Playing catchup - three weeks of Youngstown Pride

It has been an interesting couple of weeks for Youngstown and the United States. I've been busier than usual and have missed several opportunities to post some thoughts and news, so let me get caught up with a couple of things.

• First, we have healthcare reform in America! After a year of interesting (and rather ugly) debate, the healthcare reform bill passed the Senate and House and then again the Senate and the House. This process showed all of the great things about America as well as some of the ugliness that divides us. The saying 'it's all politics' doesn't really apply here because it's about our livelihoods and it is indeed very personal. In the 17th congressional district, this new law will:
• Improve coverage for 355,000 residents with health insurance.
• Give tax credits and other assistance up to 180,000 families and 12,300 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
• Improve Medicare for 109,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
• Extend coverage to 39,000 uninsured residents.
• Guarantee that 9,300 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
• Protect 1,700 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
• Allow 53,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents' insurance plans.
• Provide millions of dollars in new funding for four community health centers.
• Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $11 million annually.
  
  This information is sourced from Rep. Tim Ryan, who obtained it from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, whose data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Congressional Budget Office.
• Second on my hit parade is some news out of the Youngstown Business Incubator and Jim Cossler, who is leading Youngstown's technology revolution. YBI portfolio company Zethus Software has entered into a partnership with Bruker-AXS who will serve as a reseller of Zethus' cumulus::CyberLab, a product that allows for secure, resilient, collaborative, remote use of instrumentation and the associated data collected. Awesome! (Nextgen: Remote use of a pancake flipper from the couch? Get working, Zethus!)
• Who is Jim Cossler? This piece from December missed my monitor until just now. (link)
• Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning County is getting busy in the Lincoln Knolls neighborhood over on the East Side. This would be their fourth house Maranatha Drive and 33rd house in the County. Call (330) 743-7244 to find out about the next volunteer orientation and to help with future projects!
• Lastly, let me wish a fond farewell from the blogosphere to the guys at Blue Gray Sky. BGS is my second favorite blog! These guys captured the heart and essence of Notre Dame football for the better part of six years. The level of effort and research that they put into every one of their articles is incredible. For any Irish football fan who never ran across this site, I encourage you to browse the archives. Best of luck, fellas, and Go Irish!

New blogs and a video worth seeing

There are two new blogs on my links list to the right. First is Linkon Avenue, which is run by Dr. Sherry Linkon, an English Professor at Youngstown State and Co-Director of the Center for Working-Class Studies. She now has her own radio program on WYSU titled 'Lincoln Avenue' (pun intended). The blog generally has followup commentary to her radio pieces.

The other new blog is written by Lou Yuhasz and is titled 'Steel Valley Outdoors'. He has posted a great video and commentary on the demolition of a paper mill in Burgess, New Hampshire and the planned future use for the space. The loss of manufacturing and planned use of space is something that should sound familiar to a few of us.

http://www.steelvalleyoutdoors.info/index.php/?p=158

The real excuse

Even after I said a few weeks ago that I was going to regularly post, I only threw out two posts in the last two weeks. Well, I figured I should explain myself. Previously, I used the excuse that I wanted a two week vacation from the blog. Well, yes, but it was more deliberate than that. I just plain didn't want to look at this thing. I can't explain why, but I couldn't bring myself to open Blogger.com. It's the same feeling one gets when you know your checking account is in the red and if you don't check your balance online it means you are okay (which isn't something I can speak directly to).

The last mini vacation is directly attributable to the fact that I am (well, actually, until the paperwork catches up, will be) a ProBoard-certified Firefighter I/II. After a 240 hour class on firefighting related topics and now a 40 hour course in hazardous materials, I can now run inside a burning building while the smartest people in the room are running out. It has become my life's passion and so with class four days a week while still spending 45 hours a week driving my desk for a living, I just haven't had the time to keep this thing up to date.

That all changed last week when an exciting opportunity presented itself. I can't share just yet, but there is more to come. Stay tuned.

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

New banner, new game

I decided it was time for a real site banner after three years without one. As you can see, it is a copy and paste job from none other than random signs around Youngstown (and one that may be outside Youngstown, but I couldn't be certain).

So, I put effort into creating the banner and now you get to guess which letters came from which sign around Youngstown. This certainly won't be easy. Only two are truly evident in my opinion. Two more are so-so in difficulty. The rest are total mysteries to the untrained eye. I encourage you to guess anyway through the comments section. I think a few of the answers will surprise you. I'll post the answers in a few days.

Good luck!

WFMJ covers bloggers

This morning I got a call from Glenn Stevens of WFMJ. They are doing a story on blogging and Youngstown. Like Tyler Clark of Youngstown Renaissance, I was out of town, which is obvious since I live out of town.

