Edwards called Youngstown 2010 “Visionary”…I call it costly & Ignorant City Plan

[Towntalk]

"6. A little known fact about Youngstown is that it isn't regarded as some giant rotting mass of rust and peril by those outside the city. If you speak to anyone who has either grown up or lived for a time outside of the city, and currently lives here, they'll tell you that Youngstown isn't all that different from the rest of the country. Sure it has its problems, but so does everywhere else. The only difference is that the people who live here are the ones who destroy it and prevent it from growing and progressing. There's a reason why cities all over the country are looking at our 2010 plan and are implementing ideas and concepts from it in their own plans. It's because Youngstown 2010 is a good, positive thing. It just doesn't make sense to me that the rest of the United States supports it while those who stand to benefit from it, the citizens of Youngstown, tear it apart."

That's a big AMEN!

Anyone with the least degree of simple common sense knows that the surest way to harm a neighborhood is to have housing stock that is totally unlivable, and that's the bottom line.

No one wants to invest in a neighborhood with boarded up houses that are falling apart any more than they want to invest in a high risk neighborhood where crime runs wild.

EBay advertises homes in Youngstown on a regular basis and what do you see when you look at them: (1) They are in high crime areas (2) For the most part they require major renovations just to make them liveable, and (3) The sellers are from out of state and neither have seen the houses with their own eyes, or reported the fact that they are in high crime areas.

The 2010 plan is not the trouble ... it's the city's major crime problem ... the very reason why we are losing population. It's also the City School System which is a miserable failure. THESE ARE THE PROBLEMS THAT MUST BE ADDRESSED. There is no way that I would allow a child of mine go through the Youngstown School System.

And what is left? For the most part people on low paying fixed income jobs, people on welfare and Senior Citizens whose only income is Social Security making it impossible for the city to generate the money it needs just to provide us with essential services.

[Frank Bellamy, MAP Masters of Applied Politics]

Poster I totally reject the Hypothesis that we are living in a Shrinking City.  Even as the residing population has decreased they have only sought relocation in nearby communities for better living conditions and childhood educational opportunities.  This can be noted by the growth in population of communities adjacent to Youngstown. 

Low Cost Housing "Not Low Income Housing" is in Big Demand and families are willing to challenge unruly neighbors to obtain it.  Not all of us are living in total fear...

I'm not always right, but I am never wrong... ;  )

Youngstown's best attempt at growth in revenue is the preservation of its existing housing stock.  The city population must grow in order to sustain the city's needs to function as a city.  The overall value of Improved Property in tied to the uniqueness and construction of the Improvement [the Home or Structure]. 

To think that "Cookie Cutter" type structures will attract people to invest or reside in Youngstown is "Visionary" and equally foolhardy. Not withstanding the fact that Youngstown is in America and No Other American City has adopted this insane notion of a Shrinking City to the point of castrating its housing stock.

The 2010 Plan in its perspective on the city's existing housing stock is misguided.

I could write more but I have a Research Paper Due Next Week..............

[Towntalk]

So what is your "vision" for Youngstown besides sitting around slamming everybody.

It's strange that the 2010 project is getting national praise and people from other parts of the country are coming here to learn from us.

What project that you were involved in has received as much attention as 2010?

[Frank Bellamy, MAP Masters of Applied Politics]

Edwards called Youngstown 2010 "Visionary"...I call it costly & Ignorant City Planning!

The city is not growing or increasing its Revenue...At your household; Do you spend money when you are not making any money?

If we tear it down...then They will come!...

Try looking at the nation's economy from the Citizen Level and not the Wall Street Level...We are headed for an extreme Economic Adjustment and we are at War...Big Time!

A mind can be a terrible thing!...If you are not a Good Thinker....
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By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

"Edwards called Youngstown 2010, a plan that promotes organized shrinkage of the city, "visionary." The plan has received national and international press. "

"The city demolished 400 abandoned structures, mostly houses in residential neighborhoods, last year and plans to equal that number this year to reduce blight and places for criminal activity. In previous years, the city demolished less than half that amount. "