Neighborhoods

Friday, August 5, 2016

On Thursday, August 4, the Home Savings Charitable Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to YNDC for its REVITALIZE Youngstown program.

REVITALIZE Youngstown is a comprehensive neighborhood stabilization program to improve housing and property conditions, community infrastructure conditions, and safety in Youngstown’s neighborhoods in accordance with Neighborhood Action Plans, guided by the Neighborhood Action Teams. The strategies are intended to spearhead broader and more substantial neighborhood revitalization efforts over time, and have proven to do so in several of Youngstown’s neighborhoods. The strategies include boarding and cleaning up vacant properties, cleaning up and improving public spaces, installing neighborhood welcome signage, planting trees and making other landscaping improvements, and installing community murals along neighborhood corridors. Many thanks to the Home Savings Charitable Foundation and the Home Savings and Loan Company for this grant and their tremendous ongoing support of YNDC! REVITALIZE!

The Lincoln Knolls Plaza will come alive Saturday with music, dance performances, food vendors, an art gallery, and games for children and seniors as the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. brings the Better Block program to the city’s East Side.

The goal is to demonstrate what the plaza could become with the goal of catalyzing permanent improvements in the future that will support and promote local restaurants, businesses, artists, and community organizations.

The event takes place from noon to 4 p.m. All activities, and food are free and open to the public. The menu includes barbeque and Puerto Rican dishes.

The “Better Block” project is a demonstration tool that rebuilds an area using grassroots efforts to show the potential to create a great walkable, vibrant neighborhood center.

The East Side Better Block is made possible through support from the YNDC, William Swanston Charitable Fund, Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, Lincoln Knolls Community Watch, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, the city of Youngstown, and Second Ward Councilman T.J. Rodgers.

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

Taft Elementary gets an upgrade to playground equipment.

More than books, pencils and lessons will greet Taft Elementary School students when they return to class Aug. 22.

United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Kiwanis Club of Youngstown and Taft Promise Neighborhood worked together to revamp equipment that already was on the school playground and add a new piece that includes slides, a climbing wall and other apparatuses.

The Kiwanis Club contributed $10,000 for the playground, and $4,000 of that came from the Ohio District Kiwanis Foundation.

“The Kiwanis reached out to United Way to see if they could help with something that was for kids,” said Bob Hannon, president of United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

The donation coincided with Kiwanis’ 100th anniversary.

Representatives from the various organizations cut a ceremonial ribbon Tuesday afternoon at the playground, but neighborhood kids already are using it.

“When we were here Monday, there were kids’ footprints,” Hannon said.

United Way selected Taft for its next Success After 6 program. Youngstown Community School was the pilot school and the United Way hopes to bring it to all elementary schools in the city.

Along with Success After 6, the Taft Promise Neighborhood is an initiative involving United Way, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., the city, the school district and several other individuals and organizations.

Promise Neighborhoods are an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education and last year, a Strong Cities, Strong Communities Americorps VISTA team began working in the 15-block area around Taft.

Chuck Whitman of Canfield, past president and past lieutenant governor of Kiwanis, said the club focuses its efforts on the city.

“Our mission is to help one child and one community at a time,” he said. “This project will help a lot of children.”

While many club members live in the suburbs, they lived in the city and attended city schools when they were younger.

“I’m a graduate of South High School, and I went to Princeton [Middle School] and Sheridan [Elementary],” he said. “I got a very good education. There were many excellent teachers there – and there still are.”

Krish Mohip, city schools chief executive officer, said education is about the whole child, not just reading and math.

“Children need an outlet,” he said. “They need a place to play.”

John McMahan, Taft principal, said students will be excited when they see the new attraction.

“It will get a lot of use,” he said. “The kids spend a lot of time out here even in the fall and up to December, if the weather allows.”

To read the full story from the Vindicator, click here.

The iconic waterfall that is adjacent to Mill Creek Park’s Lanterman’s Mill has had many names over the years.

Among its historical monikers is Idora Falls, a name shared with Youngstown’s famous 20th-century amusement park.

The waterfall will reclaim that historical name this weekend, during Mill Creek MetroParks’ “A Day at Idora Falls” program that runs all day Saturday.

The event, which takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lanterman’s Mill, is a celebration of the history of the area in all of its stages, from a campsite for nomadic Native Americans to its Idora Park days to today’s status as a popular park destination.

While the park has hosted the event before, it expanded the scope this year.

“This year, we decided to broaden it just a tad because it’s the park’s 125th anniversary. The park’s history, as well as Lanterman’s Mill’s history, as well as Idora Park and the Idora neighborhood – all of them are intertwined with that area around the falls,” said Carol Vigorito, MetroParks recreation and education director.

“[Park founder] Volney Rogers’ inspiration for the park came from the gorge and the falls, so we decided it would be a little bit more of a celebration of everything that’s around that area,” she said.

The program will feature games (inspired by those that would have been played at Idora Park) and crafts, as well as educational displays by local experts.

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society will be there to talk about the history of Native Americans traveling through the area; Rick Shale, local author of “Idora Park: The Last Ride of Summer,” will be there; Bob Barko of Steel Town Studios will have a display set up with memorabilia related to Youngstown’s history; and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. will be represented, Vigorito said.

Visitors “can expect to learn a lot about the park’s 125 years of history,” she said.

The park also is offering a guided “Hike to Idora Falls” that begins at 10 a.m. from the Scholl Recreation Area. The two-hour hike will include a 45-minute stop at the “Day at Idora Falls” event.

