Youngstown, meet Google. Google, this is Youngstown

I am a huge Google nerd. With little exception, I love the company and what they do. I use Gmail, Google calendar, reader, documents, etc. The only thing I haven't fully grappled with yet is Buzz. It is too much too soon. I was put off by their initial 'in-your-face' shove of Buzz into the world.

That said, I would be super excited if a plan by the YBI came to fruition. The redesigned Vindicator has the latest:

Will Youngstown and Google connect?

Friday, March 5, 2010

YOUNGSTOWN — Google is looking for cities where it can install an incredibly fast communications network, and Youngstown wants to be considered.

A local team will begin meeting next week to develop a proposal for how it would use the broadband, fiber-optic network, which Google said will be 100 times faster than current high-speed networks.

Jim Cossler, who assembled the team, is looking for practical ideas about how super-fast connections can help improve society. He is the director of the Youngstown Business Incubator.

For the complete story, see Saturday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.

http://www.vindy.com/news/2010/mar/05/will-youngstown-and-google-connect/

The Morning Read

There are several great articles out there worth reading this morning:

• The Washington Post has a long feature about the struggles many are facing in the Mahoning Valley. We talk so much about the progressive change occurring in Youngstown but there are real people with real struggles to survive in this economy. This article does a great job capturing this pain experienced by our friends and neighbors. See the slide show here.
• Some sprucing up is occuring at 20 Federal Place. The Business Journal has the details.
• A couple of articles on the proposed V&M Star expansion in Brier Hill in both the Business Journal and the Vindicator, with mentions here, here and here.
• Last and certainly worth being least, Jim Traficant is circulating petitions to run for Congress. Help us if he does this, as the national media attention will be anything but positive. I was able to watch the first 10 minutes of the press conference that he held this morning. Possible casino deals, a shout-out to Kelly Pavlik and some random comments about bears defecating in the woods were the early highlights. The Vindicator has a summary here and you can find the press conference video here (later today) courtesy of WFMJ.

New leaders, new business, and a new way of getting things done.

The Youngstown of 2007 does not resemble the Youngstown of year's past. In the last several years, three decades of complacency and failed action have been countered with sweeping changes which have resulted in Youngstown turning from a rusting dead city into one with future and promise. These changes come as the result of people of action, tired of waiting for someone to make the first move.

In 1977, as the reality of Black Monday set in, just at the time that far-away company presidents and board chairman began spending overseas the profits made in Youngstown, efforts to fix a broken town were stymied, would falter, or just plain fail. Our few working class heroes such as the late Bishop James Malone or Staughton Lynd labored to prevent the closing of the steel mills in the Valley. Their efforts were noteworthy, even valiant, but could not stop the loss of jobs and urban decay that the next thirty years would enough. Unfortunately for Youngstown, their moral authority wasn't near enough.

It is not hard to see that while some of Youngstown's political leaders of the 70's, 80's and 90's were both honest and hardworking, there were those individuals who still saw a struggling community as their playground – their place to bask in the sun and line their pockets. A congressman, judges, attorneys, county sheriffs and others in authority helped keep the Valley in the throes of recession and their shadow still haunts. But that is merely a chapter in the tale of this city and certainly not the end of the story. It is yet to be written.

While Youngstown has a long way to go to overcome the legacy of Black Monday, there are things happening in this Valley that we only dreamed of a few short years ago. We have a resurgent downtown with a new arena, new restaurants and clubs, a thriving technology incubator, new traffic patterns, and a group of professionals ready to take this city into the future. Three of these people have a unique perspective as leaders in the economic and social fight in which the city is engaged. This is the redevelopment of Youngstown through their eyes.

Jay Williams, Standard Bearer
A work in progress. It defines not just this city today, but a way in which to see it's future. The mayor of Youngstown has been at the center of the revolution in Youngstown long before he succeeded George McKelvey as this city's 47th mayor. As the city's director of economic development, he laid the groundwork for the Youngstown 2010 plan and continued that leadership as mayor.

And that plan doesn't end in 2010. Williams sees the Youngstown 2010 plan merely as a stepping stone into the future and something the city needs to continue to evolve. He only half jokes when he says that city leaders have done such a good job marketing Youngstown 2010 that pushing Youngstown 2020 is that much more difficult.

