Neighborhoods

Thursday, February 27, 2014

The City of Youngstown and YNDC hosted the first of a series of neighborhood planning meetings last night at the monthly Rocky Ridge neighborhood meeting.

Residents from neighborhoods across the west side attended the meeting and provided valuable feedback about challenges affecting their neighborhoods as well as the assets from which to build.

This meeting was the first of 9 meetings that will be held across the city in order to provide residents with information from the Neighborhood Conditions Report and to gather critical input that will be used to create a series of specific, action-oriented citywide recommendations for the improvement of services. The schedule of public meetings is listed below.

Neighborhood meetings:

• Rocky Ridge – Wednesday, February 26th – Our Lady of the Afflicted, 517 S. Belle Vista Ave. – 6:30pm
• Pleasant Grove – Tuesday, March 4th – Newport Library, 3730 Market St. – 6:00pm
• Cornersburg – Thursday, March 6th – New Covenant Worship Center, 1900 Canfield Rd. – 6:00pm
• Lansdowne – Tuesday, March 11th – Price Memorial AME Zion, 920 Dryden Ave. – 6:00pm
• Idora – Thursday, March 13th – Rescue Mission, 2246 Glenwood Ave. – 6:00pm
• Wick Park – Monday, March 17th – Unitarian Church, 1105 Elm St. – 6:00pm
• Brownlee Woods – Thursday, March 20th – Faith Community Covenant, 1919 E. Midlothian Blvd. – 6:30pm
• Lincoln Knolls – Tuesday, March 25th – East Side Library, 430 Early Rd. – 6:30pm
• Oak Hill – Thursday, March 27th – Oak Hill Collaborative, 507 Oak Hill Ave. – 6:00pm

For more information, please contact Tom Hetrick, Neighborhood Planner, at 330.480.0423; or Karen Perkins, Zoning Analyst, at 330.742.8833.

A copy of the citywide Neighborhood Conditions Report can be downloaded here.

As the Route 422 corridor redevelopment plan gets fine-tuned, those leading the charge should consider sustainability and include Vibrant Northeast Ohio in the process.

Philadelphia-based Interface Studio recently held the public meeting after spending the past seven months identifying the best potential steps to improve the 3,500-acre corridor along the Mahoning River from Girard into Youngstown. The study found at least 18 feasible measures that, if implemented, could result in the corridor being a draw for outside businesses and a source of pride for the community.

Those in attendance then ranked their respective top three improvement projects. They range from eradicating clutter to building sidewalks, gateways and industrial buffers.

Interface will report back with results and strategies.

Hopefully, when it does, it will consider the findings from the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium, which is spearheading the Vibrant NEO 2040: Vision & Framework for Our Future. Vibrant NEO is expected to ''enable the public, agencies and Northeast Ohio communities to inform, prioritize, align and coordinate actions to advance sustainability in their areas of impact and interest.''

That describes the Route 422 corridor.

What the consortium has already ascertained is that at our current pace, northeast Ohio will construct 3,700 miles of new roads without any significant population increase or tax base growth. The additional cost to maintain this infrastructure will run in the millions of dollars per county across the region. While we struggle to maintain existing infrastructure, population, business districts and industries are developing green space that burdens taxpayers with more to maintain.

There are many good ideas on the table for the Route 422 corridor, ideas that focus on cleansing and maintaining what already exists. That might be a better strategy than building anything new.

Those involved in the Route 422 corridor project are already engaged in the healthy practice of collaboration, as noted by Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda.

''Our governor right now is looking for regionalization and a lot of the money the state is willing to spend is for people working together,'' Fuda said during the Route 422 corridor public hearing. ''That's what Trumbull and Mahoning counties are doing here.''

Indeed, that raises the expectation of success. For what has taken place so far, those spearheading the Route 422 corridor project deserve recognition. They include:

Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation;

Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber;

Trumbull County Planning Commission;

Raymond Wean Foundation;

Community Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio;

Youngstown Foundation;

The cities of Youngstown and Girard;

Western Reserve Port Authority;

Youngstown and Trumbull County metropolitan housing authorities;

Girard Community Improvement Corp.;

Trumbull commissioners;

Vallourec Star.

