Demolition

[AllanY2525]

Westsider -

You are definitely "on point" with regard to what is saved, what is not.  I remember
a similar messge thread on the North Side message board.

The properties I bought are  in the Wick Park neighborhood, and all are historic
homes/buildings.  The big, beautiful homes in the North Heights neighborhood
are, once gone, irreplaceable because of their architectural features, the quality
of materials and craftsmanship that went into them when they were built and,
of course, the fact that they are enormous.

These neighborhoods were the home of the well off, and outright wealthy in
their early days.

Wick Park was Youngstown's version of Central Park in New York City, they even
made a 5th Ave, Broadway, Madison Avenue and Park Avenue just to complete the picture.

The number of vacant buildings around Wick Park and nearby is sad, but the city has no money to preserve (ie: "mothball") these houses until such time as someone has the money and the will to buy them and fix them up.

The mansion at 259 Park Avenue is a perfect example of a beautiful historic
home going down the drain.  Van Sickle's asking price was too high for the
local market, so no one bought the place.  It was not kept secured and has
now been pillaged - I can only imagine what is already missing from its interior.

From what I have heard, this was the first house built on Park Avenue, around
1875(?) or so.

[northside lurker]

I generally agree with you Allan.  But, there needs to be more thought behind what is demolished and what is not.  There are potentially beautiful grand houses on the north side, for example, that are likely to be demolished.  And then there are small, run-down mill houses, in sparsely populated neighborhoods, all around the city, that will be saved because they have been occupied more recently.

The neighborhoods around Wick Park could be equivalent to the Ohio City or Tremont neighborhoods in Cleveland.  Many of the houses are large enough to be divided into student housing, yet small enough to be a large single family home.   But the city continues to keep houses in these neighborhoods on the demolition list.

[AllanY2525]

I'm glad that they are continuing to identify and remove the
delapidated and un-needed housing stock... property values in
Youngstown will slowly rise as the city is cleaned out across
the board, and the city can begin to eliminate neighborhoods
that are mostly bare already.

If you are interested in a property which is already on the demolition
list, you could write a letter to the demolitions department and if you
show them you are for real, they will probably remove the house from
the list.

My apartment building was on the demo list, and a letter to demolitions
saved it from the wrecking ball.

[northside lurker]

Someone from our neighborhood assn. had an outdated list, and they offered to get me a recent list.  But, she was told that the city isn't providing them anymore because people were stripping the houses on the list.

On the surface, this might sound strange; why would they care.  But, it's possible that any surviving valuable items can be used as a negotiation tool between the city and the demolition contractor.  Or, in my case, I'm interested in trying to salvage a house that happens to be on the demolition list, and any more damage makes that task more difficult.

[Towntalk]

According to 33 News there are 1100 homes in the city slated for demolition.

Does anyone have a breakdown of their locations, and just how many will be torn down this year?