America is in trouble

Two links I figured I would share with the populace, neither directly tied to Youngstown.

The first represents the cruelest thing I can even imagine. Old ladies all over Youngstown are shuddering. Bake sale profits are being donated. Poles all over the world are in mourning. Yes, the unthinkable has happened, as the Vindicator headline reads, "Police seek man who robbed Pa. church pierogi sale". What is this world coming to? In the words of Florida governor Rob Ritchie, "Crime, boy... I don't know."

The second article, emphasizing the return of the housing market across America, the 'home' to millions of American's from 1987 to 1995 is on the market. For $4.1 million (lowered to $3.9 mil), you can buy the San Francisco townhouse featured on 'Full House'. Uncle Jesse not included.

• http://www.722steiner.com/

Talk about a busy day...

So, pretend you are Billy Jack Fitzmorris. You wake up not feeling well so you have some friends take you to the hospital. The difference between you and Billy Fitzmorris is that you can walk out your front door and Fitzmorris requires his cell opened and an armed escort to the hospital.

Unless you live in a cage, you know what is going on right now. If not, turn on your favorite network news. I prefer CNN but feel free to turn on MSNBC or *gulp* FOX News.

I can't even imagine how Fitzsimmons found time to overpower a guard and hold a few people hostage, drive from Youngstown to Hillaird, rob at least two banks and lock himself up in a house. ALL BEFORE LUNCH! Youngstown to Hilliard is about three hours. Assuming it takes a few minutes to rob these banks, he got moving pretty early this morning.

While I don't condone his violent streak, including armed robbery, home invasion, and kidnapping, I do applaud him for getting up early this morning and really working hard today. We need to see more go-getters and hardworking Americans like this (just not committing crimes, that's all!).

Seriously, storm the house and get the guy already!

Speedy Recovery

Youngstown Pride wishes a speedy recovery to Officer Jerry Stanley of the Youngstown Police Department. Officer Stanley was patrolling Wick Park when he was assaulted with a metal rod by Bienvenido Carmona. Stanley was forced to shoot Carmona, who survived with a gunshot wound to the hand, but not before Stanley received internal injuries. Stanley is the only YPD officer assigned to the Parks and Recreation Department, primarily patrolling Wick Park. He is currently in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in guarded condition.

Reprint from the Tribune-Chronicle

Residents’ tax burden gets painful

When Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams ran as an independent candidate, many Democrats speculated that he was a Republican in disguise.

Williams’ recent comments about raising taxes should sufficiently debunk that pre-election myth.

Williams recently told Mahoning County commissioners they should not seek a half-percent sales tax renewal. A true Republican would have added that the commissioners should work with what they have and take the tax off the books. But Williams instead told commissioners they should increase it to 1 percent and make it permanent.

‘‘It’s painfully obvious that the county cannot run on less than 1 percent,’’ Williams said.

The only thing painfully obvious is local residents’ tax burden.

County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti had said the board was considering three options: request renewing the half-percent sales tax for another five-year term, request a 10-year renewal or request a permanent levy. Hopefully Traficanti and his colleagues will ignore Williams’ suggestion.

Williams wants more help from the county to follow through on his recent zero-tolerance criminal position. After a quadruple homicide further highlighted Youngstown’s violent reputation, Williams ordered a 30-day police blitz to capture every undesirable no matter how insignificant the offense.

Youngstown police are now flooding the county court system with all those undesirables. Their efforts will be thwarted if the county has trouble prosecuting the cases quickly or if the county runs out of jail space.

But Williams found a way to target crime without increasing Youngstown’s taxes. So, too, must county commissioners find a way to handle the criminal influx without increasing taxes.

It is a matter of priority.

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.

More manpower

YOUNGSTOWN — The Ohio State Highway Patrol has allocated several troopers to patrol within the city limits with a goal of reducing urban fatalities, said Mayor Jay Williams. The goal, he said, is consistent with the city's proactive efforts to help create a safer community. Troopers will focus on U.S. and state routes within the city. This will allow city officers to focus more sharply on the residential neighborhoods and businesses within the city. The joint effort will last until early March and serve as a trial period to evaluate the collaboration, the mayor said. He expects future joint efforts will occur this year.

Statistics Lesson

According to The Vindicator, from Feb. 2 to 2 p.m. February 11, there have been:

• 28 felony and 110 misdemeanor arrests.
  
• 12 firearms and $6,598 in cash recovered.
  
• 25 minor misdemeanor citations issued.
  
• 547 traffic stops and 124 stops of pedestrians.
  
• 261 traffic citations issued, and 39 parking tickets.

Probation for Arson? Only in Youngstown

This should tick you off. Four people were involved in setting their Rhoda Avenue house in Youngstown on fire FOUR TIMES for insurance money. Because the Mahoning County Prosecutor's Office and the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court didn't communicate properly, the four ended up with probation only - FOR ARSON. According to Alvin Ware, captain of the Youngstown Fire Department's Arson Bureau, many personal belongings were removed from the house and placed in storage before the four separate fires were set.