To see the full story from the Tribune Chronicle, click here.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, the Common Wealth Kitchen Incubator, and The Ohio State University Extension, Mahoning County are pleased to present a FREE intensive business planning course geared to help those starting food and farm based businesses in the city of Youngstown reach their goals.

Classes will take place every Thursday evening from March 27-May 8, from 6-9pm. Participants will leave the class with a business plan outline, and will also have opportunities to network and apply for financing. The classes are FREE, but participants should commit to attending the entire series. Workbooks and class materials will be provided. Please see the attached flyer for class schedule.

All classes will be held at Iron Roots Urban Farm, in the HMHP Foundation Demonstration Kitchen located at 822 Billingsgate Avenue. Please contact Sophia Buggs at the YNDC to fill out an application-(330)480-0423 or via email at sbuggs@yndc.org. All applications should be received by YNDC by March 19, 2014. Please mail your application to YNDC, 820 Canfield Road, Youngstown, OH 44511 or email to Sophia Buggs at sbuggs@yndc.org.  

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., which serves as the city’s planning agency, is having public meetings, starting Wednesday, to obtain public input on its “neighborhood-conditions report.”

The report contains information about neighborhoods’ populations, socioeconomic conditions, housing, transportation and health/environment.

The meetings are to determine priorities for stabilizing and developing neighborhoods. The information gathered from the meetings will be used to help develop strategies for further development at the neighborhood level.

To read the 287-page report, go online to: yndc.org/news-media/city-youngstown-and-youngstown-neighborhood-development-corporation-release-neighborhood.

The neighborhood meetings by area are:

Rocky Ridge/West Side: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Our Lady of the Afflicted, 517 S. Belle Vista Ave.

Pleasant Grove: 6 p.m. March 4, Newport library branch, 3730 Market St.

Cornersburg: 6 p.m. March 6, New Covenant Worship Center, 1900 Canfield Road.

Lansdowne/East Side: 6 p.m. March 11, Price Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 920 Dryden Ave.

Idora/Newport/Fosterville: 6 p.m. March 13, Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley, 2246 Glenwood Ave.

Wick Park/North Side: 6 p.m. March 17, First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1105 Elm St.

Brownlee Woods/Powerstown/Buckeye Plat: 6:30 p.m. March 20, Faith Community Covenant Church, 1919 E. Midlothian Blvd.

Lincoln Knolls/East Side: 6:30 p.m. March 25, East Side library branch, 430 Early Road.

Oak Hill/South Side: 6 p.m. March 27, Oak Hill Collaborative, 507 Oak Hill Ave.

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

Youngstown officials met Wednesday in the first of a series of meetings to create plans to improve neighborhoods.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation has already gathered and analyzed data about the city's neighborhoods.

The second phase of their plan is to now talk to residents about what they think needs to be done to improve their area.

"If there are issues, whatever those issues might be, street conditions, vacant homes; we also want to hear what people's priorities are for the things that are the most important, particularly to improve their neighborhoods and to make things better," said Ian Beniston, deputy director Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Wednesday's meeting discussed improvements to the Rocky Ridge neighborhood and Youngstown's west side.

YNDC will be meeting with Youngstown neighborhoods throughout the month of March.

To read the full story from WFMJ, click here. 

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and the city of Youngstown solicited input from West Side residents at the first of what’s intended to be a series of meetings.

“The most important thing we’re doing here tonight is obtaining your feedback,” Ian Beniston, YNDC deputy director, told the residents filling the community room of Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted on Wednesday.

Beniston briefly discussed the YNDC’s recently released neighborhood conditions report, which contains information about Youngstown neighborhoods’ populations, socioeconomic conditions, housing, transportation and health/environment.

The meeting focused on the portion of the West Side from the Wick Recreation Area to north of Mahoning Avenue, known as the Rocky Ridge neighborhood.

“We’re not presenting a plan to you tonight,” Beniston said. “We’re here to solicit feedback.”

To do that, residents were asked to list what they considered the neighborhood’s top three assets and the top three priorities.

