YOUNGSTOWN — Effective Friday through Sunday, three downtown streets will be closed for the Youngstown Jazz Festival. They are Federal Street from Phelps Street to Champion Street; Wick Avenue from Commerce to Federal; and Market Street from Boardman Street to Federal.
Will PK and Silvers complain about this now?
Thanks TTalk . . . . we have to go downtown today and I appreciate knowing which streets will be closed ahead of time . . . . .glad u posted this info . thanks again!! :)
I guess I can't resist throwing more gasoline on this topic.....
There are some legit concerns about these festivals and streets being closed during the work week.
My first concern is that there were no "detour" signs posted for motorists to get around the festival. While I know locals who regularly drive through downtown Youngstown would know how to manuver, the casual driver could become lost and frustrated. I know my wife would have had a problem coming down Market Street last week and getting around the festival to head up towards YSU. But I guess that is why we should all go out and buy GPS systems.
My second concern has to do with the current trend to turn dowmtown into a new apartment housing area. Will the continous weekend festivals with the noise, hours, set-ups, tear-downs, road closures,etc deter potential dwellers to not consider renting in the downtown area?
When festivals like the Slavicfest just take up two blocks of East Federal for a day, I have no beef with that. I just find the closing of Market Street and the square for consecutive days to be a headache in the summer.
As I've been saying for years, downtown needs a large urban park, that doesn't interfer with traffic patterns or close down streets, that can host most large events downtown (maybe not the Italian Festival which is a pretty large event). Most large cities have downtown parks for these types of events. Look at Warren's Courthouse Square. As downtown continues to grow we need urban planning, there is way too much concrete downtown.
Question: who owns the large parking lot where the Mahoning Valley Historical Center is located? That is one huge concrete mecca that has potential for a beautiful urban park.
i agree with ibc that detour signs must be in place. i wonder what the naysayers would say or do if they lived in nyc. nyc is in festival mode 24/7 365 days a wk. you never know what fest or parade is around the corner. like i said before persons and businessess that are complaining when they bring 5000 to 30,000 people downtown in three days thnn i will cosider their beef until then........