Neighborhoods

Business leaders, quasi-government organizations, city administrators, elected officials, institutions such as Youngstown State University, neighborhood groups – even a long-ago president of the United States — all share in the credit of rebuilding the appeal and image of the city.

That was the overarching message of the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber’s Good Morning Youngstown breakfast held at Stambaugh Auditorium Friday.

Speaking at the event were Gregg Strollo, partner at Strollo Architects; John Hyden, executive director of YSU’s facilities and support services; Matt Pagac, general manager of Stambaugh Auditorium; and Abby Beniston, the city’s code enforcement superintendent.

In particular, the attractions in the city’s central business district that many enjoy today are the product of hard work and cooperation that began decades ago, Strollo told about 200 attendees at the breakfast.

“There were people that had the commitment to put forward the effort to plan appropriately,” said Strollo, whose company recently renovated the landmark Wells Building downtown as its new offices. “It started with something called the Youngstown Revitalization Foundation in the late 1970s.”

This led to the creation of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., which helped facilitate cooperation between the public and private sectors to redevelop dilapidated downtown buildings, he noted. “The CIC was 60% private sector and 40% public sector,” he recalled, as the organization acquired a large inventory of vacant downtown buildings earmarked for redevelopment.

“Eventually, through the hard work of those folks, through several mayors, they made the commitments necessary to get these projects turned around,” Strollo said. “It took a while; it moved glacially.”

Since then, millions of dollars of investment have poured into the central business district. In December, Strollo completed a $5 million project that converted the Wells Building into a modern office for the architectural firm on the ground floor, and 12 apartments on the top three floors.

Add to this the redevelopment of the Federal Building, the creation and expansion of the Youngstown Business Incubator, the construction of new government buildings, a slate of new taverns and restaurants, and ongoing reinvestment in longtime institutions such as a $5 million renovation at the downtown YMCA, and the change is transformational.

And, it was a phone call from a lame-duck president with just weeks left in office that helped pave the way for developing what is today an important corridor of downtown, Strollo noted.

In 1980, after Jimmy Carter had lost the presidential election to Ronald Reagan, he reached out to Democratic Party faithful in Youngstown. “He made a call to some Democratic Party folks that had been very supportive of him over the years, and asked if there was anything he could do to help Youngstown in his last days,” Strollo recalled.

Carter helped secure for the city what was then called the Railroad Abandonment Corridor – a strip that runs between Commerce Street and Wood Street.

“It was a real barrier between the city and the university, and he was able to turn that over to the city for redevelopment,” Strollo said. The transaction helped pave the way for the creation of the Ohio Historical Center for Industry and Labor, redevelopment of the Erie Terminal Building and construction of a new U.S. Bankruptcy Court building.

Furthermore, the deal cleared the way many years later for extending Phelps Street, which now serves as a direct connection between downtown and YSU.

YSU’s Hyden said that connectivity between downtown and the university is critical to the city’s character and success.

YSU, he said, is in the midst of its own building projects as well. Most recently, the attention has been to improve the quality of student life and success, Hyden said, noting it’s an important component of YSU President Jim Tressel’s administration.

Two major housing projects are under way. Hallmark Campus Properties’ University Edge student housing complex just off Fifth Avenue is underway and Phase I should be open by the summer of 2016. Phase II of the project was approved recently by YSU trustees.

Preliminary work is also in place for another student housing development, The Enclave, at the corner of Wick and Lincoln avenues. “This is being developed by LRC Realty, and is designed for 168 beds as well as a retail outlet,” Hyden said. Construction should begin this summer and the project completed by fall semester 2017.

Additional plans call for the university to redevelop fields west of Fifth Avenue, directly across from Stambaugh Stadium and near the new soccer and softball fields. “We plan in the future to have additional playing fields and hopefully a tennis complex in that area,” he said.

Other initiatives across the city target blight and vacant housing, said Abby Beniston, the city’s code enforcement superintendent.

She told attendees that the city is hampered with roughly 3,900 vacant dilapidated structures within the city, and City Council over the past decade has devoted millions of dollars to demolish them.

Beniston said that the city has received help from an environmental sanitation fund it established for the sole purpose of removing blight. “Youngstown was the first municipality in the state of Ohio to establish an enterprise fund solely dedicated to demolition and public nuisances in the city of Youngstown,” she said.

The city has also worked closely with the Mahoning County Land Bank and other resources to help repurpose vacant and blighted parcels.

