Neighborhoods

A.C.T.I.O.N. and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. are sponsoring a free bus trip to Columbia, S.C., to confront Vision Property Management about its housing practices in the city.

The bus will depart at 4 a.m. March 3 from St. Edwards Church, 240 Tod Lane, Youngstown. Reservations can be made by calling 330-480-0423 or by filling out the form at http://ow.ly/ZHAO30hcqXO. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

On Tuesday, February 13, Farmers National Bank awarded YNDC with a $5,000 grant.

The grant will benefit the organization's comprehensive housing efforts including the strategic acquisition and rehabilitation of vacant homes and the organization's HUD-Approved Housing Counseling program. Many thanks to Farmers National Bank for their support!

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

On
Tuesday, February 13, seven YNDC team members, two YNDC board members, and several community
stakeholders attended Measuring Racial
Equity: A Groundwater Approach at the Raymond John Wean Foundation
presented by Racial Equity, LLC.

The training focused on historical and
current roadblocks to racial equity and the underlying causes of widespread
statistical racial disparity in healthcare, education, criminal justice, and
other systems. Many thanks to The Raymond John Wean Foundation for the
opportunity to attend!

Across Youngstown, work is being done to revitalize neighborhoods. And no one’s working alone.

To watch the full video from The Business Journal, click here.

Hear how YNDC works with neighborhood groups.

To watch the full video from The Business Journal, click here.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

On Saturday, February 17, twenty-nine volunteers helped rehabilitate the interior of 2906 Glenwood Avenue.

Participants from The Colony, Neighborhood Connections, Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church/Hope for Renewal, Thrive Mahoning Valley, Us to U.S., Youngstown CityScape, YSUscape, and the YSU Honors College helped to scrape and paint walls, patch drywall, and clean inside the historic 4-unit building on the Glenwood Avenue Corridor. The building is being rehabilitated by YNDC partner organization Hope for Renewal. Special thanks to Hope for Renewal for providing refreshments.

The Western Reserve Port Authority on Wednesday authorized a first agreement to help the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. acquire and renovate a building to promote redevelopment of the Glenwood Avenue neighborhood in Youngstown.

The authority agreed to buy a former Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley warehouse and office building at 2246 Glenwood for up to $125,000 plus closing costs, lease it to YNDC for 18 months and then sell it to YNDC.

Ian Beniston, YNDC executive director, said the value of the port authority being involved is it allows YNDC time to attract the resources necessary and create a plan to renovate the building to make it move-in ready for tenants to use. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.

The Western Reserve Port Authority will move to purchase a property on Glenwood Avenue on the south side of Youngstown to assist the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation in its economic development efforts.

“We hope to use it to attract business to the neighborhood,” said Ian Beniston, executive director of YNDC. “This is part of a series of steps we are taking that will hopefully, over the long term, stabilize the corridor and attract much more investment than is coming now,” The port authority Board of Directors voted at their Wednesday meeting to enter into a cooperative agreement with YNDC and to purchase the property at 2246 Glenwood Ave. for a sum not exceeding $125,000. “We’ve already been to the Realtor and given a deposit and signed our offer,”said Anthony Trevena, the director of Economic Development for the Northern Ohio Development and Finance Authority, a branch of the port authority. “It’s listed for about $200,000, so we are getting a pretty good deal on it.” Once purchased, the port authority will enter into a triple net lease with YNDC. “They will be responsible for all the management, maintenance, insurance, repairs, grass and so forth, and they will essentially be responsible for the facility and can sublet,” Trevena said. During that time, YNDC hopes renovate the property, which was previously owned by the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, and ready it for commercial use.

“[We] will create some market-ready modern space for small businesses,” Beniston said. “We do know there are some interested parties.” At the end of 18 months, YNDC then will acquire the property from the port authority. “In a sense, they needed some time to establish their business plan, to work on applying for some grant funding. What our role here is to take it off the market and to preserve it for them to develop the property into a facility to create jobs for our community,” Trevena said. To read the full story from the Tribune Chronicle, click here. 

The Taft Promise Neighborhood program has worked with 61 organizations, businesses and community groups to improve the 1.3-square-mile neighborhood. 

Some of the names on the list are easily recognizable: Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and United Way of Youngstown and Mahoning Valley. Others aren’t as well known: Youngstown Inner City Gardens, Charity Funding Resources and United Returning Citizens. Regardless of how often their names appear in headlines, each of the 61 plays a crucial role in the revitalization of Taft Promise Neighborhood. “There’s room at the table for everyone,” says April Alexander, executive director of community organization. “That’s the key to meeting the needs of a neighborhood. It takes a city, all these factions, to meet the needs of a community.” Across Youngstown, partnerships have been formed at every level to revitalize the city. Some partnerships are simple. Youngstown CityScape, for example, donates flowers to neighborhood groups to beautify their areas, provided that the group takes care of them. Others, such as the alliance between Taft Promise Neighborhood and YNDC, delve deeper into the revitalization efforts. To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here. 

Across Youngstown, much work is underway to revitalize neighborhoods. The work done by larger groups is easily noticed – countering blight by tearing down houses beyond repair are community efforts that draw dozens – and then there the everyday efforts by residents in their neighborhoods that lay the foundation for those big projects.

This grassroots work is taking place across the city, transforming the landscape of Youngstown as activists spend countless – and sometimes thankless – hours working for something as simple as a bus stop, as Marguerite Douglas did in Lincoln Knolls.

On the West Side, John Slanina and the Rocky Ridge Neighborhood Association have brought new life to the Mahoning Avenue corridor, while on the South Side, the Rev. Ed Noga is part of a multifaith team that’s spurred activity in the Oak Hill neighborhood. And Sybil West, a lifelong resident of Bennington Avenue, has worked both on her own and as part of collaboratives to revitalize Youngstown. To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here.