director Ian Beniston, followed by a robust Q&A session, a tour of YNDC's Revitalization Campus, and a bus tour of the organization's Model Blocks. The Fellows also toured Mill Creek MetroPark, the Route 422 Corridor, the Youngstown Business Incubator, AmericaMakes, and several important Youngstown landmarks. 

To learn more about the GMF SC2 Fellows Program, click here.

Friday, May 2, 2014

YNDC has completed work on 6 owner-occupied full rehabilitation projects for homeowners across the City of Youngstown.

The projects include 1575 Shehy (2nd Ward), 260 W. Dennick (3rd Ward), 147 Halls Heights (4th Ward), 931 Bonnie Brae (5th Ward), 17 Elva (6th Ward), and 1708 E. Midlothian (7th Ward). Each home was fully renovated, with work including lead abatement, roof repair and replacement, new windows, paint, siding, porch repair, and a variety of other repairs addressing any outstanding code violations.