Among the more recent collaborations is with the Youngstown Air Reserve Station’s 910th Air Wing Civil Engineer Squadron through the air base’s community partnership program.

The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and is designed to establish partnerships with the community and the base to combat blight.

Since July, air base personnel have helped demolish 80 homes in the city, 17 of of which were around the Taft School district. Since that district has the highest rate of pedestrian commutes to and from school, it was important that the area was targeted for cleanup, she said.

Each year, the city razes about 500 vacant houses total.

“The blight remediation program we have with the air base is the first partnership in the nation where the Department of Defense has allowed their airmen and women to take on a project that included demolition,” she said. “We’re hoping any day that the funding is approved and they’ll be back this spring.”

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

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Progress continues on the Department of Justice Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) Program on Youngstown's South Side.

YNDC was awarded a BCJI planning grant in 2015 to work with research and law enforcement partners to analyze crime patterns and develop a cross-sector implementation strategy to address the drivers on crime in a targeted area, which is bounded by Hillman Ave., Midlothian Blvd., Zedaker St., and the Mahoning River. The project management team includes YNDC staff, Youngstown Police Department staff, and researchers from the Youngstown State University Department of Criminal Justice and the Regional Economic Development Initiative. The first phase of the project includes an analysis of reported property and violent crimes, drug raids, simple assaults, and gun fire reports in order to identify and map crime hotspots. Findings will be shared with residents and community leaders in the target area to gather input on possible drivers of crime and to develop potential solutions. Crime-reduction strategies will be implemented by a cross-sector partnership of law enforcement agencies, social service providers, and neighborhood institutions in order to not only address the crime hotspots themselves, but also the underlying causes of crime in the target area.

The city is considering a third alternative to the two formal proposals submitted for the former Bottom Dollar Food building on Glenwood Avenue.

“We did get another party that is interested in the building. We think they are a strong candidate that will provide a valuable service to the neighborhood,” Woodberry said. “We’re going to further explore that.”

T. Sharon Woodberry, Youngstown director of community planning and economic development, confirmed that city officials are evaluating an oral proposal made for the former grocery store property after the noon deadline March 2. That date had been extended from the original Feb. 1 because no proposals were receive

Last year, Youngstown took title to the building, which had been built on property the city had donated to the grocery store chain.

The two proposals received by the March 2 deadline were submitted by Big Dipper Food Co. in Youngstown and Valley Christian Church, which congregation meets in Boardman.

Big Dipper Food, which manufactures and sells peanut brittle and assorted varieties of flavored popcorn, proposed leasing the property for $1,500 per month for six months with an option to purchase for $180,000. It would spend $500,000 for equipment and improvements to the building, which it would use for warehousing and distribution to accommodate its projected growth.

Valley Christian is asking the city to donate the property for use as a church and multipurpose community center.

Woodberry declined to discuss specifics of the proposal, which she said she received either March 2 or 3. “Because of the proposal itself, we think it’s one that we strongly need to consider but they did not submit their proposal in a written form,” she said. “Without having that, it’s not something that we want to discuss at this time.”

The request for proposals issued last December said that all proposed users would be given consideration, but priority accorded developers proposing a grocery store. Before Bottom Dollar Food opened four years ago, the South Side neighborhood had been without a full-service grocery store about a decade.

In addition, according to the documents, the city “reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and to waive any formalities in the proposal process, or to accept the proposal deemed most favorable to the city.”

The next step is to engage community stakeholders to see how they react to the proposal, Woodberry said. She anticipates that meeting will occur within a week.

Although she would not discuss the proposal in detail, she acknowledged that a grocery store could part of the concept for the property in the proposal. “That’s also something that makes [the new proposal] worthwhile because that could be incorporated,” she said.

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

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

YNDC was awarded 188 bicycle helmets for Youngstown City School students through Ohio AAP's "Put a Lid On It" Bike Helmet Safety Awareness Program.

Helmets will be distributed at pedestrian and bicycle safety demonstrations at elementary schools in the district as part of the city's Safe Routes to School program. The Safe Routes program seeks to provide safe environments and teach safe behaviors to students who arrive to school by means of active transportation, such as walking or bicycling. The City of Youngstown has applied for grant funding through ODOT to fund a part-time Safe Routes to School coordinator who would plan safety demonstrations and obtain additional resources to encourage safe walking and bicycling to and from school. The City also applied for funding to improve infrastructure, such as sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian crossing signals, around McGuffey and Williamson Elementary Schools. Funding determinations will be made by ODOT within the next few months.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

The Taft Promise Neighborhood Initiative is bringing together local organizations, institutions, agencies, city departments, school representatives, residents, and community leaders to enhance educational outcomes at Taft Elementary School and improve conditions in the surrounding neighborhood.