Regardless in the name of the plan the success of Youngstown, Williams said, is the transformation of attitudes within the city residents, especially the younger generations, who have lost the wait-and-see mentality to become a people of action.

"There has been a change in focus towards where the younger generation has been looking." With younger leaders such as Williams, state senator John Boccieri, and others now in office, this generation has a larger voice to get their message across.

To the naysayers, who don't see the progress in a redeveloping Youngstown, Williams argues, "look at any other area across the country and see how the condition of that central city has around the surrounding area." Youngstown as the core city and surrounding area, rise and fall together.

Allen Hunter, Innovation Ecologist
When it comes down to it, YSU chemistry professor Allen Hunter believes economic development in Youngstown is about the people.

“We’ve got a great framework, but we need to get more people at the ground level interacting,” says Hunter. That’s exactly what he tries to do while working with local business leaders to create the ideas of today that become tomorrow’s business models.

Hunter has been actively involved in projects throughout Youngstown emphasizing workforce development and expanding grant opportunities to local business in an attempt, he states, to expand Youngstown ‘innovation ecology.’

Innovation ecology, a term Hunter coined, is individuals and companies bringing their experiences and innovations together to create a sustainable marketplace. Hunter believes that is a realistic goal but is a point that Youngstown has not yet reached.

Hunter took his experience writing grants in the science field and, with the help of several colleagues, developed CEATIS Consulting, which has proven to be a successful tool in tapping into the state and federal funds which otherwise were not reaching the Mahoning Valley. This money allows for further research and development, provides workforce training, and funds other human services within the area.

Hunter’s goal is to just make the Youngstown area a better place to live, something he echoes each time he speaks on economic development by challenging his audience to ask themselves, “What have you done this week to make this better?"

Sarah Lown, Bridge Builder
Revitalizing the land which yesterday was a steel mill and is today a brownfield is just one of the many tasks which lay before Sarah Lown.

Lown, as the Director of Economic Development for Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, is responsible for facilitating the process by which area leaders can plan for transportation, economic development or environmental improvements.

Within Eastgate, Lown’s goal is to identify projects that would successfully be funded through the U.S. Economic Development Administration (US EDA). One of her most recent projects is the construction of the Walton Avenue Bridge in 2005. That project gave access to 800 acres of brownfields in Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers to enable new development to occur.

For the past several years, Lown has concentrated her efforts on revitalizing former industrial areas --brownfields-- along the Mahoning River corridor, which is the heart and soul of the Valley. She is also the current president of the Mahoning River Consortium, which is working to clean up the River and the land along its banks.

Lown grew up in New England and moved to Youngstown 15 years ago. Two things helped revitalize the New England town she grew up in.

“What I saw work was two things: artists, who saw the beauty of the New England landscape and its low cost historic homes, and industrial consortia to attract economic growth. Revitalization has to take place on many fronts like that in order to be sustainable and attractive to new investment.”

And what should the next step be for Youngstown? Lown believes there needs to be a continued effort to clean up the corridors going in and out of town which removes a tremendous psychological barrier to new investment. Further, and perhaps more importantly, a renewed emphasis on regionalism, more closely tying Youngstown, its suburbs and the surrounding areas together, perhaps in order to create the innovation ecology for which we should be striving.

Tidbits

A few random things for the day. First, where did http://www.downtownyoungstown.com/ disappear to?

Second, on this date 25 years ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development granted $2.8 million for refurbishing the Kimmel Brook Homes in Youngstown and Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. met with famed Boston defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey to discuss the possibility of Bailey representing Traficant in his bribery trial.

The city has come a long way in 25 years. Kimmel Brook has been demolished with the new Rockford Village built in its place. Traficant is in jail and Bailey was disbarred in 2001. Of course, we all know Jimbo went on to defend himself without counsel and actually beat that particular rap (not so in 2002). This all comes from the Vindicator's "On this Day" column. There are some great historical tidbits in there.

Additional reading:
Will today's boomtown eventually go bust? - Campbell, Ohio, offers example of how fast trouble can strike (Atlanta Journal-Constitution 9/16/07)
Emerging from Black Monday (Tribune-Chronicle 9/17/07)

Poorest city, schools, future, etc.

