Going Back To Nature

[Towntalk]

I agree with all of Allan's points. there is a whole lot to crow about.

I sent a CD filled with almost 700 photos of Youngstown and Mill Creek Park back home to my cousin, andf she was amazed at just what we have here.

PERCEPTION:

Youngstown's biggest problem right now is crime and poverty. The poor can not keep this city fiscally sound, and the crime problem keeps higher income people out. Until these challanges, especially the crime problem is solved, there is little the city can do.

I live just 5 blocks or so away from YSU and have noticed a great improvement in the quarter century that I've lived here, and thanks to people like Allan, I expect to see a great many more, but until we put the city's feet to the fire and demand that they do more than talk about the crime problem, we can not have the kind of city we all want.

Another thing that we should all be proud of is what has been happening downtown.

As you all know, whenever the TV networks came to cover a story about Youngstown, they used a delapidated downtown as a set, but now they arer going to have to look elsewhere for one. In ther next couple of years, all the blighted buildings will finally be gone.

[Leah]

Allan,

Thanks for the pointing out the good things that have already been done as well as offering solutions of what we can (realistically) do to make things even better in the future.

[AllanY2525]

Hey, Youngstown has it's problems with neglected properties - like any other city
the same or larger size  (ie: population wise) in this country.  Heck, the bigger cities
have much MORE of this particular problem than anything in the Mahoning Valley.
I've lived in DC, Northern VA and MD over the past 18 years and they all have areas and
properties that look like crap in SOME part of town - and all of this in an area of the country
where the economy and job market is always great.

But...in the past year I have seen more positive change in this city than I ever saw in my first
25 years of life growing up in this area.  I have seen new houses going up on all four sides of town
and I never saw anyt new houses being built when I lived here.

The new Hope VI project in Arlington Heights is a great start.  It's going to bring that whole
neighborhood back to some semblence of what it once was.  I was looking at a 1928 Sanborn
map of of the city a few weeks ago and discovered where Westlake Avenue, Ardale Avenue
and Morrison Street were  - and why the projects were named Westlake Terrace.  It was all
single family homes on the land then - no freeway interchange and no projects-  it kinda makes
sense to "go back to nature" by reverting the projects land back to single, detached homes
and taking Park Ave and Parmelee right through to Wirt Street.

Youngstown was recently mentioned on some newscast as being the (third?) cheapest city
to live in out of the entire country.  I think they could market some of Youngstown as
retirement communities for retirees who still want to own their own home and not live in
a seniors apartment building, etc.

A year or so ago, there were many, many vacant properties surrounding Wick Park,
right across the street FROM the park.  When I saw them I couldn't believe that
such beautiful and highly historic homes were sitting there empty and deteriorating.
Now there are only a couple of derelict properties that directly face the park.
The others have either already been fixed up and are now occupied, or they're vacant
and under reconstruction by both local and outsider investors.  People are taking an interest
in these fantastic "century " homes and buildings and restoring some of them - AND
bringing more people back into neighborhoods that were quiet and empty.  Two guys
got together and built two brand new apartment buildings on Michigan Avenue, between
the Westbound access lane for I-680 and Park Avenue.  Nice to see something brand
new being built less than a block from the park.

I think I read in the news a while ago that there are going to be about 130-180(?) new
single family homes built on the now-divided and replatted land that most of Westlake
Terrace stood on.

Parts of the city will have to be reverted "back to nature".  The last article I
read said that Youngstown has about 17,000 single and multi family housing
units that it no longer needs - or will ever need in the near future simply because
more than half the population moved away after the steel industry died here.
Y-Town went from 175,000 people living in the city limits in her glory days,
to a current estimate (@ last census) of about 80-82,000 people living in
the city limits now.

I like what the city has been doing on Market Street - Ravenwood Motors is
gone, finally.  Several other buildings - one had a multi-bay loading right on the
front and took up almost that whole block - gone.  The lots have been nicely
graded and flattened, filled, seeded with new grass, and trees, shrubs and
landscaping rock, etc have made them very nice to look at as you drive
Northbound on Market Street into the heart of the city.  The elementary
school building up there between Overland, Edwards, etc. gone - finally.
The McKinley Elementary building (North Side) is on the demolition list,
just a matter of time now and it'll be gone.

The brand new homes popping up all over the bottom end of the Oakhill
neighborhood have really made a difference in that neighborhood.

Now the city needs to clean out - and UP - on South Avenue from Midlothian
all the way to the South Avenue Bridge downtown.

Mahoning Avenue - sweep, clean, demolish unneeded buildings and do
the greenspace thing yet again - ALL the way down to the old
green bridge at Spring Common.

OakHill Avenue, Elm Street on the North Side, the list goes on but
the city MUST cleanout and rehab all of the major inroads and
outroads of the city.  It is the first impression that anyone who is
NOT from Youngstown will see when they come here - which literally
makes these public roads the "face" of the city to visitors and local
folk alike.

McGuffey, Albert Street, Oak Street, Glenwood Avenue, etc, etc..

All of the major in-roads to the heart of Youngstown (the downtown) need
to be made clean, green and beautiful again - it WILL get people who
visit to stay a while -  sometimes - and spend their outta town bucks
IN town.  It may - just maybe - help to attract new people to relocate to
this area, or persuade people in the suburbs who have fled the city to think
about the possibility of moving back.

Once the existing surplus of vacant, dilapidated housing has been cleaned
out and the number of living units matches the current population, the city
should consider making very, very, VERY cheap offers for the former home
lots to existing home owners and landlords that have empty lots on one or
both sides of their house, directly behind it, etc  Allow these homeowners a
chance to double or even triple the size of their lots.  Once a considerable
number of folks have bought lots, had their plats re-platted with the
extra land, etc THEY can cut the grass, pickup garbage, etc and
the city would not have to take care of that land any more at the
taxpayers expense.  Not to mention the neighborhoods would look
a helluva lot better.  A few vegetable gardens on the newly acquired
land would beautify neighborhoods all over town.

I really believe that Y-Town can DO this downsizing thing, and
turn itself into a nice, clean, beautiful , MEDIUM sized city.
With bigger yards, and spaced apart as evenly as logistics permit,
it won't LOOK like half the neighborhoods are missing.  It will
look more like being in the suburbs.  Youngstown never
lost the "heart" that I remember from my childhood here...
she was down, but now Youngstown looks like she's finally
coming back - long overdue.  It looks like the powers that be
and YSU are getting the majority of it right so far.

[northside lurker]

 :oWhat an amazing transformation!

[jay]

This past week a work crew cut the grass and chopped down  the overgrown trees on the property.  It looks much better.

[Leah]

That building used to house the offices for Homes Guide magazine.

My dad worked there when I was a kid.  My mom also cleaned the offices on weekends.  I spent quite a bit of time there playing with my Barbie dolls while my parents were working.

[jay]

This commercial property is located on South Avenue in Youngstown.  I would say that nature is reclaiming the land.  In a few more years, the building will not be visible.