Participants in the initiative are grouped into four councils: education, jobs and economy, health and wellness, and neighborhood. YNDC is the lead agency on the Taft Neighborhood Council, which is comprised of area block watch leaders, residents, city council members, the Mahoning County Land Bank, the South Avenue Area Neighborhood Development Initiative, business owners, City of Youngstown staff, and community police officers. The neighborhood council seeks to achieve six goals: 1) reduce housing vacancy and blight; 2) increase neighborhood safety; 3) reduce lead hazards in housing; 4) increase housing stability for families; 5) increase community and resident engagement and participation; and 6) repair and improve neighborhood infrastructure. Throughout the coming weeks, the council will develop specific action steps that each member can take in order to achieve project goals.

St. Louis’ population has dropped by more than half over the past seven decades, leaving thousands of lots of vacant land dotting the landscape, especially on the city’s north side.

A new programannounced Thursday seeks to put that vacant land to good use.

Mayor Francis Slay and leaders of Chicago-based Fresh Coast Capital are pairing up on a $1 million effort to develop vacant land in St. Louis, Kansas City, Missouri, and four other Midwestern communities into tree farms, urban agriculture and other green projects.

Slay says the project will “breathe new life” into vacant and abandoned land.

Fresh Coast plans to plant 27,000 fast-growing trees on a total of 60 acres of land among the six cities the others being Youngstown, Ohio; Elkhart, Indiana; and Battle Creek and Flint, Michigan. Fresh Coast leaders told the city council in Kansas City last year that it creates a “park-like” setting in a short time.

The St. Louis land includes 42 lots provided to Fresh Coast for $1.

Fresh Coast officials said the plantings will sequester 28 million pounds of carbon dioxide over a 15-year period, and St. Louis leaders said it’ll help beautify neighborhoods and help reduce storm water runoff.

“Fresh Coast’s urban tree farms will turn 42 unused lots from a liability that costs the city thousands of dollars a year to maintain to an asset for the community,” Slay said. “This innovative reuse of land will create a more sustainable, resilient neighborhood.”

Fresh Coast Capital CEO and co-founder Nicole Chavas said the company focuses on improving landscapes in the Rust Belt and Midwest.

The goal is to “turn vacant land which is seen as a liability into a unique and attractive asset,” Chavaz said.

To read the whole story from CBS, click here. 

A $1 million private investment fund will be used to beautify parks in Youngstown and other urban areas across the country.

Fresh Coast Capital, an investment and real estate development firm, chose six cities to revitalize urban land into green spaces.

The areas in Youngstown receiving a makeover include Todd Park, Gibson Field, Stambaugh Field and Kochis Park.

The project is expected to begin next month, when the developers will plant trees and flowers. The investment will also create more jobs in the city.

“By them growing flowers locally, the florists who are local can purchase from them as well,” said Youngstown Parks Director Robert Burke. “They will be hiring landscaping companies to maintain the ground so therefore, the parks in the neighborhood will be much more beautiful than they are currently.”

This will also save Youngstown thousands of dollars in expenses to maintain the parks.

To read the whole story from WKBN, please click here. 

Youngstown is among six cities nationwide working with a Chicago-based investment fund in a program designed to reclaim and repurpose vacant land.

Fresh Coast Capital announced Thursday that the $1 million fund would invest in 60 acres of pilot projects in Youngstown, St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., Elkhart, Ind., and Battle Creek and Flint, Mich.

The fund wants to lease 29 unused acres in portions of four Youngstown city parks to plant trees and flowers, and then harvest them for sale in the future, said Bob Burke, parks director for the city of Youngstown.

Fresh Coast would lease land at four parks no longer in use – Stambaugh Field on the South Side just off Glenwood Avenue; Lower Gibson Park near Poland Avenue on the South Side; Kochis Field on the West Side; and Tod Park on the North Side, Burke said.

The 30-year lease doesn’t involve monetary payments to the city, Burke said. Instead, Fresh Coast is responsible for all upkeep on the properties and the parks department would save thousands of dollars each year in maintenance, labor and fuel while blight is removed from the neighborhoods.

