The $100 Million Downtown Developments

[Towntalk]

Youngstown's nickname "Little Chicago" goes beyond mobs and killings. As early as 1905 Youngstown was known as the most politically corrupt city in Ohio. Prior to the Great Depression, Republicans ran both the city and county and rackets and vice flurished openly.

When FDR became President our fortunes swung in the opposite, and the Democrats emerged the power brokes, but beyond that it was business as usual for vice and political corruption. The big diference between the two was that starting in the 1930's we started experiencing mob wars between the various factions, but political corruption continued undisturbed, and aside from The Vindicator's calls for reform, nothing changed.

When Charles Henderson became Mayor, he ran on a reform platform, but failed to purge the city of the mob or political corruption and matters simply grew more violent until the FBI finally had all that it could take and finally put the big mobsters in prison.

We must have something in the water that prevents an honest cleanup of Mahoning County.

[rusty river]

But let's get real folks, the Dems have run this area to the ground for 50+ years... Quit drinking their Kool-Aide that we can bring back Manufacturing and save GM... It's not going to happen.

Vote for our future... Vote REPUBLICAN.

Republicans had control of Ohio for how many years, and, economically speaking, the state as a whole is no better than the Youngstown area. Both parties have done next to nothing for Youngstown and the rest of the state.

[ytowner]

Well let me tell you, their are a lot of people in the younger generation who realize they won't go right out of HS and go work at GM, they want real jobs... These were the people back in the day that didnt just vote for the D; they voted each way. You will see, in the next 10-15 years, the Democrats will not rule this area as well as they will hope. They take our area for granted but when the conservatives do put some quality competition, they are screwed.

Watch for a major conservative plan announced for Youngstown in the coming weeks, announced by a few blogs!

[Towntalk]

Good point. When Youngstown moved from a sleepy village to an industrial giant, the Republicans were the majority party both in city and county government, and while Gov. David Tod was himself a Democrat, the Lincoln administration asked him to be a cabnet member.

It wasn't until the Gread Depression that the Democrats were able to gain power, yet even up th the 1950's there were always Republicans represented on the local ballot, and City Council was well represented by Republicans.

As someone who has watched local politics since 1950, I'm really disappointed at the lack of real leadership in the local GOP. There is absolutely no excuse for the pathetic showing. The Republicans have written Youngstown off ... the candidates that they do put up get little or no party support and the end result local Republicans have little reason to vote. There is no excuse for his and local Republicans should be outraged.

[ytowner]

And guess what folks, this area will never see private jobs come into play unless we see some REPUBLICANS in office. There are far too many idiots in this area who vote down the line, rather than for the best candidate.

I am a Registered REPUBLICAN believe it or not, but half my votes are for the Dems because I feel some local ones do a good job.

But let's get real folks, the Dems have run this area to the ground for 50+ years... Quit drinking their Kool-Aide that we can bring back Manufacturing and save GM... It's not going to happen.

Vote for our future... Vote REPUBLICAN.

[AllanY2525]

I agree with what TownTalk is saying here: Youngstown (Mahoning Vally, in
general) needs more JOBS that pay a LIVING WAGE in order to help the citizens
of the Mahoning Valley to help themselves.

At the same time, I will play devil's advocate and say that  I also think it is
absolutely imperative to re-build [and DOWN-size] the city's crumbling
infrastructure in order to attract the very businesses that would provide these
much needed jobs.

Given a choice between other communities that are in far better condition
(with regard to their current "built environment") and Youngstown, most
of those businesses will probably choose to locate elsewhere - unless or
until Youngstown becomes the more attractive of their multiple choices
for their company's location.

Anyways, that's just one man's opinion - right or wrong....

[Towntalk]

How many of those new projects would have seen the light of day without government money. More to the point, that "government" money didn't come out of the blue ... people shelled out taxes ... state and federal, and that is just a return on our investment. Notice from the list that most are government buildings and public works projects.

The one failure of the 2010 plan is its failure to attract private investment from outside the area and bring commercial and industrial jobs to Youngstown. Here in 2008, we are no better off than we were in 2000 in this respect an I'm sure we could go back even further if we half tried. Trumbull County it seems is doing a better job in this respect than we are.

[jay]

In the newspaper yesterday, a list was published of the major downtown development projects of the last ten years.  The value of these projects exceeds $100 million dollars.

These are the projects on the list.

Chevrolet Centre
Nathaniel R. Jones Federal Courthouse
Voinovich Government Center
Madison Avenue Bridges
Mahoning County Children Services Building
Taft Technology Center
DeYor Entertainment Center
Seventh District Court of Appeals
Federal Street
Marshall Street Bridge

It is intersting to note that most of these projects were undertaken using government monies.