Neighborhoods

Vice President Joe Biden told union members in
Lordstown, Ohio on Thursday that Donald Trump doesn’t understand what it’s like
to be working class.

“He doesn’t understand anymore than you understand
what it’s like to live in a 30,000 square feet penthouse in New York,” Biden
said.

The United Autoworkers Local 1714 union hall was
about half full when the vice president took the podium. He and former Ohio
Gov. Ted Strickland were introduced by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan.

Biden spent most of his speech establishing his
blue-collar bona fides. He said the Lackawanna Valley in Pennsylvania, where he
grew up, was a lot like the Mahoning Valley.

“We made the same stuff, man,” Biden said. “If you
knew where I came from, you’d think you were home.”

Biden established his history with the UAW,
attributing the success of his campaign to become a U.S. Senator in Delaware at
age 29 to their support. And he said he was “the SOB at the family picnic” who
insisted on the government bail out of the auto industry.

The vice president told stories about his father
and the hardships he faced, and talked about the lessons he learned growing up
in a working class family.

“We learned that success is not about whether you
get knocked down, it’s about how quickly you get up,” Biden said. “We bend. We
don’t break. We get up.”

He said Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party
presidential nominee, shares these qualities with the Mahoning Valley.

“I know some of you are mad at her,” Biden said.
“Let me tell you something, man. She gets it. And she never yields. She doesn’t
break. She gets knocked down, and she stands up.”

Biden said his biggest problem with Trump isn’t
his “cockamamie policies,” but the way he treats people — criticizing the
Republican nominee for his catch phrase, “you’re fired.”

“You oughta come from a household where some
people were fired,” Biden said. “Where the plant shut down. Where all of a
sudden they’re staring at the ceiling wondering how the hell they’re going to
make it.”

He also spent several minutes focusing on Trump’s
foreign policy statements, saying he’s already made the world less safe with
his statements on NATO and ISIS.

David Betras, chairman of the Mahoning County
Democratic Party, said the Clinton campaign knew what they were doing bringing
Biden to Northeast Ohio.

“This guy talks Valley talk,” Betras said. “You
could take him to the Avalon and have a pizza with him, and it would be like
he’s from here.”

Jose Valentin, sergeant at arms for UAW Local
1714, echoed Betras’s sentiments.

“It does something to you,” Valentin said. “He
inspires you, the way he talks. He’s like one of us.”

Following his speech in Lordstown, Biden made
stops at the Canfield Fair and Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Ian Beniston, executive director of YNDC, said the
visit was pretty surreal.

“The 40 minutes came and went pretty quickly,”
Beniston said. “[It was a] lot of planning for a couple minutes, but it was fun.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development initially contacted Beniston and told him a government official
wanted to visit YNDC and see some of their work. Closer to Thursday he said he
was contacted by the White House and told it was the vice president.

They took Biden down a street where they have
fixed several houses, and he asked about the work and met with neighbors,
Beniston said.

After leaving YNDC, Biden flew to Cleveland for a
campaign event at UAW Local 1005 in Parma, Ohio.

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

In these days of mega-money fundraisers and micro-targeted ads, Joe Biden still likes to do politics the old-fashioned way. WKSU’s M.L. Schultze reports on how the vice president spent the time between his two headline appearances in Lordstown and Parma yesterday.

Eastern Ohio’s Trumbull County leans traditionally Democratic – but there’s a lot of support this year for Donald Trump. And a handful of people were holding Trump signs outside the union hall where Joe Biden spoke.

But overall, it was friendly territory for the vice president – a United Autoworkers hall around the corner from the now-thriving GM plant saved by the auto-industry bailout.

“You’re now selling 17 million cars a year, made in America. The most ever. You’re making the best damn cars in the word again."

To about 200 people, Biden celebrated the strengths of unions, fair play, hard work and the middle class – and held Donald Trump up as the antithesis of those things.

“I know I’m not supposed to get angry but I’m so sick and tired of hearing people like Trump and the Chamber of Commerce, the national chamber, talking about we get paid too much, that we don’t work. Give me a break: This is a guy born with a silver spoon in his mouth that now he’s choking because his foot’s in his mouth along with spoon.”

