The Lansingville neighborhood of Youngstown could go back to the farmland it once was, says Ken Stanislaw, laughing.
But he and his neighbors of 40-plus years hope it does not.
To that end, their 17th neighborhood parade next Sunday is part of that hope. They invite you to come – and keep a neighborhood going forward.
Lansingville is a pocket of weathered homes and souls on the city’s South Side, wrapped by I-680, South Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard.
“Some people say it goes to Midlothian Avenue, but I don’t consider that part of Lansingville. But if they consider themselves Lansingville — that’s OK by me.”
Ken has always been part of Lansingville and lives on Taft Avenue, a few lots from what was his grandfather’s farm where his dad was raised. Ken said his dad would walk to a one-room school house. Often when he did, he would walk the family cows with him to graze up by Schwebel’s factory.
When school was done, he’d walk back home – with the cows – to the family barn on Murray Avenue.
That was his dad’s era. Ken thinks some Lansingville streets are ready to go back to farming if a few more homes disappear.
Ken’s era includes him and neighbors driving around at night patrolling the streets — CB radios in hand and yellow lights atop their cars.
“One Halloween, we saw a suspicious van. We went to get its license plate, and it took off. We didn’t chase it due to the kids,” he said. His voice trails as he ponders where the van might have gone to next.
Sure, there’s bad around us, he admits. But Ken reminds that there’s good, too.
“There’s good everywhere. Sometimes news-wise, bad wins out. But there’s more good than there is bad. If I were to move to Boardman or Austintown, I’d still have neighbors not as good as other neighbors.”
He laughs that thought to a finish with: “And I’d be paying more money.”
To celebrate Lansingville and America, a parade was started in 2000 by neighbor Edwin Buday.
“It was just to get people to realize there’s a Lansingville – a little part of Youngstown,” Ken said. “It’s a very Slavic community, and still a good part of the city.”
One year close to the parade date, Edwin died suddenly, Ken recalls.
There was no parade that year. But Ken, Edwin’s son Jason and a few others rallied to make the parade happen the next year. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.
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