“It’s a great way to turn these into better properties,” Burke said. The parks director also said the company would hire people to maintain the plots, creating jobs in the process, while local florists could purchase flowers grown on the properties.

“Our budgets keep getting tighter and tighter,” he said. “Any way we can save and keep the neighborhoods looking nice is great.”

Trees grown on the parcels would be harvested every 12 years, Burke said. Planting is expected to begin the third week of April.

Sharon Woodberry, Youngstown director of economic development, noted the program is a good way to reclaim vacant, blighted land across the city.

“These are surplus areas of parks that we are no longer using,” Woodberry said. “The project makes the land available for planting oak trees and other plants through a long-term lease.”

The program is modeled on a similar initiative in Gary, Ind.

Mayor John McNally said that the initiative not only helps reduce maintenance and labor costs, but helps storm water drainage in these neighborhoods and the program could expand to brownfield sites.

“It’ll take care of vacant park space through the planting of poplar trees,” he says. “We would like to see how it works in the park properties and then spin it off to some of the brownfield sites we have,” such as the Crab Creek neighborhood, he says. “It’s a green way of addressing some of the issues that we have and doing something a little different.”

Should the city need the land for development, McNally said, portions of the lease could be canceled.

Fresh Coast Capital intends to grow 27,000 trees across the six cities over 15 years, landscape a total of 60 acres, and sequester 28 million pounds of carbon dioxide over the next 15 years.

“The Fresh Coast model partners with forward-thinking municipalities to turn vacant land – which is seen as a liability – into a unique and attractive asset,” said CEO and co-founder Nicole Chavas in a statement. The fund was established in 2014 to help revitalize land in urban areas across the country.

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

Fresh Coast Capital has announced that Youngstown is one of eight U.S. cities to share in a $1 million award designed to put vacant land in old industrial cities to better use.

“The Fresh Coast model partners with forward-thinking municipalities to turn vacant land –which is seen as a liability – into a unique and attractive asset,” said its CEO Nicole Chavas.

Youngstown Mayor John McNally said the city “is happy to partner with Fresh Coast Capital to adapt unused city park lands to productive re-use.”

McNally explained that the “growth of trees and flowers on 29 acres in portions of four city parks will help reduce yearly maintenance costs for these properties, will assist with rainwater runoff retention and may serve as a springboard to additional projects in industrial brownfield space.”

Fresh Coast plans to plant 27,000 fast-growing trees on a total of 60 acres of land among the six cities. The others are St. Louis, Kansas City in Missouri; Flint and Battle Creek in Michigan; and Elkhart, Ind.

To read the whole story, click here. 

Jon Howell wants to show his appreciation for the city where he once lived by painting the town.

Not the whole town, of course, but rather four houses, one on each side of the city, owned by elderly, low-income residents.

Howell and his wife, Adrienne, have launched “Operation Paint Brush,” an effort that unites more than 30 organizations and at least 200 volunteers who intend to paint four houses over two days in May.

“I believe we are our brother’s keeper, and Youngstown formed me as a man,” said Howell, today an information technology manager at the corporate headquarters of State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Ill. “Operation Paint Brush is another way to give back and lift the spirit of our dear city.”

Howell is a 1980 graduate of South High School who still has family ties to Youngstown. His mother and father live here and he returns frequently. He graduated from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., in 1984.

Operation Paint Brush is a concept that has been adopted by nonprofits and volunteers elsewhere in the country. The Youngstown initiative will select four houses – one on the north, south, west and east sides – with elderly owners who live below the poverty line, Howell said.

More important, the effort brings together about 30 organizations that normally wouldn’t work with one another, he said. “We’ve got 16 to 20 new churches that we hadn’t worked with before,” Howell noted, while getting organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club, the Rocky Ridge Neighborhood Association, United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Youngstown State University and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.

Professional painting contractors have agreed to help direct the projects, he said.

Howell added that more than 200 volunteers have committed to participate in the project scheduled for May 21 and 22.

Last summer, Howell and his wife presented an appreciation breakfast for City Hall employees, and in November, did the same for the city’s police officers.

“This is the largest effort so far,” Howell said.

Howell will be in Youngstown this weekend, where he plans to discuss the project with other partners and to help launch a mentoring program at the Newport branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County.

“It’s to help get kids six to nine years old to read books,” Howell said. The program is designed to help single mothers who demonstrate their desire to read with their children.

“I obtained my education through the public school system and went to college,” Howell recalled. “I want to give children the same chance I had.”

To read the whole story from the Business Journal, click here.