But where Biden really hit his stride was when he waded out into the crowd after the speech, mugging for selfies and recalling a half-dozen visits to the Mahoning Valley in the past.

And then he did what township trustees, village clerks and local politicians all over Ohio do: he went to the county fair.

Actually, the state’s largest county fair, in Canfield. Biden did the same thing four years ago nearly to the day, and some people were lined up before he got there expecting the unannounced visit. Those who didn’t figured it out pretty quickly from the motorcade, black security limo, and dozens of secret service people surrounding him.

Still, there was time for more hugs, more selfies, more memories and a meatball sandwich with extra cheese from Antone’s.

“How’s business? he asks. "It’s marvelous now." she responds. They chat some more, he pays for his meals, Gov. Ted Strickland's and Mahoning County Party Chairman David Betras, who protests "You paid last time."

Biden moved through the crowd like a man in no hurry – and as the afternoon progressed, even with staffers trying to keep him on schedule, his stride got more leisurely, his time more invested in the people he met along the way.

He steps up on the limo and waves: “Thanks for the hospitality. ... I wish they weren’t making me leave.”

A tale of two neighborhoods

With Youngstown’s former Mayor Jay Williams – now head of the federal Economic Development Administration -- at Biden’s side, the motorcade moved onto two neighborhoods on the South Side. The first was supposed to give the vice president a five-minute “before picture” of a neighborhood ravaged by the housing collapse and urban decay.

Kimberly Clark Baldwin spotted the flashing lights as the motorcade moved into the neighborhood where she grew up.

“I’ve seen Biden and Clinton down at the Covelli Center, when Bill Clinton came. I’ve seen Barack, he came to my plant, I got to hug him. I got a picture of him … ohhh I just love him.”

Still, she was content to watch from a distance -- until, Biden called her over, along with her mother, husband and others from the neighborhood. And the 5 minutes in the neighborhood stretched into a half hour.

Then his motorcade moved onto the “after” neighborhood, Idora, where hanging baskets and flower boxes decorate the restored homes occupied by new families.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation – with help from volunteers, the Recovery Act and Treasury Department’s Hardest Hit funds – has refurbished the neighborhood, attracting young families like Jay Brownlee’s back to the city.

“Our church was doing some work here in the neighborhood and they had three houses up for sale and my mother-in-law called and said, ‘Hey, come down and check out these houses.’ And long story short, I did and I loved it."

Hearing and telling stories

The vice president zig-zagged from house-to-house up the street – a kind of door-to-door campaign with hardly a whiff of politics.

One woman introduces her extended family: "That’s my mom, my daughter and my granddaughter and my brother’s around here somewhere.

Biden gets a "Thanks for coming to our neighborhood," and responds, "Wel,l thanks for having me."

A woman asks "How you doing?" he responds, " I’m doing better for seeing you…. “

One woman commiserated with Biden over the loss of his son, Beau, to cancer. He asked how long it had taken her to recover from a similar loss.

Another invited him to her barbeque.

Biden pulled small stuffed dogs from his pockets to give to children. And he sat with a family on their front porch steps, petting their dog, talking about his German shepherd and posing for family pictures.

Biden ran out of time before he ran out of neighborhood, and the motorcade rushed him to the Youngstown air base so he could get to Parma for his second formal campaign stop.,

But even getting the plane off the ground took longer than expected: first the ever gregarious Joe Biden had a chat with the firefighters at the bottom of the steps to his plane – and posed for a picture with the bright-yellow helmet they gave him.

To read the full story from WKSU, click here.

Rick Dearing, president of Dearing Compressor and Pump Co., hauls a large piece of brush across the parking lot of the dilapidated and shuttered Master’s Tuxedo building on Market Street.

About 10 blocks northeast on East Laclede Avenue, Pete Asimakopolous and Kevin Freisen of First National Bank of Pennsylvania cram large branches and logs into a city wood chipper. One block north on East Dewey Avenue, the principal of Boardman High School, Cindy Fernback, scrapes overgrown weeds from a sidewalk.

