In a recent presentation by Alan Mallach of the National Housing Institute, the statement was made that cities are great incubators of upwardly mobile people. To rebuild Youngstown, the city must hold onto these upwardly mobile residents, encourage people to return to the city, and capture a larger share or regional in-migrants.
Another aspect for rebuilding Youngstown was to identify 'life-style clusters' likely to be attracted to urban environments. I believe some examples of 'life-style clusters' would be empty nesters, young couples without children, artists, and retirees, to name a few. In light of all of the problems of the city, could these nich neighborhoods be created? I know that artists tend to live in specific areas and most retirees prefer to live with other retirees. Is Youngstown missing out by not marketing areas of the city to these groups of people?
The city and the Mahoning Valley, in general, need more and better paying
jobs. "Upwardly Mobile" young people who are graduating from Y.S.U. and
other types of schools in the area leave because they know they can find
a good job making good money elsewhere - in other words, they become
"Outwardly mobile" because there is nothing to keep them here in the
area.
Yes, we need better paying jobs to keep people from leaving the area. Of the people who hold this area's good jobs though, most tend to live in the suburbs or in nearby small cities. I once made a list of well-known area residents who started their lives by attending the Youngstown public schools but now live outside the city.
Most of the area artists I know do live in Youngstown. The price is right and they appreciate the character of the older homes/apartments Youngstown has to offer.
I believe my significant other and i are in this category. We are YSU students, late 20's, working our way though, we have a young child and as it stands now when we finish at ysu next year we will have to leave. My boyfriend has been looking for a job for 9 months and has had no luck. I will have a B.A in May of '07 and may not be able to find a job that will allow me to live here and payback student loans. I would love to stay. My daughter is in school here, my family is here but without a decent job we can't stay
We also live in youngstown on the east side.
I think I also fall into this category. I'm a young professional who works downtown, and live in Youngstown. (on the west side, obviously ;D) I feel strongly enough about this community that I even bought my house.
The owner of the company I work for has had problems finding qualified individuals to hire in the past. I'm not originally from around here, and he had to use the services of an employment agency to find someone like me. So, I wonder if the problem isn't that there are no jobs, but that the well-paying jobs are not in areas that locals are being educated.