Neighborhoods

Friday, April 29, 2016

In late 2015, YNDC started its REVITALIZE Rental program, and has since developed seven units of rental housing on Youngstown's south side.

All seven units are occupied. For more information on YNDC's REVITALIZE Rental program, click here. 

Saturday, April 30, 2016

On Saturday, April 30, the City of Youngstown, Cityscape, YNDC, YSUscape and many other organizations, businesses, and individuals participated in the Backyard Project at the Boys and Girls Club on Oak Hill Avenue.

Over 150 volunteers participated to remove trees, brush, overgrowth, trash, and debris from the former Kyle Field property. This is the first step in a multi-phase project to enhance the Boys and Girls Club's outdoor facilities and provide additional recreation options for youth of the south side of Youngstown.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

YNDC recently added three neighborhood canvassers to our team.

KeOndre Johnson, Joseph Napier, and Antoine Watkins are Neighborhood Canvassers assisting with the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Project on the South Side of Youngstown. Under the supervision of the Neighborhood Planner, the canvassers assist with property research and analysis of crime data, as well as door to door canvassing, and community outreach efforts. Please join us in welcoming them to the YNDC team. FIGHT BLIGHT.

Monday May 9, 2016

During the Spring 2016 semester, YSU Mathematics students, under the direction of Dr. Thomas Wakefield, analyzed historic crime and vacancy data in order to develop predictive models that show the future spread of crime and vacancy across the city.

The goal of the project was to identify specific areas of the city in need of intervention in order to prevent future crime and vacancy.

The crime analysis project examined 20 years of police reports in order to identify demographic and socioeconomic factors that correlated to neighborhood crime. Recent census data was then used to predict changes in these associated factors, allowing the student researchers to predict which neighborhoods are likely to witness an increase in crime. Results showed a projected crime decrease on the north side, increase on the south and west sides, and little change on the east side. The students found a correlation between crime and vacant properties and they theorized that by removing the number of vacant properties by 10%, a measurable decrease in crime would also be experienced in that neighborhood.

Students also examined changes in crime resulting from the impact of neighborhood cleanups, such as boarding up unsecure houses. Experimental and control groups were used to test the effect of interventions, but because the cleanups had happened relatively recently, the results were inconclusive due to the short time frames that were analyzed. The students recommended continuing to monitor the effects of neighborhood interventions on crime.

The vacancy analysis examined 10 years of parcel level data to discover factors that lead to a house becoming vacant. A 2015 vacancy survey was compared to data from the Mahoning County Auditor from 2005, as well as water shut-off data from the City of Youngstown and a housing market analysis completed by YNDC. Students found that the greatest contributing factor to whether or not a property would go vacant was the housing market where it was located. Homes in weak-market neighborhoods were several times more likely to go vacant than properties in stable market areas. Other factors found to be somewhat predictive of vacancy were tax delinquency and incidences of water shut-off. Once factors that contribute to vacancy were established, Auditor's data from 2015 was used to predict which houses might become vacant by 2025. Using their model, the students found that as many as 6,190 houses in Youngstown that are currently occupied could be vacant by 2025. Out of the 6,190 predicted vacancies, 5,034, or more than 80%, were located in weak market neighborhoods.

Tuesday May 10, 2016

On Saturday, May 7th, YNDC participated in the Brownlee Woods Community Workday sponsored by the Brownlee Woods Neighborhood Association.

 Volunteers worked on sprucing up the boulevard medians along Sheridan Road and constructed a stone planter around the new neighborhood welcome sign at Country Club Drive. Approximately 30 trash bags of blight were removed from the neighborhood, more than half a ton of stones were placed around the sign, and nearly half a mile of medians were weeded and cleaned up!

 REVITALIZE.

Monday, May 16, 2016

The William Swanston Charitable Fund has awarded $75,000 to YNDC to encourage active living among children in Youngstown’s neighborhoods through YNDC’s Neighborhood Playground Enhancement Project

that seeks to achieve Policy, Systems, and Environmental change through the addition of outdoor fitness equipment at two highly-used neighborhood playgrounds, Glenwood and Homestead, and regimented fitness programs to the Summer Day Camp programs administered by the City of Youngstown’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

Playgrounds at Glenwood and Homestead Parks serve neighborhoods with the greatest number of youth living nearby. In 2013, YNDC led the construction of the Glenwood Community Park in a neighborhood where youth did not have access to recreational activities. The park now includes a playground, rock climbing station, basketball court, and outdoor pavilion. With this current proposal, YNDC seeks to enhance this playground and the playground at Homestead Park. Youth will be engaged in discussions about the importance of physical activity and will have the opportunity to give input on the type of fitness equipment they would like to have at their playground. Outdoor fitness equipment is modeled after resistance and other machines commonly found at gyms, but are designed to last in outdoor environments. The equipment is used to create an attractive and inviting, user-friendly, outdoor gym or fitness park that is appropriate for children.

