Neighborhoods

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, along with several partners has put together a study on the "health and stability" of the neighborhoods in the City of Youngstown. 

YNDC says the hope of the study is to determine what impact they, and other groups, are having on the city's neighborhoods. 

The data in the study picked up from 2014-15, when the first neighborhood action plans were completed. 

"We're seeing some encouraging signs in that we're not just fighting to remain stable anymore, we've actually decreased the number of vacant houses, we are seeing an uptick in home values and we are seeing a slowing in the rate of new vacancy particularly in the action plan areas," explained Ian Beniston, the executive director of YNDC.

Some of the highlights from the report state that vacancy has decreased dramatically citywide, from 3,927 vacant structures in 2014 to 2,226 in 2018.

In addition, new vacancies have reportedly slowed according to the research, which states that between 2008-2014 approximately 278 structures became vacant citywide each year, but between 2014-2018 only 25 structures became vacant each year in all action plan areas combined.

The report also says that property values have increased significantly, from an average sale price of $35,235 in 2014 in action plan areas to $50,544 in 2018.

Where Neighborhood Action plans were put into place, YNDC says homeownership rates stabilized, whereas city-wide the rate of homeownership declined. 

Similarly, in areas where YNDC and the Mahoning County Landbank intervened the rate of property tax delinquency decreased in half of them. The data says property rate delinquency was on the rise for the city as a whole, however. To read the full story from WFMJ, click here. 

Friday, March 29, 2019

YNDC is proud to announce the publishing of its first quarterly performance report of 2019! 

The performance report highlights the work of YNDC from January to March 2019. An electronic copy can be downloaded below.

Next Tuesday, demolition will begin on an abandoned gas station in Brookfield, not only because it's an eyesore but also because it's a health hazard.

But Brookfield isn't the only area in the Valley that has an issue with old gas stations.

What was once Palko's Mill Creek Service Station now sits an abandoned gas station at Bears Den Road and Schenley Avenue on Youngstown's west side.

Mark Ramahi, owner of the Mill Creek Deli next door, would love to see it gone.

"I'll be honest with you, it's a bad eyesore in this neighborhood. It's a clean neighborhood, we should keep it that way," he said.

"But it's a major problem. This is a major problem," said Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Beniston has a map of all the potential underground storage tanks in the city, 331 of which are old gas stations, auto shops or even laundromats that stored chemicals underground.

"You don't want to go start digging in any of these lots and putting up a building and the next thing you know you got five 100-gallon tanks that you stumble upon and you're like, 'Oh crap,'" Beniston said.

To read the full story from WYTV, click here. 

The winners have been announced in a project to create and mount art on city buses.

Power of the Arts, in partnership with Western Reserve Transit Authority, will put works by Mahoning Valley artists on buses in late April and May as part of the Go Art! public art project. A panel of judges selected pieces from the pool of submissions.

A public reception for the artists and sponsors will take place at 5 p.m. April 11 at the Youngstown library main branch, 305 Wick Ave. The winning artists will receive a $100 honorarium per project. Their works will be displayed at the library until April 26.

Karen Schubert, Go Art! project coordinator, said the idea for Go Art! was inspired by the Kent State Wick Poetry Center’s Traveling Stanzas project, in which graphically designed poems were installed in buses and bus shelters.

“I love the idea of a huge, rolling gallery, bringing locally created art to us as we move through our days,” said Schubert. “We also want to make WRTA buses, a critical part of our public infrastructure, more visible.”

More than 100 artworks were submitted by 40 area artists, in many styles and media, including printmaking, computer-generated art, painting, pencil drawing and photography. Artists submitted directly to specific contests and in a blind judging, finalists were chosen. Sponsor organizations selected the winning images from the finalists.

There will be 21 designs on buses. Each bus changes routes during the day, so each artwork will travel throughout Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

The list of sponsors and winners:

Cultivate, a Co-op Cafe, “Dawn on the Farm” by Rebecca Nieminen.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, “Orange is My Color” by Venise Abell.