Bill Black, a West Side resident, counted Mill Creek MetroParks, good streets and an old church turned into a community center as the area’s assets. He listed heavy school area traffic, a need for youth activities, and a need to fight poverty as the priorities to be addressed. Children play in the streets, he noted, and poverty-stricken residents aren’t able to maintain their homes.

Black attended the event after reading about the YNDC report.

“I’m basically just trying to figure out what it’s about,” he said.

Residents were also asked to list the one thing the YNDC and the city need to know to improve the city and its neighborhoods.

Politics will probably trump plans, Black noted.

The people who compiled the report are well-meaning and working hard, he said. However, he’s unsure if the plans will be implemented.

Doris Baugh, also a West Side resident, is hopeful something positive will come out of the meetings.

Rental properties in the area are not being maintained, she said, and sees that as a priority.

“Our area of the neighborhood’s really nice, but the rental property area isn’t,” she said.

Renters and landlords don’t maintain the properties. The yards don’t look nice and unused vehicles are on the street, which lowers property values, she said.

“We spent a lot of money keeping our house up and maintaining it, because we’re not going anywhere,” she said.

Meetings will be held in other areas of the city, to solicit input, Beniston said. The data obtained will be compiled and within a couple of months citywide recommendations and priorities will be determined. Neighborhood-specific plans will take longer.

“There are some constraints,” Beniston said. “The city does have limited resources.”

That makes it important to prioritize, he added.

The next meeting will be at 6 p.m. March 4 at the Newport library branch, 3730 Market St.

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

Frustrated citizens made their voices heard Tuesday evening on different ways to improve their neighborhood.

A meeting aimed at addressing issues in Youngstown neighborhoods brought out raw emotions of those who live in the city.

“You got fragmented neighborhood watches who don’t even know each other,” said concerned citizen Clarence Boles.

“We still need to do a better job. We have people who are in positions who are lazy,” added 6th Ward Councilwoman Janet Tarpley.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation is holding 13 meetings in March to get public input about key issues and possible solutions around the city.

“Vacant homes for example, code enforcement, streets. Fixing up generally the physical condition of the neighborhood,” said Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation deputy director, Ian Beniston.

After information is collected at the meetings, it will be presented to the city. The goal is to make changes in all of the neighborhoods, but YNDC indicated that it won’t be cheap and won’t happen overnight.

“ It’s really important because the people get an opportunity to voice how they’d like their neighborhood to look like,” said Tarpley.

Public leaders are at odds over how to fund the solutions.

“You’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, you’re still broke,” said Rep. Bob Hagan, D-Youngstown.

Hagan fears the lack of funds will make any changes difficult.

“It’s all about funding. Our neighborhoods are falling apart because the state is cutting local funding,” said Hagan.

“The search for money is an ongoing battle. Our residents know that,” said Youngstown Mayor John McNally.

That’s why the city and YNDC will work to find money anywhere to make the changes happen.

“The overall goal is to improve the city,” said Beniston.

The remaining neighborhood meetings are:

• Cornersburg: Thursday at 6 p.m. at New Covenant Worship Center, 1900 Canfield Road
• Landsdowne/East Side: March 11 at 6 p.m. at Price Memorial AME Zion Church, 920 Dryden Ave.
• Idora/Newport/Fosterville: March 13 at 6 p.m. at the Rescue Mission, 2246 Glenwood Ave.
• Wick Park/North Side: March 17 at 6 p.m. at Unitarian Church, 1105 Elm St.
• Brownlee Woods/Powerstown/Buckeye Plat: March 20 at 6:30 p.m. at Faith Community Covenant Church, 1919 E. Midlothian Blvd.
• Lincoln Knolls/East Side: March 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the East Side Library, 430 Early Road
• Oak Hill/South Side: March 27 at 6 p.m. at Oak Hill Collaborative, 507 Oak Hill Ave.

To see a copy of the report, click here.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

Barbara Franklin is frustrated with having to live between two houses that have fallen into disrepair.

Another source of frustration is what she sees as ambitious plans to tackle the challenges of blighted city neighborhoods that too often lead to inaction.

“I’d like to see the two homes torn down, remodeled or converted to starter homes,” said Franklin, who’s lived in her Idlewood Avenue residence on the South Side about 40 years.