The four were among 700 volunteers from 63 organizations who fanned out across the city Friday during the United Way of Youngstown and Mahoning Valley’s Day of Caring, a community effort that enlists the help of businesses, organizations, school districts, residents and local government to alleviate the blight from city neighborhoods.

“This is my third year doing this,” Dearing said, noting his company has been involved with the Day of Caring several years. “We just rally the troops and we get an overwhelming response from the guys at Dearing. They’re a great workforce.”

This year, about 20 volunteers from Dearing took part in the 19th annual Day of Caring, the official kickoff of the United Way annual fundraising campaign. Dearing’s group – known as Team 6 – included volunteers from Jackson-Milton School District, Longhorn Steakhouse, FirstEnergy and Valley Christian School. They were assigned to cleaning up 17 houses in the neighborhood and the Master’s property.

In all, about 400 volunteers canvassed the South Side to clean up litter, remove overgrown brush, clear debris, cut down trees and board up vacant houses. Volunteers from the American Red Cross installed smoke alarms inside those houses that might require them.

Other volunteers performed work at the 16 nonprofit agencies that partner with the United Way, such as the YWCA and the Boys and Girls Club of Youngstown.

The neighborhood component is directed by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.

“This is the fourth year we’ve been doing this,” said Ian Beniston, its executive director. “We have about 75 houses to clean up and board up today.”

Bob Hannon, president and CEO of the United Way of Youngstown, said he’s encouraged by the number of students who participated this year: “What I find exciting is that we’ve got all age groups coming out to support us here today.”

Huntington Bank and Hometown Pharmacy sponsored this year’s Day of Caring.

Hannon also announced this year’s campaign goal. “Our goal was $2.6 million last year, and we easily beat that,” he said. This year’s target is more aggressive at $2.8 million. “I think we can get there,” he said.

Thus far, the United Way has raised $731,474 through its Pacesetter campaign.

Sixth Ward Councilwoman Anita Davis said that initiatives such as the Day of Caring are important because once major portions of blight are removed, maintaining those properties becomes much more manageable.

“Once they get somebody to give them a helping hand,” Davis remarked, “they’re now able to keep it up and maintain it.”

The Masters property, for example, has been an eyesore in the South Side more than a decade. Recently, the city took ownership after plans to redevelop the parcel with a private entity fell through.

“It’s all good,” Davis noted.

Kirk Baker, superintendent of the Jackson-Milton School District, said that even though the school district is outside the city, the entire community has a vested interest in supporting a strong Youngstown.

“We have 10 people here. The United Way gives to us and we like to give back to the community,” he said. “We’re just helping out where we can. We’re all together.”

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

Early Friday, Dorothy Smith, 65, site coordinator
for a special painting and landscaping project at 702 E. Lucius Ave., gave out
water, juice and apples to children walking to Taft Elementary School on the
city’s South Side.

The house and yard behind her were going through
major physical changes for Operation Paint Brush. The lot is easy to see for
those walking to Taft every day.

“We were greeting the children walking to Taft
school, letting them know that they can help. They see us out here caring, and we
let them know they can help take care of their neighborhood,” Smith said. She
encouraged the children to come back and volunteer today with Operation Paint
Brush on its second day of work.

Operation Paint Brush is a two-day project focused
on four city locations: East Lucius, 530 Catalina Ave. (North Side), 92 Eliot
Lane (East Side), and 2006 Thurber Lane (West Side).

The project is organized by Jon Howell, 54, a
Bloomington, Ill., resident and Youngstown native, with his partner and wife,
Adrienne, 54. The Howells began contacting local organizations and businesses
with the Operation Paint Brush blueprints after the couple discussed how they
could increase the quality of life in Youngstown.

The answer was simple to the Howells – improving
housing.

Jon Howell believes newly painted houses, newly
planted flowers and cleaned yards would make the neighborhoods feel more
aesthetically pleasing.

“Practical and simple projects like Operation
Paint Brush do just that,” he said. “The north location is owned by a
92-year-old man who can no longer work on the paint job of the home or afford
it. It costs probably about $5,000 to paint a home.”

