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.

“Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.”

CINCINNATI (AP) - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will provide more than seven million dollars to improve educational performance in some of Ohio's urban high schools.

The investment by the foundation set up by the Microsoft Corporation chairman and his wife will help continue funding for the next phase of the statewide Ohio High School Transformation Initiative.

KnowledgeWorks, the Gates foundation and the stat Department of Education will provide up to $20 million in resources for schools and districts involved in the initiative through June 2009.

Districts receiving the 3-year grants include Canton, Columbus, Cleveland Heights-University Heights, East Cleveland, Lima, Lorain, Toledo, and Youngstown. The Cleveland Municipal School District will receive a 1-year grant.

Another movie

because I like them...

Where have I been?

Sorry for going a few weeks without posts. I have been very busy traveling for work and with a few other things so this was placed on the back burner for a bit. I will have some good photo posts up in the next few days. Also, I know I promised YoungstownPride.com. Well, I own the domain and have the hosting servive but I need to transfer the domain. This will take a few days after I do it, which won't happen today. Be patient. Good things are to come.

I was able to get out and take some pictures of the new East High School which I thought I would share. These were taken on Friday, April 6 so I'm sure they have even shown improvement since then.

Good ole days

Seventy-eight years before I graduated from Ursuline, this stellar group of young lads and lasses was walking the halls of 'the old building.' This is the Ursuline High School class of 1922. They missed World War I by just three years but they suffered the depression and most likely sent their own children off to World War II. The stories they could tell, if still alive today, I'm sure could fill volumes.

A great interview with the late Bishop James Malone on the history of Ursuline High School, what it meant to him, and the city, can be found here, at the YSU Oral History Archives.

Ursuline Convent

Ursuline Academy

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Mahoning Valley in northeast Ohio was clearly emerging as a major center of industry in the United States. Smokey steel mills rose along the Mahoning River for miles through the heart of Youngstown, beckoning tens of thousands of men and boys to the harsh work within them. Many of the laborers were Catholic immigrants from Europe who brought little with them to this country except their hunger for a better life and a strong faith to sustain their dreams. From humble beginnings similar to the city that welcomed them in 1874, the Ursuline Nuns of Youngstown were also at work, creating an opportunity for education in the valley which conveyed an optimism as unfailing as that of their adopted community.

Under the direction of Mother M. Joseph Hopkins, the simple "pay school" for girls attached to St. Columba Church in downtown Youngstown was expanded to include grades 9-12 in September 1905. With an initial enrollment of twenty-five students, the Ursuline Academy of the Holy name of Jesus was founded, the forerunner of today's Ursuline High School. Thus began an Ursuline tradation of quality secondary education in Youngstown which reaches 96 years at this writing. Classes for the girls were held initially in an imposing four- story brick structure located at 217 West Rayen Avenue that also served as the sister's convent.

Mother Vincent O'Connell was appointed first principal of the Academy. The original curriculum stressed classical studies and language skills. Doctrinal religion was emphasized in a setting of strict discipline. Four years after its opening on June 16, 1908, the high school celebrated its first commencement in Youngstown's Park Theater. Two graduates were honored--Miss Eunice Marie Lawlor and Miss Mary Agnes Maloney. The winds of war that blew over the nation and world during this century's second decade also swept the Youngstown area to an unparalleled period of development and prosperity. It was a time for growth, and the Ursuline Order responded to the influx of population by extending its work to other parishes that were being established in the city.

Meanwhile, the Academy was also expanding, soon outgrowing it Rayen Avenue facilities. Mother Joseph, general superior of the Order, proposed that the community acquire the Chaucey Andrews estate on Wick Avenue for the Academy. Mrs. John Logan, Andrew's daughter and owner of the house, agreed to a sale in February of 1919. The high school enrollment of forty settled into their new location late that winter. Mother Bernard McCann presided over the beginning of the "Wick Avenue Era" as Principal.