Days Past - 1984

[Towntalk]

That's the story I heard, but it was the Chamber of Commerce that prevented it, and in the process insulted him in a nasty way, so first he took Sears out of the downtown area, built the Boardman Plaza taking more stores out of the downtoan area, then the Mall, sealing the fate of downtown Youngstown, and made the remaining stores come crawling to him for space at the Mall.

[AllanY2525]

I once read somewhere that DeBartolo approached the city about building a mall
downtown and that the city declined his offer, so he built in the suburbs......

[Towntalk]

westsider, as an architect, how would you design the proposed amphitheater that the city is talking about? I'll bet that you could come up with the winning design, and I'm very serious about that my friend.

[northside lurker]

I haven't replied because I haven't had time to look up the above mentioned articles to get a feel for the context.

But I must say that I'm very happy the above plan was not executed.  All new construction from the Strouss Building to Powers Auditorium would have been awful. (especially with what was considered "good" architecture in the 80's)  The new construction we have is bad enough.

[Towntalk]

The West Federal plan would have not only left Federal Street open, but would have been all new construction on the north side of the street that extended from the old Strouss building to Powers Auditorium, and would have had a mini mall, a hotel, a convocation type center, green spaces, a parking deck among other features, while the stores on the south side of the street would remain and benefit from the parking deck.
It would have taken several years to build but in the end, everyone would have benefitted.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Isn't it sad that the people have no clout in Youngstown?

[Towntalk]

 The whole idea as I see it for Youngstown Memories is to bring up topics about our past, good, bad or indifferent.

In the previous posts I've placed here, I tried to stay positive, and certainly not start controversies, especially about people or events over which we have no power to change one way or the other.

The other day while looking over back issues of the Vindicator in search of information in response to a question I had, I came across the chronology for 1984 that was published in the paper, and spotted the events that I posted.

It was never my intent to "bash" anyone, but thought that the events that I posted were interesting in purely a historic perspective.

From the time that Black Monday rocked the city to its very core up through the 1980's the cit, traumatized by the loss of thousands of jobs was grasping at anything that could help us, and as a result, a number of people (outsiders for the most part) came forward with plans to locate new jobs here, and in the process, take advantage of the grant money that was available ... aircraft factories ... blimp factories ... at least three breweries to name a few.

While the city was catering to the outsiders, they were ignoring the local developers who had some really positive ideas, and as a result none of them were ever implemented.

Since I've already stated why I put the Kent State event on the list, I won't go into it here, but consider this, ever since the Southern Park Mall and Boardman Plaza opened the downtown area was losing it's retail stores to Boardman, and when the city turned Federal Street into "Federal Plaza", what stores that were left here started losing business and closed, leaving behind empty buildings, many of which were in serious need of remodeling due to their age.

One idea put forward by a local developer for the north side of Federal Street would have been an incentive for businesses to relocate back downtown. Another idea centered around Central Square on the site of the old Palace Theater. While that plan never happened, he did build a building across from the County Courthouse.

The Arts came forward with a number of ideas, but due to lack of funding they were never able to fully implement them, but at least they planted the seeds for what we have downtown now, and once Federal Plaza was torn out and Federal Street reopened, some degree of progress has been made.

The big question is: what would have happened if the funds diverted to the outsiders had gone to the local developers?

In point of fact, over the years two such plans came forward that would have totally transformed West Federal Street when completed.

We can not undo the mistakes of the past, but we do need to be reminded of them so we'll not make them again.

[Towntalk]

westsider ... it wasn't the fault of the students that nothing ever came of the exercise, but was the fault of the hype that the newspaper gave it as well as the owners of the buildings, and yes, even the city itself.

One or two of the buildings were turned into apartments ... today the Youngstown Incubator is in one of those buildings.

At that time the newspaper was hyping all sorts of things, most of which never became reality ... they would give them page one play for several days then drop them. And even more importantly, this was the time when people were rolling into town promoting all sorts of things in order to take advantage of our situation after the closing of the mills, and the city was spending large sums of money in grants. Commuter aircraft plants, blimp factories, breweries, and Avanti cars to name a few.

The city at that time sold Landsdowne airport to a British company that wanted to put a blimp factory there for $1.00. As you know it never came.
Personally, I have no objections to students coming here to do exercises, but I do object to the way the news media hypes these exercises, leaving the readers and viewers with false impressions that there is even the slightest chance that they can be reality.
Today things are changing thanks to the oil and gas industry, but back then the people coming here were simply taking advantage of a desperate city trying to recover from the closing of the mills.
The idea that the Kent students developed was a good one, and might have worked if the right people ran with it, but they didn't.
The concept was for that time sound, it wasn't huge, but it could of lead to other downtown developments. I saw the model that they built and it was doable.

[northside lurker]

It's posts like this, that--generally--discourage me from participating on this site very often.  But, having been an architecture student at Kent State, I feel compelled to reply.

In our second year, one of our class projects was to design a new museum for a vacant lot in downtown Cuyahoga Falls.  It was complete fantasy.
In our third year, one of our class projects was to redesign the Kent Ashtabula campus, and add a new classroom building.  It was also complete fantasy.
In our first semester of fourth year, one of our class projects was to design a center for the comparative studies of religion in Oberlin, Ohio.  Again, complete fantasy.
In our second semester of fourth year, our class project was to design a new mid-rise mixed-use office/retail building in downtown Cleveland.  Still complete fantasy.
In our fifth year, we had a similar project to the one you described above, but in downtown Cleveland. (Cleveland was hot in the late 90s)  Like all the others, it was complete fantasy.  But, in all cases, if the media was interested, they might have covered our work. (our 3rd year project was featured in Ashtabula's local paper)

Perhaps the project from 1984 was like the University of Michigan students who visited Youngstown a few years ago, to share their projects with us.  These exercises aren't done with the expectation that anything will come from them.  They are learning tools for the students.  But, they also give us a chance to look at ideas from outside the box; to look at ourselves from a different perspective.

[Towntalk]

 September 8, 1984 - In 1984, a group of architectural students from Kent State rolled into town with plans to turn Dutton's Alley between Vindicator Square and Hazel Street into a "trendy market place". Aside from much talk, and a coat of paint in the buildings facing Dutton's Alley, nothing ever came of it.


January 19, 1984 – City Council seeks $2.2 million to help Kosmos Export Brewery locate here. Never happened, no brewery.


October 25, 1984 – Mitsubishi says Mahoning Valley has a 50% chance of landing new Japanese factory. Never happened.


November 20, 1984 – Ronneburg Brewery get January 31 deadline for building a brewery here. Never happened.