Smith and Mrs. Howell were pleased to see the
operation inspire the volunteers as they expanded their work space, cleaning
other yards around the house.

The coalition of Operation Paint Brush has been
backed by a multitude of different organizations: from other area nonprofits,
to the Youngstown Police and Fire departments, to independent businesses
looking to give back to the community.

Restaurants also are involved. Chick-fil-A plans
to drop off box lunches during today’s workday.

“I was excited when Jon reached out to me about
the project. I am excited to help beautify the city, and the work is going
well,” said Mike Gibson, 29, owner of Gibson Works Property Art LLC. He spent
Friday tilling the ground in front of the newly painted forest-green home for a
delivery of bushes and flowers.

Another volunteer, Dave Cook, 48, a city
firefighter, grew up down the street. He attended Taft, and said he enjoys
doing some good for his city.

There were about 10 to 15 volunteers at the East
Lucius home, including Jonathan Bentley, 36, director of the city’s Human
Relations office, who spent the day cleaning up the yard.

“I have been volunteering since I was about 15
years old. I was born and raised in Youngstown. This volunteer day is important
because, like other volunteer projects I have been a part of, it is important
to give back to the community,” Bentley said.

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

After a breakfast Friday at the Covelli Centre, some 600 volunteers from organizations, businesses and schools split into groups to work tirelessly for the 19th annual United Way Day of Caring.

For the past few years, the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley has joined with the city of Youngstown, Green Youngstown, American Red Cross and Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to focus on cleaning community neighborhoods.

Nearly 400 of the volunteers as well as union workers from General Motors and First Energy Ohio went to South Side neighborhoods and businesses along the Market Street Corridor, cutting overgrowth, dragging trash and debris, clearing sidewalks and picking up litter. The other volunteers visited and cleaned 16 other sites in Youngstown.

Roxann Sebest, United Way director of marketing and communications, said this is a great chance for volunteers and donors to help their own community in a more direct way.

“People love it. You have bankers working alongside union members and hairstylists and students, getting to know each other and working together,” she said.

Jennifer Jones, coordinator of Green Youngstown, directed a team of volunteers at the abandoned Masters Tuxedo building on Market Street. Team 6 consisted of 75 volunteers from Dearing Compressor and Pump Co., First Energy Ohio, LongHorn Steakhouse and Valley Christian and Jackson-Milton schools. The varsity girls soccer team at Valley Christian decided to spend its Friday with United Way, which teammate Sadie Vogt said is a great opportunity to take pride in their city.

“I think a lot of people complain about how Youngstown has a lot of abandoned homes and people don’t take care of them,” Vogt said. “And it’s nice that we can actually go out into the community and do something about it.”

Youngstown 6th Ward Councilwoman Anita Davis said these volunteers don’t just provide a cosmetic benefit. Abandoned properties can be a dumping ground for tires and trash, vacant houses can be used by drug abusers, and overgrowth can begin to block street lamps from giving light in certain areas, she said.

The Day of Caring also can have a longer-lasting effect on the community, Jones added. Maintaining the property with neighbors ensures the property won’t fall back into disrepair, and Jones hopes the same will be done on the South Side.

“The neighbors want to help, but it’s too overwhelming,” she said. “So we take down and do the vast majority of the work, then maybe mowing the lawn isn’t that daunting anymore.”

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

“I like helping the community and butterflies,” said Sha’lamar Vaughn, who was one of about a dozen young people, age 11-13, who worked this summer to transform two adjoining vacant lots into a nature park for people and a way station for monarch butterflies on their annual trek from Canada to Mexico.

“All I wanted to do was make some friends and help the community. I want people to come and enjoy this,” said Bella Pierce, 10, a student at Montessori School of the Mahoning Valley. Sha’lamar, 11, is a student at Akiva Academy.

Officially known as the Ohio Avenue Butterfly Project, the summer-long effort was funded through a Youth Greening Grant to the Know Your Neighbor Block Watch, sponsored by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and the University of Michigan, in collaboration with the Mahoning County Land Bank and the City of Youngstown.