In addition to environmental change through the addition of fitness equipment, the project seeks to change systems and policy in the Summer Day Camp program through regimented, daily use of the outdoor equipment. Mandated fitness activities during the Day Camp will increase the amount of physical activity among children, thus helping to reduce rates of childhood obesity among youth in the City of Youngstown. This project is a partnership with the City of Youngstown Department of Parks and Recreation.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

On Saturday, May 14, despite the rainy weather, volunteers from the Garden District Neighborhood Association and members of the YNDC team worked together to cleanup the sidewalks and streetscape along Mahoning Avenue between I-680 and Belle Vista.

Volunteers used shovels, weed whackers, trash pickers, and backpack blowers to remove weeds and overgrowth from 9 blocks along Mahoning Avenue. Approximately 20 trash bags of debris were removed from the sidewalks alone, significantly improving the appearance and functionality of the streetscape for pedestrians.

FIGHT BLIGHT

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

The city of Youngstown has been selected by Reinvestment Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to take part in the new Invest Health initiative.

Invest Health is aimed at transforming how leaders from mid-size American cities work together to help low-income communities thrive, with specific attention to community features that drive health such as access to safe and affordable housing, places to play and exercise, and quality jobs.

 Youngstown was selected from more than 180 teams from 170 communities that applied to the initiative. Cities with populations between 50,000 and 400,000 were asked to form five-member teams including representatives from the public sector, community development, and an anchor institution, preferably academic or health-related. The Youngstown team comprises representatives from Youngstown City Health District, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, Youngstown State University Regional Economic Development Initiative, Mercy Health Foundation – Mahoning Valley, and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and will work to reduce obesity and other chronic health disparities through improving infrastructure and the built environment and reduce long term developmental disabilities among children caused by substandard housing conditions.

 “Our cross sector team is excited to continue our work to improve Youngstown neighborhoods and further enhance our strategies to improve health outcomes by strengthening neighborhood housing quality and infrastructure conditions,” Ian Beniston, Executive Director, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation.

 Over the next 18 months, Invest Health teams will take part in a vibrant learning community, have access to highly skilled faculty advisors and coaches who will guide their efforts toward improved health, and receive a $60,000 grant. Youngstown will also engage a broader group of local stakeholders to encourage local knowledge sharing. Learning from the program will be synthesized and disseminated through the project website.

A former city resident who still loves his hometown is coordinating an effort that will bring about 300 volunteers together to paint the houses of four lower-income senior citizens – one on each side of Youngstown.

Calling it Operation Paint Brush, Jon Howell, a 1980 South High School graduate who lives in Bloomington, Ill., said the event will have members of more than 30 Youngstown-area organizations paint the houses and make minor improvements Saturday and Sunday. The painting starts at 8 a.m. and will conclude about 3 or 4 p.m. each day.

“We want to raise the quality of life in Youngstown, and to do that, you need to improve housing,” Howell said. “My wife [Adrienne] and I started thinking about what we could do and came up with this. We are helping people who can’t help themselves.”

Howell is an information technology manager at State Farm Insurance, which is based in Bloomington.

Others involved in organizing the effort include the Rev. Lewis Macklin, pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, a longtime friend of Howell’s; as well as Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.; and Dominic C. Marchionda, city-university planner at Youngstown State University’s Regional Economic Development Initiative.

“We’re doing only one house on each side of town, but if everyone sees us do it, it becomes something that others will do in the neighborhoods,” the Rev. Mr. Macklin said. “We hope it inspires others to do this elsewhere.”

The houses were selected from a list of properties that YNDC has of homes owned by seniors who cannot do exterior painting, Beniston said.

The houses are on Catalina Avenue on the North Side, Lucius Avenue on the South Side, Elliot Lane on the East Side and Thurber Lane on the West Side.

To read the full story on Vindy.com, click here.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown was selected to be one of 50 mid-sized cities to receive funding to for a “Invest Health” initiative to improve the health of those living in low-income communities.

The city will receive $60,000 from the Reinvestment Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, two organizations that focus on health issues. Youngstown is among 50 cities selected to receive grants from 170 that applied.

The grant will focus on providing access to safe and affordable housing, and places to play and exercise.

The Youngstown team comprises representatives from Youngstown City Health District, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., Youngstown State University Regional Economic Development Initiative, Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley, and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.

The Youngstown team will work to reduce obesity and other chronic health disparities through improving infrastructure and the built environment and reduce long term developmental disabilities among children caused by substandard housing conditions.

To read the full story on Vindy.com, click here.