Neighborhoods

Youngstown, Ohio, created quite a stir a decade ago when it unveiled a novel plan for the city: It would stop trying to return to its glory days as a city of 170,000 people and instead embrace the idea that maybe smaller is better.

The Youngstown 2010 plan reoriented the former steel-mill town toward providing services to the neighborhoods with the most people, converting abandoned land into green space, and supporting the burgeoning healthcare industry. In doing so, it hoped to keep the remaining 66,000 people from leaving. Since unveiling the plan in 2005, the city has lost only about 1,000 people.

The Youngstown plan had its share of critics, including those who say it led the city to abandon its poorest residents. But it also put into motion aggressive action to fight urban decay and revitalize many parts of the city, says Ian Beniston, director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, which was launched in 2009 as a result of the city’s efforts to revive certain neighborhoods. Part of his group’s job is to identify the healthiest neighborhoods and fix up the houses there, while demolishing abandoned ones and finding new uses for the land. Beniston recently talked to me about what other cities can learn from Youngstown’s experience, though few are trying. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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

Urban areas in the Midwest have more empty space than they know what to do with.

So when Chicago-based Fresh Coast Capital approached a handful of struggling municipalities with a unique proposal — to seed vacant lots with hybrid poplar trees — the nascent investment and real estate development firm was met with receptive curiosity.

Founded in 2014, Fresh Coast Capital seeks to redevelop land in an environmentally friendly fashion. Their initial gambit seeks to bring commercial tree farms to vacant land in six Rust Belt cities. The firm invested a total of $1 million in Youngstown, Ohio; Battle Creek and Flint, Michigan; St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri; and Elkhart, Indiana.

Almost all of these cities have lost close to half of their peak populations. Fresh Coast's investment will seed 60 acres of farms with some 27,000 trees, which will then be harvested for sale.

A win-win

In Flint, Fresh Coast is working with the Genesee County Land Bank, which controls around 12,000 parcels of land. The deindustrialization-ravaged city's master plan calls for vast tracts of land to be converted to "green innovation" and "open spaces." Tree farms fit the bill.

Although the land bank usually only deals in five-year leases, last year they gave a 15-year lease to Fresh Coast Capital for an eight-acre parcel. The firm needs at least that long to grow and harvest the hybrid poplars, and the city felt that their proposal was strong enough to grant an exemption from the norm.

In Ohio, the investment firm is working with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, a nonprofit group that engages in restoring vacant lots, neighborhood planning, urban farming, providing home ownership counseling, and even offering community lending. The dynamic local group also assists the parks department with its planning needs, which is how the community development corporation got in touch with Fresh Coast Capital.

The firm will be planting on three underutilized city park spaces, situated in hollowed-out neighborhoods that Youngstown cannot afford to maintain.

"They did not come here asking for money," says Ian Beniston, AICP, executive director of the YNDC. "They basically said just give us access to the land and we'll put together the capital ourselves and maintain the property at no cost to the city. They definitely understand the challenges of vacant land, and they are trying to develop a model that generates a return on investment, creates some small level of employment, and just offers a purpose for the land." Beniston says that if all goes well they would like to see Fresh Coast expand their efforts in Youngstown.

In Flint that is already happening: The investment firm has taken an interest in a fresh-cut flower farm. A local operation, Floradora's Flowers actually runs the business, but Fresh Coast holds and insures the property, which it purchased outright from the previous owner.

"There are so many vacant lots in the city," says Heidi Phaneuf, community resource planner with the land bank. "Fresh Coast is bringing ideas and capital and resources to help find ways to reuse that vacant land in interesting and unique ways. It's pretty exciting to see. The trees are already growing."

To read the full story on planning.org, click here.

Eric Barrett wants to plant correct information in the minds of gardeners and weed out the myths.

He is an Ohio State University Extension educator, assistant professor and director of Mahoning County Extension. Barrett recently led a tour of Fairgreen Neighborhood Garden, 230 Fairgreen Ave. The garden on the corner is one of nine on the Growing Local Foods: Urban Farmers and Gardens Summer Tour Series sponsored by the extension office.

The goal of the summer garden tour is to dig into correct growing practices, soils, plants, helpful tips, moisture requirements, sun and shade needs, diseases and insects. The series began June 13 and continues Mondays through Aug. 15.

“The program focuses on touring gardens to see what other gardeners are growing and how they are doing,” Barrett said. “Gardening gives you a sense of accomplishment. It opens up a new world.”

“Building up soil is the most important thing,” he said, noting that is needed because of clay soil in Ohio. Clay is hard and doesn’t provide a good growing medium.

Fairgreen Neighborhood Garden has a compost pile that gardeners use to improve the soil. Barrett said the compost pile must reach 170 degrees inside to kill weed seeds, and it must be turned over regularly to produce the proper compost.

Barrett started the tour by pruning an apple tree in the garden. He showed participants what branches to trim in order to nurture a healthier and stronger tree.

“I am seeing some issues with plants and moisture,” Barrett said. That gave him the opportunity to discuss methods of watering gardens. Most important, he said, is to make sure the roots are watered.

The garden has a corn plot that is doing well. Barrett said the square planting design promotes pollination.

He noticed an ashtray with cigarette butts in it and pointed out if gardeners don’t thoroughly wash their hands or wear gloves before they handle plants, the plants may get tobacco mosaic virus. If there’s mottling on plant leaves, it’s a sign of the disease.

