Neighborhoods

A local organization is looking for ways to improve the standard of living in Youngstown, one of which comes from a grant to help repair houses.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) helps maintain the city’s living areas, making them habitable for the people living in them now and in the future.

The group helps homeowners make improvements to their houses that they otherwise could not afford.

With this new grant from a bank based in Pittsburgh, YNDC hopes to do even more in 2020.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, the City of Youngstown and Youngstown State University are analyzing housing conditions to develop a strategy to improve housing quality for all residents. 

As part of their study, they are seeking input from Youngstown residents and partners in revitalization, according to a news release.

To see the full story from Mahoning Matters, click here.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. expects to finalize a strategy to improve housing quality in the city in May.

“We’re in the data collection phase of putting together a housing strategy for Youngstown,” said Ian Beniston, YNDC’s executive director. “We plan to put together a strategy to improve existing housing resources and develop opportunities for new housing.”

The agency is working on two fronts to gather information, he said.

The first is a market analysis being done by Bowen National Research, a Pickerington firm. The $35,000 study is being paid by the city and the Finance Fund, a Columbus-based organization that assists underserved communities.

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

A new locally-owned business in Youngstown is serving up fresh baked cookies to the community. 

TaRee Avery is the owner of Dough House Cookies. She has been baking since she was 8 years old, and it all started with recipes from her grandma.

To see the full story from WYTV, click here.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

On Monday, January 20, the Bernard and Elaine Soss Family Charitable Trust awarded YNDC with a $1,000 grant through The Youngstown Foundation Support Fund.

Many thanks to the Bernard and Elaine Soss Family Charitable Trust for their support of YNDC!

Youngstown 2010, a detailed plan focusing on revitalizing the city through “smart shrinkage,” received national and international attention and recognition.

But a scholarly study, published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, describes the plan as “a cautionary tale” and notes that it’s easy to talk about smart growth by embracing a shrinking city — “but harder to realize.”

The report was written by Brent D. Ryan, an associate professor of urban design and public policy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Shugi Gao, a lecturer in the Department of Urban Planning at the School of Architecture at Southeast University in China.

“Today, 15 years after the comprehensive plan was issued, Youngstown remains a city with large numbers of vacant parcels, an anemic economy and serious social challenges,” they wrote. “The need for urban planning to engage the city’s challenges remains.”

What do they believe caused Youngstown 2010 not to be fully implemented?

“In Youngstown, the combined persistence of growth-oriented ideology, entrenched property rights, resilient historic land-use arrangements, financial limitation and political shifts limited the implementation of the city’s ambitious, nonstatutory, smart shrinkage-oriented comprehensive plan.”

FACE OF 2010

Former Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams — the face of Youngstown 2010 as the city’s Community Development Agency director when the city held 11 neighborhood meetings in 2004 to help shape the plan — said: “I don’t disagree with the conclusions” of the study.

When asked if Youngstown 2010 was a success, a failure or something in between, Williams said: “It is to a certain extent all of the above.”

Williams, now the president and CEO of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving in Connecticut, rode the Youngstown 2010 plan into a 2005 election as the city’s first black mayor and the first independent elected to the position in more than 80 years.

Williams said of the plan: “One of the important things is that it changed the narrative in Youngstown and about Youngstown. The narrative leading up to Youngstown 2010 was the collapse of the steel industry, political corruption and organized crime. It’s still part of our history, but the plan changed the narrative on a local, national and international level.”

The plan, he said, “planted the seeds on downtown development. The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. had its origins in it, and it emerged as a powerful force in the neighborhoods. It should be considered a success.

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

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

YNDC is proud to announce the publishing of its 2019 Annual Report!

The Annual Report highlights the work of YNDC over the past twelve months. An electronic copy can be downloaded below and hard copies are available in the YNDC office. For more information please contact the YNDC via email at info@yndc.org or via phone at 330.480.0423.

A potential economic development project on a 1.5-acre site on the West Side represents just one step in plans to redevelop key local corridors.

City officials and representatives of the Western Reserve Port Authority are tight-lipped about the project, which they caution is in its early stages.

At its meeting Thursday, the city’s Board of Control approved selling 12 parcels, which include buildings and vacant lots to the west of Casa Ramirez on Mahoning Avenue, from the city’s land bank to the port authority for $1,601.78.

The port authority is “helping us with an economic development project,” confirmed Nikki Posterli, chief of staff to Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and director of the city’s department of community planning and economic development. She declined to disclose the nature of the project.

“I just want to make sure that I’m careful we don’t put the cart before the horse,” she said.

“We think highly of the owners of the company and what they want to do with the property,” John Moliterno, executive director of the port authority, said. “It’d be unfair for us to make that kind of announcement. That’s their announcement to make.”

Anthony Trevena, the port authority’s director of economic development, was similarly reluctant to share details but expected an announcement within a month or two.

“We can’t prepare this property for development without possession, without some control,” he said. The port authority’s board of directors will vote next Thursday on a resolution authorizing Moliterno to sign to take possession of the property. “Once the board takes possession, we can begin serious discussions with the developer.”

The port authority will provide whatever services are needed for the company to bring the project to fruition, Moliterno said.

The site isn’t one the port authority is worried about having to develop, whether with the company now in discussions for it or another entity. “It’s a great property. It’s a great neighborhood. It’s a great location,” Trevena said.

A Commercial Property Revitalization – or CPR – study prepared by Novogradac, a nationwide professional services firm, with assistance from Economic Action Group, identified Mahoning Avenue as one of the top three commercial corridors in Youngstown for development potential. The study based that assessment on factors including high traffic count, high walkability, proximity to federal Opportunity Zones and high diversity of commercial uses.

The Raymond John Wean Foundation provided EAG and its partners with a $16,000 capacity-building grant that it used to pay for the CPR study, Nick Chretien, EAG program director, said. Partners in the CPR study also include the port authority, the cities of Youngstown and Warren, land bank programs in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, Youngstown State University, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership and Boardman Township.

To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Cheryl has lived in her home and has struggled with its condition for over sixteen years.

She was using space heaters and her stove to keep warm, her roof was leaking, her siding was badly deteriorated, and there were many other issues with her home. In 2019, Cheryl was able to receive assistance through YNDC’s Owner Occupied Home Repair program to address the issues with her home. YNDC replaced the furnace, roof, siding, and also made repairs to her walls, plumbing, and electrical systems. The work to make Cheryl’s home a safe and quality living space was made possible through the financial support of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh’s Affordable Housing Program. Cheryl was sincerely grateful for the improvements to her home and said, “My house looks amazing. I am so proud of Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation for fixing my house. It’s a blessing.”

The pending merger of Home Savings Bank and First Federal Bank of Defiance will not impact the bank's long-standing charitable foundation, a foundation that has donated more than $17 million over the last 30 years.

The pending merger of Home Savings Bank and First Federal Bank of Defiance will not impact the bank's long-standing charitable foundation, a foundation that has donated more than $17 million over the last 30 years.

Established in 1991, the Home Savings Foundation has been generous in its donations to worthy programs and organizations that make life better in the valley. $60,000 to The United Way, $25,000 to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, $5,000  to Lakeview Schools.

To see the full story from WFMJ, click here.