On page B2 of the Thursday, November 19 newspaper, an article states that some councilmen are balking at the creation of a deconstruction plan for the city of Youngstown.
Why wouldn't council hire the same contract worker who wrote the grant to prepare the plan?
Because they are adhering to an archaic notions:
1) that young people without decades of experience are stupid and don't know what they are doing
2) that laid off city workers should be given preference over a new hire
3) that thinking outside the box is something that is NOT to be done in Youngstown, Ohio!!!
Youngstown, Ohio, proudly draining away all intelligent life since 1977!
I understood it started in 75. But I was gone at the time.
This is really sad.... this bright young man did his homework, consulted with expert(s) in the field,
got into the trenches and literally did "hands on" work with a project, wrote the grant, obtained the
financing from the State of Ohio, etc - and yet crony-ism (sp??) at City Hall wants to award the
work to someone else?
Deconstruction is a part of the solution to Youngstown's need for massive amounts of building
demolition. Profits made from the sale of these older, valuable building materials could go towards
reducing the overall cost of the demolitions, thereby making it possible for the city to s-t-r-e-t-c-h
it's demolition dollars further, ie: get more demolitions done with whatever funding it does have.
Not to mention that it is the environmentally friendly way of tearing down a building.
I remember reading somewhere, a while back, that there was a successful deconstruction
at the site of the former Westlake Terrace housing projects when many of these old brick
structures were taken down, ie: the good, solid red bricks from these buildings were
carefully taken apart, palletized and then stored somewhere until they could be sold.
Someone made a statement (some where... not here on the forum boards) about the dust,
etc at the demolition site - hmmmm... anyone ever heard of a respirator mask?
I think that some of the folks on the city council need to be removed from office when the
next election cycle comes around....and that they should reduce the number of people on
the council by one or two at least.
It would be far better for the city to at least "try" new ideas and approaches like the one
innovated by this young man, than to sit around on their a**es and do nothing to contribute
to a partial solution for one of the city's major issues - building demolitions.
:(