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

The timing’s just about perfect for The Truth Booth to come to Cleveland.

The nonprofit Cause Collective said in a news release that during the Republican National Convention, it it will host free public events during which Clevelanders can enter The Truth Booth — a giant, inflatable sculpture in the shape of a cartoon speech bubble with the word “Truth” printed on the side — and record their responses to the prompt, “The truth is…”

Backers say it “will allow Clevelanders to speak their own truth without fear of judgment or persecution.”

The events will take place at Art Yard behind Transformer Station, 1460 W. 29th St. in Cleveland, from Tuesday, July 19, to Thursday, July 21. The following week, the Truth Booth will travel to Philadelphia, home of the Democratic National Covention.

The Truth Booth, the brainchild of artists Ryan Alexiev, Jim Ricks, Will Sylvester, and Hank Willis Thomas, is scheduled to visit 22 additional U.S. cities through the end of the year.

It has been to Cleveland once before, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2014 at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

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

Friday, July 15, 2016

On Tuesday, July 13, 2016, community residents and stakeholders attended a public meeting, as part of the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation project, to discuss issues affecting South Side neighborhoods where concentrations of crime are the highest in the city.

The project, funded through a grant from the Department of Justice, includes an analysis of ten years of Youngstown Police Department data to identify crime trends, patterns, and hotspots. Input from community members will be used to identify crime drivers, as well as solutions to issues affecting neighborhood safety and quality of life. The data analysis and community input will used to create an implementation plan that contains strategies to reduce crime and improve neighborhood conditions.

Monday, July 18, 2016

On Saturday, July 16, volunteers from Four Square Block Watch, Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the Colony, YNDC, Victory Christian Center, CUP Church, and community volunteers removed overgrowth and vegetation from the rock outcropping at the intersection of Glenwood Avenue and High Street on Youngstown's South Side.

A large welcome sign will be installed atop the rock outcropping welcoming people to the Glenwood Avenue Corridor and Youngstown's south side with the support of first ward Councilman Julius Oliver and YNDC. Many thanks to Pizza Joe's Cornersburg for donating pizza and Gary Koerth, TEPC for providing a great lunch.

Monday, July 18, 2016

The Ohio Department of Transportation has approved the City of Youngstown's application for funding through the Safe Routes to School program for improvements to sidewalks, crosswalks, and signage around McGuffey and Williamson Elementary Schools and to hire a part-time program coordinator to administer educational programming related to safe walking and biking to school.

Infrastructure projects received $315,200 in funding and $30,000 was awarded for the coordinator position over the next two years. In 2015 the City of Youngstown received funding through the Safe Routes program for improvements around Taft Elementary.

The Ohio Department of Transportation awarded the city a Safe Routes to School grant for sidewalks, crosswalks and signage around William Holmes McGuffey and Williamson Elementary schools.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. is working with the city on the project. The grant also will fund a part-time program coordinator to provide education about safe walking and biking to school.

About $315,000 was awarded for the infrastructure project with $30,000 for the part-time coordinator.

The YNDC works with the city to transform neighborhoods.

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

A Safe Routes to Schools grant will help improve infrastructure surrounding two city school district elementary buildings.

The Ohio Department of Transportation announced recently a $315,000 grant to the city.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., in cooperation with the school district and the city, developed a travel-safety plan for students to take to school.

The $315,000 grant will be used for improvements to crosswalks by adding pedestrian countdown signals and sidewalks around intersections and installation of bicycle racks near schools.

The improvements will be to the area surrounding William Holmes McGuffey and Williamson Elementary schools.

Another $30,000 will pay for a part-time coordinator to administer educational programs about safe biking and walking to school.

The $30,000 will fund the part-time post for two years.

The overall travel-safety plan was approved last year.

The latest grant follows another Safe Routes to Schools grant awarded last year for improvements surrounding Taft Elementary School on the South Side. That school was the pilot for the safety plan.

Tom Hetrick, YNDC neighborhood planner, said schools were prioritized based on the percentage of students who could walk to schools.

About 82 percent of Taft students live within a mile of the school.

McGuffey, Williamson and Harding ranked next, but Hetrick said the city will use separate funding to improve infrastructure around Harding.

Improvements around Taft are expected to begin next year.

Work surrounding McGuffey and Williamson are expected to start in 2019.

“Most of the parochial schools are in [the travel-safety plan] and all of the public schools,” the neighborhood planner said.

The plan includes Youngstown Community School, a charter school, and private schools Valley Christian Schools and Cardinal Mooney and Ursuline high schools.

The city’s was one of 55 applications vying for the $3.8 million available.

ODOT’s Safe Routes to Schools committee evaluated projects based regarding percentage of students expected to benefit, traffic speed, crash data, economic status and delivery of past ODOT projects.

Among the part-time coordinator’s duties is education about biking to school.

YNDC has distributed bicycle helmets to Taft schools, and McGuffey and Williamson students will receive them this year. “We’re working with the police department to get bikes that have been abandoned,” Hetrick said.

YNDC is awaiting final approval from police and the prosecutor’s office before those bikes can be distributed.

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

Thursday, July 21, 2016

On Tuesday, July 19, Bank of America awarded a $10,000 grant to support YNDC's Community Financial Literacy Initiative.

The funds will support YNDC's comprehesive homeownership development services, including HUD-Approved Housing Counseling and Education, as well as the organization's small business development programming.