Gunfire & Councilman

[ForumManager]

I viewed Jan 3 video online and it shows a council meeting in a smaller room ... then the public meeting.
The clock said 5:30.
The December 20th meeting started very late due to a large agenda.
When I watched the videos, it seemed that most business was decided earlier.
 
The audio was poor and many things mentioned were not on the posted Dec. 20 agenda online,
so  I couldn't follow much of it.

The January meeting's agenda is not online as of yet.
The Jan 3rd meeting video was better in audio quality than Dec 20
http://www.youngstownchannel.com/council/

Yes, you  can send correspondence to the council.
It seems that written communications are not read at meetings but announced  as "received and filed."

Also here is a link to the page with forms to request to speak etc.
http://www.cityofyoungstownoh.org/departments/council/forms.asp

Jay, I understand your frustration.

5:30 is a difficult time frame for most working people.
Since the meetings are only held monthly perhaps they can be petitioned to move them to a later time.
Is it possible to start a petition about such an issue? 
I attended an Austintown trustees meeting last year and it was later in the evening... I believe 7.
I was there to present an announcement about the world record attempt.

Although we get many, many visitors to this site, we have only about a dozen regular posters.
So if all of us attended we still might be a bit short of a crowd.

I apologize that I was unable to attend.

[Shirley]

If we cannot attend the meeting would it help to mail a letter to council asking them to do something? I would love to attend the meeting but I cannot leave work early and I would not be able to get there until at least 6PM.

[jay]

Mary and Micky,

I share your frustration with the residents of this city.  I thought that people from this forum were going to attend the last Youngstown City Council meeting on January 3.  I even told a city official to expect a crowd.  Guess what?  Not one person attended.

The next city council meeting is on Wednesday, January 17, 5:30 p.m. in council chambers.
Get the members of your block watch to the meeting.  If the "good citizens" won't attend when the safety of their own neighborhoods is at stake, then all is lost.

[Mary_Krupa]

How much more of this terrorist state of affairs can we take?

Did anyone read the Warren Tribune Chronicle article on 01/11/07? Look on page 4A for "Police Focusing on South Side Violence". There is more coverage on Youngstown street crime in this article than in a typical Vindicator blurb. While I was reading this, I felt overwhelmingly saddened. When will this ever end?

The few of us who are active in our block watches--are we even making a dent? How do you get lazy citizens to become active?  Only by having a charismatic leader appear and inspire the masses? I am active in my block watch, but that certainly is not my personality. Will a savior appear? Do we need a savior? A savior implies that there are victims needing to be saved.  Are we powerless victims to be pitied?

I feel the proportion of people left in Youngstown has shifted to being a majority of uneducated people who are lazy and are happy to sit in their living rooms smoking cigarettes, eating bad food and watching their big screen tv's while their houses are crumbling, their sidewalks are broken up, there is trash on their lawns and sidewalks and they have a poor pathetic guard dog tied up in the back yard suffering its life away in loneliness and neglect. What is the dog protecting? A broken down house and a big screen tv? Certainly not a livable neighborhood.

I voted for the increased safety force taxes a couple of years ago. We should be suing the city for not using our tax dollars as we voted for them to be used. To quote Gomer Pyle, "Shame, shame, shame".

[Micky]

Our city leaders stated that it's safe for the public to drive through the streets of Youngstown.  They said that if you aren't into drugs and money, you'll be safe.

What about the councilman who was driving on Hudson at 2:20 pm by Sheridan school and had his car shot up?  Was he into drugs and money?  We belive that he wasn't but what a crock that we were fed.  The shooters can't shoot straight and as a result, innocent people WILL be hurt or killed by wild bullets.  In the afternoon and near a school - it doesn't matter to the scum.

Wake up mayor and council!!! Take the money from our Safety Service Tax and pay for more police officers like the tax was intended for or rescind the tax and quit paying for other General Fund items.  We don't want auxilaries - we want the real thing.  Do what the Mayor of New Orleans is doing - set up check points for drugs and guns in the known hot spots and don't announce where the check points will be.  If this situation is more than what you can handle, call for reinforcements (National Guard, DEA, etc).  Impose a curfew for all between the hours of 9 pm till 7 am.  Start by making our city safer.  For the rest of this year, stop tearing down houses and spend that money on our safety forces.  And to the judicial system - put the criminals in jail and keep them there.  They're serving 6 months on felonies only to be put on probation and come out to kill people.  If they don't care about their own lives, neither should we.