SitemapDowntown Youngstown is covered with tons of concrete. With miles of sidewalks, vast slabs on Federal Plaza and well-traversed roads, it’s a crucial element of the infrastructure.
But when it rains, all that concrete surface can cause problems. Water runs off the sidewalks and roads into storm drains, taking with it the trash, debris, automotive fluids and anything else that’s loose. When that debris can’t get to the drains, which is often, it piles up along curbs and in chuckholes as water pools and floods parking spaces.
At a spot in front of the former State Theatre, Youngstown CityScape associate director Phil Kidd points to a problem area. On a bump out – a portion of sidewalk that extends into the street, usually near a corner – is a space where a tree once stood. The space has since been covered with bricks and cigarette butts, sticks, leaves and loose papers piled deep along the curb. A grate sits in the middle of a handicap parking spot. To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here.