Neighborhoods

Thursday, May 24, 2018

YNDC is excited to provide assistance to 11 groups to complete youth greening projects on 37 vacant lots.

The projects will engage neighborhood youth in the completion and maintenance of greening projects. The following groups were selected for 2018

Cardinal Mooney High School

Come Learn with Me, LLC

Community Farmers Market

Fosterville Blockwatch

Kanduthis Inc.

NE Homeowners and Concerned Citizens Association

Republic Gardens

Center for Community Empowerment

Yaya's ChildcareThe Colony

URC Lawn Care

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

YNDC closed on the sale of three homes in May 2018. 

1735 Pointview Avenue in the Powerstown Neighborhood on the South Side sold on May 10 for $45,000. 1823 Fifth Avenue sold on May 21 for $59,000 and 454 Madera Avenue sold on May 24 for $86,500. Both homes are located in the Crandall Park Neighborhood on the North Side. Congratulations to the new homeowners, and thank you for your investment in Youngstown’s neighborhoods! 

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

A new farmers market will begin operation at the B&O Station, located at 530 Mahoning Ave., to serve patients in the Mercy Health Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program and the general public. 

The first market will take place on Wednesday, June 13 from 10am-3pm and there will be a market on the second Wednesday of each month through October.  The market will feature a variety of fresh produce grown by local farmers, as well as provide nutrition information and cooking demonstrations.  Individuals with SNAP/EBT can double their purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables through the Produce Perks program, doubling up to $30 per market.

Less green in the city’s coffers will mean more green in the lots of vacant homes throughout Youngstown this summer.

Under the city’s new grass cutting program, fewer lawns of vacant homes will be cut by the end of the summer despite the city budgeting for the same number of cuts it paid for last year. The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation handled the grass program between 2015 and 2017, charging $10 per cut and completing more than 10,000 cuts each year. Under the new program announced by the mayor’s office, the YNDC has been replaced by seven contractors, who are currently being paid $30 per cut, according to Kyle Miasek, the deputy finance director. “In the past we had a contract over the length of the summer. Now we’re doing it by cut. We were paying monthly for the cost of the employees at YNDC. They were tackling properties every day and we essentially had unlimited cuts. Now because we’re working with contractors, that $200,000 can only cover so many cuts,” Miasek said. The new contractors are: Dare to Dream Foundation, Tucker and Son’s Lawn Care, United Returning Citizens, Art’s Lawn Care, Phylum LLC, Eartha Shade Enterprises and Craig’s Lawn Service. Under the current program, the city can pay for approximately 6,600 cuts. Miasek said the city chose not to continue with YNDC because the organization’s proposal would have required funding beyond the $200,000 the city budgeted.

Ian Beniston, the executive director of the YNDC, said the organization requested $225,000, which would have been used to cover the cost of additional labor and management costs. The YNDC formerly relied on the Mahoning Columbiana Training Association’s Summer Youth Employment program to provide workers for the summer grass-cutting season, but according to Beniston, changes in the program kept the organization from utilizing those workers. As a result, the YNDC needed to bring on more workers for the summer months. Though YNDC was requesting more money, the grass cutting program effectively paid for itself; according to documents provided by the YNDC, in 2017 the city collected $501,971 through the grass cutting program, resulting in a surplus of $308,833 after accounting for program costs. That number could grow in future years as well, as nearly $4 million was assessed to property taxes as a result of the grass cutting and vacant house board-up program. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.

Friday, June 1, 2018

Newlyweds Ashley Bowers and Julio Contreras moved into their new home at 1735 Pointview Avenue in late May.

Ashley was born and raised in Youngstown and has lived here most of her life. Julio was born in Guatemala and has lived in Youngstown for about three months. Ashley says she was drawn to the Powerstown Neighborhood because it is quiet and close to her job as a nurse. The couple found the home on YNDC’s social media and thought it looked ideal for them. Julio loves the proximity of parks and the friendliness of their new neighbors, saying he prefers the neighborhood to his time spent in the much louder and faster-paced New York City. Ashley said the house on Pointview is the perfect size as well as close to her family. Both Ashley and Julio are first-time homeowners. Congratulations, Ashley and Julio! Thank you for your investment in Youngstown’s neighborhoods and best wishes in your new home!

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Youngstown is expanding its summer camp offerings with programming at the McGuffey Centre on the city’s east side at 1649 Jacobs Road.

Summer camp activities include Summer Brain Gain academic support, career development and training, healthy lifestyles programs and field trips, and character development through Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s evidence-based programs.

Programming is available for children ages six to 15 and will be held June 18 through Aug. 17, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Summer camp is $50 per child with a sliding scale for families with three or more children. Registration fee includes lunch, snack and field trips. Transportation is not included. Registration begins Monday, June 4 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the McGuffey Centre, or from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Oak Hill location at 2105 Oakhill Ave. To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here. 