Reglaardless, the story ran on the 6 p.m. broadcast but didn't make the 11 p.m. cut.

YoungstownPride was at least mentioned according to my sources and I know Phil Kidd of Defend Youngstown, Jim Cossler of the YBI, and Mike Garvey of M7 Technologies were interviewed. I have no idea what else they mentioned or who was featured.

If anyone has detailed, email me or drop some comments. Thanks!

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Update: I found the video. Nice job by Phil, Jim and Mike. The mayor was even featured. Maybe this will be the motivation to get him to post more frequently. I posted the link to the video so you don't have to go wandering through WFMJ's 'crowded' website.

Video link

Oddly enough, I saw a massive increase in visitors to the blog on Tuesday before the story ran, but a much smaller crowd yesterday, the day the story ran. I thought maybe the name drop and the general story on bloggers might push people to check them out. Although, maybe the others did; I didn't.

Artistry needed...

Youngstown Pride has gone three years without any sort of custom header beyond a photo with our name on it. If you have some sort of graphic design skills and want to design the header/banner for Youngstown's oldest and one of its most popular redevelopment/history/awesomeness blogs, please drop me an email at joseph.lowry-at-gmail.com.

The winner gets my respect and the chance to have their custom Youngstown Pride header/banner on the site! What could be better?

Update: I ended up trying something myself but it's a lot of copy and paste. If you can do better, you are welcome to send something over. Thanks!

Read this

Whoever you are, whatever situation you’re in, I am trying to persuade you to believe in this.

WorldMegan

The "this" in her case is the same as my "this": Youngstown

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.

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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.

Meet the Bloggers

I had the opportunity this weekend to chat with two of my fellow Youngstown bloggers, which is always a good time. I had the honor of meeting Phil Kidd on Friday at Bean Counter's Jazz Festival (more on that event later). We spent a brief time discussing the future of Downtown and where he is going with the new Defend Youngstown shirts. I won't spoil it for him but he has some great designs coming out.

I also spent Saturday night at the Draught House talking with Pat Manning, otherwise known as Mighty Mahoning. This meeting was less by chance as we have been old North Side friends for years, both spent time at St. Ed's and have diplomas from The Academy (known to most as Ursuline). Pat is actually getting ready to move back to Youngstown after a few years in the burbs of Cleveland.

In general, it is great to talk to people who share the same vision for Youngstown that you have. Personally, it makes me appreciate what a few people can do. When I started this blog in 2004, I was I believe the first person to regularly blog about Youngstown and now there are at least a dozen solid Youngstown blogs focused on its history and redevelopment.

Anyway, if you had the opportunity to make it downtown last night (Friday), you were in for quite a treat at the Bean Counter's Jazz Festival and wine tasting. I arrived late and missed the wine tasting but was able to hang out with hundreds of people enjoying great music, wine and beer. The music was a mix of classic jazz with soul and even classic rock. A cover of The Ohio Player's Fire was a personal favorite.

After chatting with Phil, we both remarked how great Downtown is for events like this. The wide open spaces and ample parking make it very conducive for gathering large groups of people together. The success of this event and others such as Party on the Plaza is a testament to that. If you are able to, I encourage you to make it down for next year's event. I will be sure to get some advanced notice out there on this and other Downtown events in the future.

Yet another new Youngstown blog...

Nathan Pavalko, a new North Sider, has started a new blog called "Tales from the North Side". Check it out at: http://talesfromnorthside.blogspot.com/

New blog

This is a new one to the rolls: Youngstown Renaissance

Tyler Clark is a North Sider and has some pretty good stuff already on his page. It is worth checking out.

Here comes YoungstownPride.com!

Who knew that a silly internet bid on www.youngstownpride.com would make me the owner of said domain? Three weeks later, it is all mine. In the next few days, you should be able to type that URL directly into your browser and be directed there (I hope!). I need to work out a few things, but look for this site to migrate there soon!

New! Newsfeeds

If you want to know when a new post has been made to Youngstown Pride, all you have to do is subscribe to one of our new newsfeeds located on the right hand control panelbottom at the bottom. If you use a newsfeed program not located on this page, let me know I can add a link to it.

Learning from Youngstown

A few weeks ago a stir was created by articles in USA Today and The New York Times on the redevelopment of Youngstown. Bloggers in Youngstown weren't the only ones to comment. Follow this link to go to Pittsblog and an article entitled "Learning from Youngstown".

Youngstown blogs

I will blog Youngstown

In getting back into this, I have found a large collection of new bloggers to add to the rolls. You can see some of them on the links section to the right. This may have had something to do with it.

http://walrussblog.com/blog3/2006/12/07/i-will-blog-youngstown/