Easterseals, “pARTy Time” by Chelsea Mortiz.

Jet Creative, “Play It, Sing It, Feel It” by Hannah Barone.

Lit Youngstown, “Writers” by Dave Buehrle.

Mahoning County Land Bank, “Sunflower Field” by Pattie Conti.

MCCTC, “The Mr. Beat Show” by Chris Yambar.

McKinley Memorial Museum, “McKinley” by George Nelson.

Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County, “Captivated” by Kari McCollum.

SMARTS, “Southside Soup” by Daniel Rauschenbach.

Alexis Smith, D.O., “Radial” by Aislinn Janek.

Soap Gallery, “A Long Climb” by Nicole Nicholson Murray;.

Stambaugh Auditorium, “Stambaugh Auditorium” by Daniel Rauschenbach.

TIMBRE (one panel) and Youngstown Area Jewish Federation (two panels), designs by Akiva Academy students Fallon Blackshire, Jaylen Cade, O’Mari Garner, Fiona McCormick, Jensen McKelvey, Kamari McQueen, Taniya Phillips, Naomi Sargent, Selah Sargent, Cameron Silverman, Tomiyah Smith, My-Kayla Stewart, Trey Stewart, Sam Traficant, Mila Waskin, Mara Vargo, Rhaleigh Zalac.

Trumbull New Theatre, “Fairtime” by George Nelson.

Youngstown CityScape, “West Federal” by Daniel Rauschenbach.

Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., “Changing History” by Lauryn Gintert.

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

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) was recently recognized for the important work they do.

The organization was one of 15 across Ohio to receive the Dominion Energy Community Impact Award. Those selected showed a focus on human needs, environmental stewardship, education and community vitality.

YNDC was specifically honored for its Clean Up Glenwood project.

Clean Up Glenwood has been five to six years in the making. Most of that work has been behind the scenes acquiring property and raising funds. Most recently, work has been done in the neighborhood that everyone can see.

People who live in the Glenwood corridor have seen empty lots and abandoned buildings replaced with trees and parks. It’s a year-round project that takes time, but each smaller project is part of a larger vision – to give residents a better place to live and to get businesses to want to open along Glenwood Avenue.

“It’s always great to be recognized for those efforts sometimes. You think people don’t even notice what you are doing, so that kind of reassures you that people do see the change along the corridor, and while we’ve made a lot of progress, there is still much to do,” said Ian Beniston, executive director of YDNC.

Last year, YDNC and its volunteers planted nearly 150 trees, added lights to the Community Park, and restored apartment complexes and homes, among several other projects. To read the full article from WKBN, click here.

Youngstown Business Incubator entrepreneur Patrick Gaughan has been accepted as a Fulbright Scholar at Hanoi Law University for next year’s spring term.

While in Vietnam, Gaughan plans to expand institutional relationships and continue his research in business and comparative law. His research includes extensive reliance upon computer data mining, fuzzy logic, and AI, all of which he continues to develop at the YBI. Gaughan joined the University of Akron School of Law in 2014 after 11 years at Youngstown State University. The Fulbright Program was established in 1946. It awards 8,000 grants annually, with 1,200 being U.S. scholars.

GRANT AWARDED: The Colony Youngstown, a community development organization, has received a $10,000 grant from the Cafaro Foundation to help the organization with start up associated with creating certification trainings for professionals and displaced workers. The money will also be used to help pay for the initial design costs for a green infrastructure project on Youngstown’s South Side.

DOMINION ENERGY GIVES MONEY: Dominion Energy has given $7,500 grants to Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership (TNP) and Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC).

TNP of Warren received the money for its Building a Better Warren program, which provides training and on-the-job mentorship for residents while improving city neighborhoods.

YNDC will use the grant for its Clean Up Glenwood Avenue program, which is working to revitalize the neighborhood surrounding one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares. To read the full story from the Tribune Chronicle, click here. 

