Youngstown's Future

[irishbobcat]

And the property owners who live in rural areas without city water?

And what about well casing failures that spill toxic chemicals above ground?

[Rick Rowlands]

First of all, such a scenario would only be valid for property that does not have city water.  If tied into the sanitary water system contaminated groundwater would be immaterial.  Secondly, the lease has a provision prohibiting the lessors from polluting groundwater.  Third, there are no proven instances of modern well drilling operations polluting groundwater, so your scenario is purely hypothetical.

[irishbobcat]

Ricky, in your research, when current land owners land and water goes bad because of fracking and ther property loses all its value, do the fracking companies compensate th propery owners 100  percent so they can buy a new home and property?


If they don't, this is why we can't have fracking companies in our area screwing our neighbors and poisoning our environment, like you would like them to do.....

[iwasthere]

rr that is the reason why am corp go over to china and other countries that are lax in environmental safe procedures.

[Rick Rowlands]

I don't think we give mother nature enough credit.  I have been exploring former industrial sites throughout the valley for years, and I must say that nature has a way of completely reclaiming even the nastiest polluted areas.  Right now I'm exploring Chauncy Andrews' first coal mine, located basically under Lansdowne Airport.  Although I know there were rail lines up there, two slope entrances, tipples, tailings piles etc., it is extremely difficult to find any of it.  You would never know there was a mine there except for some maps that say there was.   I've also been up to the oil fields along Oil Creek in NWPA in areas that I know once had crude oil spewing all over the place, and that too has been totally reclaimed.

I know Dennis likes to exaggerate a lot and to make his point by fearmongering, but the reality is that it is very difficult to cause lasting damage to the environment.  And that was back when nobody cared.  Today, the last thing these billion dollar companies want to do is cause environmental damage, and they take great pains to minimize their footprint and to be a good neighbor.  It would be in all of our best interests to embrace the opportunities presented by the energy boom instead of wasting energy in a fruitless attempt to stop it.

[iwasthere]

 heavy industry can prosper without condimating the land that is useless for the next generation by using st of the art technology that produces less pollants in the air sea and land.

[irishbobcat]

Well, I guess since we have already contaminated the Mahoning River and steel mill properties we might as
well contaminate the farm lands and every other lot in a neighborhood near you and me.....

[Towntalk]

Look to the polluted Mahoning River, the contaminated land on steel mill properties and the caved in coal mines my friend and tell us that.

[irishbobcat]

The Andrews',Tods', and Wicks' didn't pump toxic chemicals into our ground to make Youngstown prosper....

[iwasthere]

i read all the posts in this section. everyone has valid pts in making ytown and its propers grt again. gas and oil exploration will continue way after all of us are pushing up daisies over fifty yrs plus. all industries must be given free range in the r and d areana  with common sense gvernmental over sight.

[Towntalk]

From the very outset, the rest of the state looked down their collective noses at Youngstown, and would gladly have seen it disappear, but it didn't and to the contrary, it continued its growth until it was one of the wealthiest cities in the Midwest in 1910.

In point of fact, nothing has ever been easy for Youngstown, and had it not been for a group of harder than nails men, it still would be a small village.

With spines of steel, a small group of men built this city, defying all the naysayers, and they didn't do it by sitting around flapping their gums about unattainable goals.

Today some folks condemn the sort of men who built Youngstown. We hear them lambasted at political campaign rallies, yet there was a time when the political animals came crawling into Youngstown pleading for their support.

Oh to be sure, these men put their money where their mouths were.

One man in particular was so tough that when a gang of hoodlums tried to stop him from laying tracks for his railroad he personally stood an armed man down who threatened to kill him, causing the man's friends to run away in fear.

The man I speak of had humble beginnings. He was far from rich. He worked in his fathers hotel, yet rose out of poverty to become one of the wealthiest men in the state, and when he died, great leaders from around the country came to his funeral by the rail cars full.

That man was Chauncey Andrews.

This city needs more of this type of man than we do dreamers who lack the intestinal fortitude of the Andrews', the Tod's, the Wicks, and all the other great leaders this city has had in her past.

[Towntalk]

The industries of Youngstown's past didn't come about over night ... it took time, and a great Civil War before the steel mills started to take off. Prior to that Youngstown was a sleepy village with coal mining as its main industry.

It will take time for these new industries to really blossem, but even now, one of them is internationally known (Turning Point Technology). It's not as big as Apple or HP, both of which started in family garages by the way, or Microsoft, but it is steady growth and that is important.

As to the blighted areas of the city. unfortunately those will continue to be with us for some time to come, for they are too wide spread to be eleminated over night.

[irishbobcat]

The problems with the mistakes and missteps that will occur is that they will poison our land and water with toxic chemicals, Ron.
Is Youngstown really wealthy again? I drive across town from the east side to the west side daily for work....don't see the wealth in the sections
of town I drive through......

I think Youngstown's new wealth is resting on the top floor of the some fracking CEO's office out of town and out of state.....

[Youngstownshrimp]

One merely has to read the archives here of my posts on Youngstown's future and see some of us as with you, have pounded the same subject.  In a way it is sweet "I told you so" on what is happening today in Youngstown concerning the energy boom.  It is real and reality as we speak, this is just the beginning, Youngstown is wealthy again with the new found wealth eminating from the ground and not as the innovative steel industry of yesterday.  It is not because of the hipsters, occupiers and community organizers, there fifteen minutes of fame has passed.  Rejoice as educated innovators and producers from all over the US are and will be decending onto the Mahoning Valley.  Will there be missteps and mistakes along the way, sure.  But rest assured, business is booming in the energy sector.  The old socialist bent guard of the Valley cannot stand up to free enterprise and the billions already invested in our lands.
Another prediction will be the withering away of the entitled leaders, notice the silence.  Soon new names will appear and unlike  most of the US which have not been blessed with energy-will rise to the top.  They will be creating opportunities and jobs, the majority conservative democrats and republicans will be the new leaders.

[irishbobcat]

I can ignore the real opportunities if they include a fracking process that pumps millions of gallons of toxic chemicals into our
ground that will make our land and water useless for future generations....

When the water and land are poisoned, who will buy a home here, send their kids to school here, and have any hope for a future?

Why do conservative-minded folks love to blame and bash the arts for Youngstown's current woes?