Franklin was among those who voiced such concerns during Tuesday’s Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. meeting at the Newport branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, 3730 Market St. on the South Side.

The one-hour session was the second of nine meetings to collect residents’ input, concerns and priorities regarding what they feel is vital for neighborhood improvements and stabilization on citywide and neighborhood levels.

Such feedback is to be incorporated into data to develop a variety of strategies to meet those goals within a framework of limited financial resources, noted Ian J. Beniston, YNDC’s deputy director.

Franklin, a Sheridan Block Watch member, said she doesn’t understand why some homes in her area have sat vacant for several years before being boarded.

“I just want to see some action done,” she continued, adding that she also lives across the street from a dilapidated apartment building, which adds to the blight.

During the session, which focused mainly on the South Side’s Cottage Grove, Newport and Pleasant Grove sections, Beniston discussed the areas’ crime and population trends, average household income, property ownership, poverty rates and other demographics.

A large challenge is that the average home price is $21,000 in a city that has seen more than 50 years of population decline, which erodes the tax base, he noted.

At the meeting, two people said they want to see more done to improve quality-of-life issues.

One man explained that he tries to spruce up abandoned properties in his neighborhood, yet doing so often disguises code violations.

One man said if the city had been enforcing housing codes at the beginning, abandoned blighted properties wouldn’t happen.

Clarence Boles, a community activist and former city councilman, called for residents to be more proactive in addressing their needs.

He also advocated selling more vacant lots and converting them to useful purposes.

Downtown Youngstown continues to grow, but working to better the city’s neighborhoods must continue to be an ongoing process, said Councilwoman Janet Tarpley, D-6th.

Another difficulty is that city-government funds have been cut by nearly half, noted state Sen. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th.

The next meeting is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at New Covenant Worship Center, 1900 Canfield Road, in the city’s Cornersburg area.

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

It is hard to think about hitting the golf course while the temperature still struggles to crack the freezing mark, but the leader of the Ebony Ladies Golf and Youth Foundation is fired up to start a new season.

The group plans to expand this summer and continue to use golf to help kids set and reach their goals, but with more space to do it.

The project is part of an effort with the Northwood Golf Academy on Youngstown’s East Side to expand and offer more practice area for kids interested in the game of golf.

Ebony Ladies and Youth Foundation Executive Director Brunilda Turner said children were able to practice putting and chipping last summer on the small East Side lot, which helped them when they went to a full golf course. With the expansion, a driving range and more practice area will be available to give kids a better feel for the game.

Golf pro David Boos said the planned putting green and tee boxes will not only give inner city kids a place to learn and practice the game of golf, but it is also within walking distance of the McGuffey Center, where other summer enrichment programs are taking place.

“For golf in this area, it is the greatest thing in the world,” said Boos.

A grant through the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation’s “Lots of Green” competition helped with the overall vision of project.

Partnerships with several other agencies and volunteers helped Turner revitalize the vacant lot for the little golfers.

“The houses had been gone for like 20 years. This was all woods,” said Turner.

The extra two acres acquired through the Mahoning County Land Bank will include a driving range, putting green and tee boxes. Construction should be complete by June.

In addition to the golf program, Spotlight Performing Arts has teamed up with the summer enrichment program to offer youth dance and acting classes.

“If the kids have something to do then they are not out there able to get into trouble, or able to get into the wrong crowds,” said Spotlight Performing Arts Studio Executive Director Sharhonda McQueen.

The McGuffey Center offers several summer programs for inner city children. For more information, call (330) 744-4377.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

YNDC and the City of Youngstown have completed the first phase of a citywide planning process.

Their efforts resulted in a comprehensive data set presented in a 287-page Neighborhood Conditions Report available for download at: http://yndc.org/news-media/NCR

The next phase of the planning process will engage residents through a series of neighborhood meetings and this online survey which are designed to gather input on priorities for stabilization and development for the city at the citywide and neighborhood levels. The input, ideas, feedback, and information received during this process will be integrated with the neighborhood conditions data to develop a series of citywide strategies and strategies for further development at the neighborhood level. To complete the online survey, click here.