I like to report the good news about Youngstown, and why wouldn't I, but this one can't and shouldn't be avoided. Well, here it is... gulp... Youngstown is the poorest mid-size city in America. It is a real surprise that we are on this list? Not exactly. No one in Youngstown is flush in cash and there are enough dilapidated properties that we wouldn't be fooling anyone if we said we were a rich town, but it is sad to be at the top of this list. With a median income of just $21,850, it makes you realize that about 50% of the city lives on less than that per year. Even in Youngstown, with a wonderful cost of living, that isn't enough to support a family.

I first caught wind of this while reading the online edition of The Jambar, which does a fairly good job of covering not just YSU news but city news as well. While reading, something struck me. We (meaning the bloggers and the mainstream news) do an excellent job of tauting the wonderful progress made in the city and how a lot of that has to do with new local businesses such as M7 and Turning Technologies. Even with those successes, where is our bottom line? It's still at $21,850. And why? Because while we are providing new high tech jobs, how many of those jobs will employ the average city resident, who lacks the education and training to compete? I mention this because The Jambar piece mentioned the restructuring and revitalization of Youngstown City Schools as something which provides a glimmer of hope for Youngstown; something to push us down the Poorest City list and up the Progressive City list.

I hope that may very well be the case. In 2007, you can't do much without education, and we need to look in our own backyards and educate our city residents, starting with those kids at Harding, Taft, Paul C. Bunn and the others, before this city can claim any success in its efforts to revitalize itself.

In other news:

• How We See It: The Vindy takes on the city's deal with Global Entertainment, manager of the Chevy Center
• Something to do this weekend? How about a free block party on the North Side.
• Hate your neighbors? Not if these folks lived next door.

BTW: I stopped using the "redevelopment" tag on articles. Almost every article was getting that tag and since that is one of the major focuses of this blog, it seemed silly to tag articles that way.

P.S. (Blog Post +4): Four hours later I am realizing this is one of the most rambling posts I have written. That's what I get for a little stream of consciousness writing. Also, I ran across this link to the Mahoning and Columbiana Training Association's website. This is the sort of stuff which gets at what I was trying to say.

The "Pro-Yo" movement getting some street cred

The Vindicator has a great story today which seems to blend a lot of things including the blog movement in the city, the "youth movement" centered around such groups as Mahoning Valley Professional 20/30 Club and Phil Kidd's "Thinkers and Drinkers."

The entire emphasis, however, is the fact that people are finally involved in the City. You have bloggers, activists, politicians, developers, young professionals, and retirees all talking about the future of the City. We are a part of the process, which couldn't be claimed five years ago. Then the City was ruled by people closed off to new ideas and were in fact leading this city down a path that wouldn't promote development or change. In my opinion, former city leaders were just using their position as a stepping stone to something else, including a seat at a White House dinner.

We have a mayor who is engaged and engaging (as evident by his own blog - see my links). We have a congressman who grew up in a post-steel Valley and understand the hardships this area truly faces. Lastly, we have an energetic group of young residents who don't want to move out of the city and instead want to leave their mark on the place. It's a beautiful thing to see and I encourage you to get involved.

The link: http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/289592890514565.php

Great Vindy op-ed and the Mayor is blogging!

First, Mayor Jay Williams jas just become one of the first mayors in the United States to start blogging. This is exciting to see in an era where so much of what government does is behind closed doors that the mayor is willing to open himself up like that. Kudos!

The blog can be found at http://mayorjaywilliams.blogspot.com/

In other news, the Vindy wrote a great editorial, which I have reprinted here. Be sure to read the whole thing.

----------------------------------------

Momentum is mounting toward moving the Mahoning Valley into the fast lane of the tech-based economy of the 21st century.

A triple whammy of positive development news last week illustrates that the Youngstown region has turned a corner toward remodeling its economy from one based largely on services and heavy manufacturing toward one that thrives on research and high technology. That’s exciting and encouraging, because as the economy of Youngstown and its surrounding communities strengthens, so, too, do standards of living, quality of life and community revitalization.

The three announcements last Wednesday underscore the importance of this slow but steady economic shift:

-Turning Technologies, a downtown Youngstown based producer of cutting-edge audience response software and hardware, gets ranked seventh on Entrepreneur Magazine’s list of the Hot 500 fastest growing companies in the United States.