The vacant homes strewn across many U.S. cities create blighted gaps on the landscape. While empty reminders of past development may present community challenges, according to a new report, these properties can also be potential vehicles for change.

“The Empty House Next Door,” a new report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy examining abandoned and unused properties, offers a deft accounting of the cost of these buildings on the surrounding areas. While they aren’t a new phenomenon, vacant buildings, especially in blocks or neighborhoods in legacy cities such as Detroit and Cleveland, have reached “epidemic level.” Compiled by urban scholar Alan Mallach, the report offers a sobering snapshot of just how widespread vacancy has become, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession. “Hyper-vacancy,” defined as blocks and neighborhoods where vacant buildings and lots comprise 20 percent or more of the building stock and “define the character of the surrounding area”—has spread across many communities, especially formerly industrial and Rust Belt cities. By 2010, one out of every two Census tracts in Cleveland could be considered hyper-vacant. Mallach considers the condition epidemic, a multifaceted challenge for legacy cities. While most redevelopment plans and projects focus on addition—new housing, transportation, and public spaces—vacancy and hyper-vacancy require painful and costly subtraction. With vacant properties placing severe fiscal strain on cities, reducing property tax revenue while costing millions of dollars for policing, inspecting, cleaning, and in many cases, demolition, it’s a vast challenge that’s inspired creative policy solutions. To read the full story from Curbed, click here.

Vacant and abandoned properties are a familiar part of the
American landscape, from the boarded row house in North
Philadelphia to the empty factory in Detroit to the collapsing
farmhouse in rural Kansas.

These structures can devastate
the neighborhood and block, undermine the neighbors’ quality
of life, and diminish the value of nearby properties. They also
cause severe fiscal damage to local governments, reducing
local tax revenues while costing cities millions for policing,
cleaning vacant lots, and demolishing derelict buildings. Most vacant houses are well maintained, but many
are a problem. Thousands sit empty for years, abandoned
by their owners, deteriorating to the point
where they cannot be reused without major rehabilitation.
Many ultimately are demolished, leaving
vacant lots in their place.
These vacant properties can also become community
assets. Thousands of vacant commercial
and industrial buildings have been restored and
turned into apartments, lofts, and condominiums. In
Baltimore, neighborhoods have been revived and old
houses have been put back to use. In Cleveland, vacant
lots have found new life as community gardens,
miniparks, and farms.
Vacancies skyrocketed with the Great Recession,
as the number of unoccupied dwellings rose from
9.5 to 12 million nationally between 2005 and 2010.
The number has declined since then, but it is still
far higher than it was prior to 2005. “Other vacant”
units—a term used by the census to define units
that are neither on the market, held for future occupancy,
nor used only seasonally—have risen from
3.7 million in 2005 to 5.8 million in 2016. Although
there is no national tally for vacant lots, the 2015
Gary Parcel Survey found 25,000 of them in that city, or
more than 40 percent of the city’s parcels. According
to Detroit Future City, Detroit had more than 120,000
vacant lots in 2017.
Vacancy and abandonment are not only urban problems.
Rural areas and small towns have a vacancy rate
nearly double that of metropolitan areas; rural vacancy
problems are particularly severe in many parts of Appalachia,
the rural South, and the Great Plains states.
The scale and trajectory of vacancy vary widely from
city to city. Sunbelt cities like Phoenix or Miami saw a
surge in vacancies with the foreclosure crisis and the
recession, but since the recovery, vacancies have come
back down to pre-crisis levels. In cities with robust
market demand, such as Seattle and Washington, DC,
the long-term vacancy trend is clearly downward. To read the full report from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and The Center for Community Progress, click here.

Monday, June 4, 2018

The work of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation is highlighted in a new report written by Alan Mallach on behalf of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Center for Community Progress. 

The report is titled "The Empty House Next Door" and provides solutions for addressing vacancy in communities across America. A fully copy of the report can be downloaded below.

Monday, June 4, 2018

On Wednesday, May 30, 2018, the Frank and Pearl Gelbman Charitable Foundation awarded YNDC with a $15,000 grant for Corridor Improvement Corps.

The Corridor Improvement Corps is a comprehensive revitalization strategy aimed at improving public health, safety, and quality of life for residents by leveraging AmeriCorps members and community volunteers to complete physical improvements to Youngstown’s neighborhood corridors. The improvements will include 1) cleaning up and painting blighted walls and facades of vacant buildings, 2) cleaning up and clearing overgrowth from vacant lots littered with debris, 3) planting hearty urban trees, 4) installing split rail fencing along vacant lots, 5) replacing broken and unsafe sidewalks, 6) installing covered benches at public spaces and bus stops, and 7) improving corridor lighting and signage around public spaces and corridor businesses. When applied systematically, these improvements will restore a basic sense of order to Youngstown’s corridors and will result in sustainable improvements to the safety and quality of life for Youngstown’s residents. Many thanks to the Frank and Pearl Gelbman Charitable Foundation for their support!