Vigorito said it’s her department’s mission to educate people about the history and culture of this area.

“The mill area, the Idora Falls area, has such a rich history and connection to the Youngstown culture that it’s very, very important for people not to forget what came before what’s here now,” she said. “I hope people will come out and explore and enjoy, and learn a little about the rich history down there.”

The event is free. A small fee will be charged for crafts and games. Food will be available to purchase.

Limited parking is available at the mill’s main lot; additional parking is available at the Idora overflow lot near the mill on the east side of the road.

To read the full story from the Vindicator, click here.

The empty Lincoln Knolls Plaza in Youngstown was filled with people looking around the location Saturday.

The East Side Better Block was put on by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation. The block party had music, food, games and an art show.

YNDC said it uses Better Block events to bring attention to places that have issues with vacancy by filling them.

“We specifically chose the Lincoln Knolls Plaza because there are quite a few vacancies here, especially with the closing of the IGA store. So with the closing comes a lot of opportunities for re-thinking what could be done with the plaza,” said YNDC neighborhood planner Tom Hetrick.

Last year, YNDC held Better Block events on the south and west sides of Youngstown.

The group wants to host more every year, but is still figuring out where to hold the next event.

To read the full story from WKBN, click here.

Monday, August 15, 2016

On Saturday, August 13, YNDC and the Lincoln Knolls Community Watch hosted the East Side Better Block at the Lincoln Knolls Plaza.

The purpose of the event was to bring positive attention to the plaza and to promote neighborhood businesses and artists. Due to the closing of businesses in the plaza, including the IGA supermarket, several storefronts are currently vacant. One of the storefronts, however, came alive on Saturday with kid’s activities, games, storytelling, free haircuts, and an art gallery. Just outside, in an underutilized section of the parking lot, organizations and vendors set up tents, free BBQ and Puerto Rican food was served, and a DJ played music for performances and line dancing. Outdoor seating, trees and plants, signage, and a crosswalk were all added to liven up the plaza and make it friendlier for pedestrians. The East Side Better Block was the fourth in a series of events held one of each side of Youngstown. The events were made possible through the support of the William Swanston Charitable Fund.

August 16, 2016: A coalition of community, civic and educational groups pools resources to stabilize an elementary school neighborhood.

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

Monday, August 22, 2016

On Saturday, August 20, volunteers from the Idora neighborhood, Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and other community groups worked to clean up Billinsgate Avenue and Glenwood Community Park.

Volunteers stained the fencing, removed trash, and landscaped the signage at Glenwood Community Park. A second team of volunteers removed weeds, trees, brush, and debris from Billinsgate Avenue. Many thanks to all who participated and to Pizza Joes Cornersburg, and Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church for providing lunch.

It has been one year since 27 Investigates reported on illegal dumping on Youngstown’s east side. Friday, WKBN discovered that the City of Youngstown is taking some permanent steps to solve the problem.

Much of Arthur Norwood’s neighborhood is empty.

“Streets are deteriorated. No houses back there now,” he said. “Guess it doesn’t make much sense to keep the streets open.”

This week, the city began blocking off some of those empty neighborhoods, closing four miles of roads. One of them is the street where Norwood grew up.

Still, he says, something had to be done to combat the dumping problem.

“I think it’s a good thing; I just miss those streets,” he said.

The Sharonline Decommission Project started in 2014 with the goal of returning 3.9 miles of abandoned roads to nature.

The area is named after a Youngstown-Sharon, Pennsylvania streetcar line that ran along Jacobs Road from 1900 to 1939. Now it’s a dumping ground and habitat for abandoned homes, which is just one of the reasons the city is ready to get rid of it.

While the streets were left open, piles of tires lined them. There is also a mound of construction debris, and the smell is a problem.

The roads are so bad that city plow trucks got stuck back there last winter.

Deputy Director of Public Works Charles Shasho said the problem is something that the city wants to keep from spreading.

“In an effort to realize we are a shrinking city and reduce our costs for maintaining our infrastructure, we decided to close them,” he said.

Youngstown Mayor John McNally said he expects trees to continue growing over the roads.

“I expect the roads to buckle up some more, and for lack of a better term, we’re just going to let it go,” he said.

The city isn’t giving up rights to the roads, so if some development does come along, the roads could be opened again.

To read the full story from WKBN, click here.

The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley will host its annual Day of Caring Friday. The day kicks off with a breakfast at the Covelli Centre at 8 a.m.

At 9 a.m., volunteers will head to Market Street, Hudson Avenue, South Avenue, Evergreen Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard. So far, about 400 volunteers have registered, according to United Way President Bob Hannon.

“It’s great to see how much the Day of Caring has grown over the last few years,” he said in a release. “By partnering with the city of Youngstown, Green Youngstown, and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., we are able to bring hundreds of people together to improve the neighborhoods of Youngstown.”

Volunteers will clean debris and overgrown properties, board vacant buildings and, in homes, install smoke detectors provided by the American Red Cross, as well as take care of landscaping and remodeling work at 16 nonprofit agencies, including Potential Development, YWCA of Youngstown and Youngstown CityScape.

“The Day of Caring provides what is often missing in volunteer efforts and in neighborhood clean-ups: the thousands of man (and woman) hours that make such a dramatic and immediate impact in and on our city neighborhoods,” said Mayor John McNally.

All registered volunteers will be entered in a drawing to win a night in a luxury suite at a Youngstown Phantoms game, Hannon added.

For more information, contact United Way at 330 746 8494.

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