Also instrumental in the project was Adamczak Landscaping, which created four island mounds after the lot was cleaned up by the children and adult helpers from the neighborhood. Three of the mounds were planted with flowers native to the Youngstown area and the fourth, with milkweeds.

The milkweed attracts monarchs as a place to lay their eggs, said Joyce Davidson, executive director of the Know Your Neighbor Block Watch. The group is in the process of changing its name to the Know Your Neighbor Collaboration.

Davidson said the cleanup started June 13, and the project was finished about a week ago.

The kids had assignments to learn what butterflies and plants are native to the area, Davidson said.

“We got all the plants in, and then there was no rain. So I loaded water onto our old pickup truck and the kids each had water cans to water the plants,” she said.

Three of the four planting islands are named for butterflies: Monarch, Northern Blue and Swallowtail, and the fourth is named Milkweed Island.

The Butterfly Project is easily identifiable by painted tires in the shape and colors of a monarch.

The ribbon-cutting and celebration of completion of the project, at the intersection of Ohio and West Dennick avenues, on Youngstown’s North Side, was from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.

It included “The Four Stages of a Butterfly,” as presented by the young people and written by Bella, daughter of Dean Pierce and Jennifer Mondora.

Pierce said he is proud of Bella and the rest of the kids, who he said worked on the project part of three days a weeks all summer.

“If they had to be here at 8 a.m., they were up and ready to go. It was a great learning experience for them to understand what they were doing and why ... how they were helping the butterflies, the neighborhood and the environment,” said Pierce.

The Ohio Avenue Butterfly Project is something the kids can be proud of, said Councilman Nate Pinkard, D-3rd, in whose ward the project is located.

“I’d like to think the Butterfly Project will be contagious,” said Pinkard, who is not the only one who hopes it will trigger more students and groups to take on neighborhood projects.

“The kids realize we value them and what they do,” said Davidson.

“I think the Butterfly Project is an excellent start for what Youngstown is capable of doing,” said Na’eem Shaheed, chairman of the Know Your Neighbor Block Watch, which like some others, is changing its name to association.

“My dream is to help these kids reach their full potential, like the butterfly. There is nothing they can’t accomplish if we support them and get rid of the hate and be more loving,” Shaheed said.

Organizers, and the children themselves, say they hope the project helps bring the neighborhood together.

And Debbie Wilson of Elm Street, who said her friend, Mary Hulme of Gypsy Lane, insisted she see the project, was drawn in.

“I marveled at the transformation. I watched the kids take pride in their neighborhood. I never met a better group of people than the Know Your Neighbor Block Watch,” Wilson said.

“I’m happy to see young people make a difference for the future,” said state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-58th.

“It’s good for the city, and it’s good for the kids to take leadership in taking care of the planet they will inherit,” she said.

Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally said he is happy to see all the hard work of the children.

“Fixing little plots like this helps fix up the city, one plot at a time,” the mayor said.

“I can’t wait to come back next year and see the monarchs,” McNally said.

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

Welcome fellow YSU Penguins! It is our third complete week of school, and hopefully, you have had a chance to get a taste of what our university has to offer. Maybe you went to the Duquesne game, climbed the rock wall or attempted to fight off the existential dread of not knowing what life is because you sat in on a Philosophy Club meeting.

As many upperclassmen will tell you, getting involved in campus life is one of the greatest opportunities you will have as a student. While I would completely agree with that sentiment, I’d also like to propose another way for you to get involved as you acclimate to the world of Youngstown State University.

I encourage you to dive deeply, passionately, and creatively into one of the greatest laboratories of human innovation, a city in the midst of a comeback.

Your presence at YSU presents a unique opportunity to be a part of a story in the history of humankind that is remarkable. Youngstown is a city in transition, and YSU students are an essential component of that transition being successful.

Perhaps you have become aware of some of our successes. In 2015, the Youngstown Business Incubator was named the best university-affiliated incubator in the world.