-Empyra, which provides Web-based products to improve the operating systems of companies and agencies, has succeeded so well that it must hatch out of the Youngstown Business Incubator and settle into its own headquarters in 20 Federal Place. It has growth projections of up to 300 employees within a few years.

-U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, has secured $2 million in the federal defense appropriations bill for the proposed Youngstown Center for Excellence in Metrology and 3-D Imaging to be located at Youngstown State University, itself a growing center of scholarly, scientific and technological research.

Turning Technologies model

Of course, we did not need a national trade publication to tell us that Turning Technologies is a hot property and a rising star in the global tech market. Its hottest product is TurningPoint, a credit-card sized responder that feeds into Microsoft’s Power- Point system and enables teachers and corporate presenters to get immediate feedback from classes and audiences.

How hot is Turning Tech? Sales grew 200 percent last year, revenues are projected to increase 500 percent over the next five years and its products reach more than 80 nations. Such meteoric growth has led, in part, to construction downtown of the $5.9 million Taft Technology Center, into which TT will move next year.

Another incubator occupant, Empyra, couldn’t wait. Its growing pains at the incubator — currently at 105 percent occupancy — encouraged it to open shop at the former Phar-Mor building downtown. Like Turning Tech, Empyra has created a common- sense high-tech product — one that eliminates paperwork by allowing forms to be completed online — and markets it aggressively. Its client list includes the federal government and Proctor and Gamble Co.

These two companies, and others like them, prove that the Mahoning Valley can be a viable player in the global tech marketplace. Both, too, demonstrate a firm commitment to keeping their bases rooted in Youngstown. The low cost of operations and access to interns from Youngstown State University stand out as vital assets.

YSU plays a role

Indeed Youngstown State has singled itself out as a leading player in regional tech research and development. That’s why we commend Congressman Ryan for his efforts to enhance that presence by earmarking $2 million for the center for excellence.

The center, a joint effort between YSU and M7 Technologies of Youngstown, will be part of the university’s new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) College and will research and develop advanced manufacturing and imaging techniques.

Should Ryan’s appropriation win approval, the center would need matching funds from YSU and outside sources for completion. We’d like to think that it would be easy for many to contribute in the interest of strengthening a new and vibrant Valley economy.

Thirty years ago this September, that economy was wracked by the closing of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., which signaled the beginning of the end for the steel industry upon which this region’s livelihood was built. Thirty years later, the rapid-fire pace of research and tech-based startups in the Youngstown area signal a new era of growth, vitality and economic security.

Private and public officials in Youngstown and throughout the Valley must work to keep that momentum building.

Question of the day

Why is Bertram de Souza's blog entitled "Stirfry"?

Wanted: Single male in his 20's with similar interests

That might just be what the Youngstown Business Incubator is looking for. According to it's page on Myspace.com, YBI is a 21 year-old female, looking for serious relationships, and an Aquarius. Toledo's WTOL has a small story on how YBI is using Myspace here.

I love how they are using Myspace and Facebook. This is another great way that YBI is thinking outside the box in the development and promotion of tech companies in Youngstown.

(Apparently this was a Vindy story picked up by the AP. Sorry I missed the original piece here.)

Another funny headline

This was the headline of a Vindy article today regarding an apartment complex on Hillman Way, one block into Boardman at the Boardman-Youngstown border: "Boardman historic district fears possibility of blight." The article just conjures up images of Boardman residents cowering in the corner hiding from Blight.

Reading this article, it is apparent these Boardman-tonian's don't cross Midlothian and head down Hillman Avenue very often.

The article is here.

I don't blame them at all, truthfully. No one likes blighted homes in their neighborhood and they should do all they can to stop it. That said, with all the recent complaining from suburbanites in Vindy editorials about having to contribute to the redevelopment of Downtown, I thought this was just a little comeuppance.

(Triple word score for using comeuppance in a blog post!)

Vindicator headline

I don't know why, but I found this headline funny: "Foreign kids in town." The article is not as funny but it is nice to see people from other countries getting a Youngstown experience.

My Letter to the Editor from today's Vindy

It seems the bloggers have been writing to the Vindy in great numbers recently. I too wrote in last week and saw that my letter appeared in today's Vindy. It isn't about Youngstown, but about my other passion: Firefighting. Besides being a Youngstownphile, I am an active firefighter/EMT in Virginia.