Youngstown has a long history of arson fires, including those set last winter when almost thirty arson fires were occurred on North Side. If this is the type of prosecution we can expect for such crimes, where is the deterrence for the criminals? Arson fires put lives at risk, especially those of the firefighters whose job it is to extinguish these blazes. Countless days of lost time have been reported in the last year by firefighters injured in Youngstown arson's, including by several firefighters who have fallen through rotted or burned out floors. Probation for those who commit such crimes, especially when they are committed for personal gain, because of a mix up by the prosecutor's office is sad and shouldn't be tolerated.

Check out the full article at YoungstownFire.com.

Even by Youngstown standards

A great op-ed in today's Tribune-Chronicle really gets at the heart of what's wrong with so many in this city: they are apathetic towards crime. The recent murders of four individuals brought the comment from Mayor Jay Williams that the crime was ‘‘shocking, even by Youngstown standards.’’ That implies even at the highest level of city government that that crime is expected and accepted. Why it takes the execution-style murder of four people for the police to beef up patrols is beyond me. Youngstown has been near the top of the Most Dangerous Cities list for a long time. The Trib believes the time has come to change the assumptions about Youngstown, and we should too.

Arson finds historic YS&T homes

A bit of Youngstown steel history met an arsonist yesterday as three vacant former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. houses at 2, 3 and 6 Delmar Ave. in Campbell caught fire. The fires, one in each of the three residences, had been burning for about 30 minutes Tuesday when the fire department was called. No injuries were reported. Total damage is estimated to be $6,000.

The homes were part of the Blackburn Plat, a housing development created during World War I to house workers hired to help Youngstown Sheet and Tube meet its production goals. Blackburn Plat was divided into two sections, one section for white, "foreign born workers," and the other for the African-American workers. The Blackburn Plat consisted of two frontages-sixteen foot and twenty four-foot.

Rent at Blackburn Plat was based on the number of rooms, and whether or not the home contained a coal fired cook stove. A tenant could also rent a garage for an additional fee per month. These rental units were constructed to be fire and vermin proof. The exterior concrete walls were three inches thick with four-inch ribs, all built in uniform size, prefabricated and poured on site.

All of Blackburn Plat's units had the modern conveniences of water, electricity, paved streets, concrete sidewalks, and bathrooms. The Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company deliberately made the houses small to discourage the immigrant practice of taking in borders. There were amenities provided to the workers including a park, playground, and four company stores. In 1922 the company ceased construction of Blackburn Plat.

Vindicator article on fire

Protect your vacant property from scavengers!

This e-mail came across the Youngstown Historic Buildings and Home's listserv about protecting vacant property in Youngstown. It is worth your time.

Subject: [YTownHistoricHomesBldgs] Protect your vacant property from scavengers!
To: YTownHistoricHomesBldgs@yahoogroups.com

The scavengers are at it again on the North Side of Youngstown - BIG time. The Crandall Park neighborhood association is going to resume neighborhood block watch patrols, but here are some things you can do if you own a vacant home ANYWHERE in town and want to be pro-active about protecting it against being stripped by scavengers:

Have ADT install an alarm system with motion and smoke sensors. Motion sensors are more effective than door and window switches at detecting a home intrusion.

Smoke sensors will call the ADT monitoring center (and, therefore, the FIRE department) before there is even an outward indication that a fire has started in the house. If a fire does happen in your vacant property, every moment saved could mean the difference between a damaged home and a destroyed home. With the recent rash of arson fires all over town, your vacant property MAY ALREADY BE a target for the arsonist(s).

For vacant houses without telephone service, ADT has wireless modules that can be added to a basic alarm system so that the alarm box can call for help without a telephone line. Their alarms also have a battery backup that can operate without public power for up to three days. They even offer a "wet basement" sensor that can be tied into the alarm box. The ADT system will notify the monitoring center if either the telephone line or the electric line is cut.

If you are concerned about the cost of an alarm system, just think about what it would cost to replace all of the antique fixtures in one of these old homes at today's prices.

Other measures that can be taken to protect your vacant properties include having LOTS of BRIGHT outside lights around the house and making sure that windows and doors are not obscured by bushes, weeds, etc. DON'T give the scavengers dark corners around your property where they can hide and do their bad deed without being seen from the street.

If you have a spare vehicle, park it in the driveway at your vacant property. Put up curtains in EVERY window. Make it appear as though someone lives in the house - even though it is vacant. Try putting an old portable TV in an upstairs bedroom - on a timer - so that the flickering light from the picture tube can be seen through the curtains at night by passers by. Black and white TV sets are especially good for this ruse.

Keep the grass cut and the yard clean - nothings says "I'm empty, come rob me" to a scavenger more than tall grass and trash laying around.

Let's make it more risky and less inviting for these *&%$! scavengers to do the despicable things that they do! If you have the spare time and want to help make your neighborhood safer - VOLUNTEER for a neighborhood block watch patrol. The Youngstown Police Department needs all the help they can get!

Best Regards to all,

Allan
:)