This past summer, YSU was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts’ grant to implement public art throughout the downtown area.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation has led one of the city’s most innovative neighborhood stabilization efforts called The Taft Promise Neighborhood. This partnership provides community services through the Taft Elementary school to surrounding residents.

However, Youngstown remains in critical condition with 30 percent poverty rate and roughly 3,000 abandoned homes. YSU students can serve as major contributors in city revitalization. If you want to be a part of those successes, here is how you can help:

Participate in a workday:

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation hosts community workdays most Saturday mornings, during which they board up windows and clear brush from abandoned homes. There is even a student group devoted to assisting in the workdays, YSUScape. You can contact YSUScape President Nick Chretien for details.

Visit local businesses:

As a key market demographic, we students can support local business owners who are making our city more livable by providing the amenities for a creative class. These same business owners are also actively involved in making the city better itself by forming groups such as the Downtown Youngstown Partnership. The partnership is responsible for putting public art onto abandoned buildings, providing resources to small-business owners and implementing a downtown vision and action plan.

Implement a research or service project:

As a student, you have an incredible amount of resources, from professors to research grants to a ready cadre of volunteers. YSU’s role as an urban research university allows for these resources to be directly invested. Have an exercise science question? Apply it to participation rates of urban neighborhoods surrounding Youngstown. Want to study voter engagement? Apply it to a broader capstone project on political participation in a place like Youngstown. Want to get a better understanding of chemical interactions? Make a proposal centered on the chemical interactions of pollutants in the Mahoning River. We can actively engage in researching some of the problems and questions living in a city like Youngstown raises.

As the Sherry Linkon, author of Steeltown USA, once said, Youngstown’s story is America’s story.

We are a city comprised of immigrants who made a life for their families and the infrastructure that built our nation. Post-industrialism has changed the making game for us, and we as students now have the opportunity to innovate and create, not in steel and rubber, but in problem-solving, bold thinking, and the ingenuity only a Penguin can have.

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

Thursday, September 8, 2016

On Friday, Sept. 2 and Saturday, Sept. 3, Operation Paint Brush brought together a coalition of organizations and over 150 volunteers to paint the homes of three Youngstown homeowners.

The participating organizations and individuals included: Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, City of Youngstown, United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Boys & Girls Club of Youngstown, Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center,Youngstown State University student groups, Youngstown Police Department, TCC Verizon Wireless, Jon and Adrienne Howell, Harrison Construction, Dave Cook Painting, Gordon Price Painting, Chick-Fil-A, and multiple churches and community groups. This brings the total homes painted through Operation Paint Brush to four.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

On Thursday, September 1, 2016, the Vice President Joe Biden visited the work of YNDC along Lanterman Avenue.

The Vice President was joined by Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Jay Williams. He was greeted by YNDC Executive Director Ian Beniston and Housing Director Tiffany Sokol. The group toured Lanterman Avenue and stopped to talk with many neighbors including Germaine Bennett, the President of YNDC's Board of Directors and a longtime resident of the street. YNDC was also able to discuss its work in partnership with the City of Youngstown rehabilitating vacant homes and eradicating blight along the street. REVITALIZE.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

On Friday, September 2, more than 500 volunteers participated in the United Way's 2016 Day of Caring to fight blight on the south side of Youngstown.

YNDC worked with the United Way, City of Youngstown, and American Red Cross to plan and execute the event. Volunteers cleaned up and secured 71 houses, removed 206 tires, removed 800 cubic yards of trash and debris, removed 467 bags of trash, painted over graffiti, and demolished 7 houses. The sponsors of the event included: Hometown Pharmacy, Huntington National Bank, City of Youngstown, YNDC, City Councilwoman Anita Davis, City Councilman Julius Oliver, AIM NationalLease, Akron Children's Hospital, Mercy Health, Dearing Compressor, Simon Roofing, Jon and Adrienne Howell, Community Corrections Association, Better Business Bureau, AFL CIO, Wolfords Roll-Off, Flambeau's, Wedgewood Pizza, Coca Cola, Sam's Club, Republic Services, Dom's Ice House, and Youngstown Phantoms Hockey. Many thanks to all the groups that volunteered too! FIGHT BLIGHT.