Thursday, April 4, 2019

On April 2 and 3, 2019, forty-five members of the YNDC team, board, AmeriCorps, and ACTION completed the Racial Equity Institute’s Phase One Racial Equity Workshop at Martin Luther Lutheran Church.

The two day workshop helps to provide participants with talking points, historical factors and an organizational definition of racism. More trainings will be held in the Mahoning Valley throughout 2019 and those interested can register here.

Home vacancies across the city are down “dramatically” and property values are slightly up, according to new data from the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.

An impact report – prepared by members of the Geographic Information Science department at Youngstown State University – analyzes the efforts of the YNDC, the city and the Mahoning County Land Bank since the 2014 implementation of “neighborhood action plans” throughout Youngstown.

Neighborhood action plans are revitalization strategies tailored to the needs of individual neighborhoods. These plans are generally executed by YNDC staff and “neighborhood action teams” consisting of community leaders, residents and local government representatives.

Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, said that the rate of vacancies across the city has fallen.

“Vacancies have gone down dramatically. In 2008 there were about 4,600 vacant homes. In 2014 there were still 3,900 vacant homes, despite thousands of demolitions. We were barely keeping up,” Beniston said. “Over the last five years since we enacted the action plans, we saw the number go from 3,900 to 2,200. So a 43 percent reduction. That’s huge.”

Beniston said that while vacancies still occur, the rate of vacancy has decreased, particularly in neighborhoods with action plans.

“There’s still about 278 houses going vacant each year. In action plan areas though, that number is reduced to 25 every year. That’s pretty consistent across all of our action plan neighborhoods.”

The report also shows that in approximately half of the action plan areas, tax delinquencies have decreased.

Properties across the city have seen, on average, a slight increase in sale price, from $35,235 to $50,544.

“It’s not nearly where we want it to be. It’s good, but it’s not good enough,” Beniston said.

The report suggests there are still plenty of problems to tackle in the city, however. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation plays a big role in cleaning up Youngstown and making it look better.

Now, it needs more help. Dontae Madison is a member of YNDC's grass cutting and clean-up team. It's a full-time position, but you better not be afraid to work hard and get dirty.

"We're breaking up tubs or pulling up floors -- physically demanding -- so if you're not a hardworking person, this is not for you," he said. They also cut grass, board up vacant houses and even plant trees. These team members play a vital role with YNDC in maintaining a couple of hundred properties. "Our first team to go in, they get the property cleaned up. They clean out all the contents from inside the house, get things ready so our rehab team can do the construction work," said YNDC Neighborhood Stabilization Director Jack Daugherty. Though grass cutting sounds like a seasonal job, the cleanup team works year-round. Pay is $15 an hour. Benefits include vacation, a 401(k) plan and an office that changes every day outside. Madison grew up in Youngstown. For him, the work is also rewarding. "Just to see the change in neighborhoods and us cleaning up vacant properties is nice to see," he said. 

"It's a lot of hard work, but it's rewarding work. You get to see how it impacts the neighborhood around us," said Daugherty. To read the full story from WKBN, click here.

An attorney for 554-member Youngstown Columbiana Association of Realtors Inc. is calling for the city to halt its land-installment contracts legislation, contending it is flawed.

In a letter to city officials, Atty. Bryan M. Ridder wrote: “The deficient, redundant and conflicting provisions, and other apparent drafting errors” show that the ordinance “was rushed to adoption without being carefully and thoughtfully vetted.”

Ridder added: “In light of these significant shortcomings, [the association] urges the city to consider suspending enforcement of or repealing the LIC [land-installments contracts] ordinance and to re-examine issues related to land-installment contracts in the city of Youngstown in order to develop a more appropriate response to those issues.”

The association’s membership includes residential and commercial real-estate brokers, agents, property managers, appraisers and others involved in the real-estate industry in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said the legislation “is a work in progress. It’s not a perfect piece of legislation. We’re looking to add some amendments to improve it.”

But, Brown said, the city has no plans to “suspend or repeal” the legislation, but “we welcome suggestions for amendments.” To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.