Firefighters earn flags as protectors of the homeland
Tuesday, July 3, 2007

EDITOR: I was disappointed to read a June 27 letter in The Vindicator expressing a belief that firefighters who die in the line of duty should not be eligible to receive an American flag on their casket. I must wholeheartedly disagree with him.

Day in and day out, America's 1.5 million firefighters respond to emergencies around this country. They are now trained not just to respond to fires and medical emergencies, but incidents relating to hazardous materials, technical rescues and terrorism. They are in fact the protectors of the homeland and hundreds of them have given their lives doing that in the face of a known enemy.

On Dec. 7, 1941, three Honolulu firefighters were killed in the line of duty defending our soil against the Japanese. On Sept. 11, 2001, 343 of New York City's bravest were lost in the War on Terrorism. Do they not deserve a flag?

It is true that firefighters are not trained kill. In fact, it is the exact opposite; Firefighters are trained to save lives. Much like the medic on the battlefield who risks his live to save others, firefighters and EMTs respond to thousands of emergency calls per days around this country willing to risk their lives to save others.

The American flag isn't just a symbol of this country; it is a symbol of honor, loyalty and commitment. Firefighters live by those virtues every time they are asked to respond. They understand the dangerous environments in which they must operate, and understand that at any time they may be called upon to lay down their lives to save another. All firefighters give some, some give all. Those who do have earned the right to have an American flag on their casket.

JOSEPH LOWRY
Arlington, Va.

The writer is a former Youngstown resident and a firefighter with the Cherrydale Volunteer Fire Department.

Resistance is futile...

Phil Kidd, local hero, had a great editorial in yesterday's Vindicator. Check it out here: Those who resist change lessen potential of Valley

Youngstown had decades of warning, Toffler says

Friday, March 9, 2007
Youngstown needs to be home to new technologies and ideas, an author says.

By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — It's easy but foolish and shortsighted to blame the Mahoning Valley's losing thousands of manufacturing jobs between 1995 and 2005 solely on outsourcing and globalization.

If Youngstown is going to continue to make an economic comeback, it needs to understand its challenges in a broader context.

These are a few of the opinions Alvin Toffler offered in a lecture he gave Thursday at Stambaugh Auditorium. His appearance was sponsored by Youngstown State University.

Toffler wrote several best-selling books such as "Future Shock." He spoke about the numerous significant economic and societal changes that have their roots going back at least 50 years. His latest book, written with his wife, Heidi, is "Revolutionary Wealth."

"The usual explanations [regarding job losses] are simple-minded at best and wrong at worst," Toffler told his audience of a few hundred.

The decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs got under way in the 1950s, and in 1956, such jobs fell below 50 percent of the nation's work force for the first time, he noted.

Time of change

Contrary to popular opinion, the '50s was anything but a docile decade. It was a time of huge government investment in science, and when drugs became more prevalent in society; in addition, movies were starting to extol various negative values, Toffler pointed out.

The loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector didn't develop suddenly; Youngstown and other similar cities had "decades of warning" about economic changes that would occur, but many city leaders failed to see or comprehend their importance, he continued.

With today's economy, which Toffler referred to as the "third wave," Youngstown needs to be home to new technologies and ideas while embracing and adapting to changes brought about by an economy that's increasingly knowledge-based, he noted. Toffler praised the Youngstown 2010 plan and other local initiatives, saying they're steps in the right direction.

Becoming obsolete

Factors that are becoming less common are 9-to-5 jobs, work in offices and factories, and the structure of the nuclear family, Toffler said. More positions have variable schedules, and more people are working from their homes, he added.

Quote of the Day

How reliable is the Vindicator? The better question is how reliable are its trucks! At 2:00 a.m. this morning, a Vindy delivery driver and his trainee were shot at while delivering newspaper bundles on the South Side near the Youngstown Playhouse. Two men approached the pair of Vindicator employees who retreated to the truck while one of the men took dead aim at the driver's chest. Luckily, the raised dashboard stopped one bullet while the vehicle's radiator stopped the other. Neither was hurt and the suspect's fled.

The full story is available here. As for the driver, he believes the Mayor's new zero tolerance policy "is a bunch of crap — it ain't working as far as I'm concerned." In a move to show what a great employer they are, the Vindy gave him the rest of the day off. No word on whether the trainee will show up for her second day of work.