NEW Youngstown

NEW Youngstown
by T.L. Mayle © 2005

No more dwelling on the past
That kind of mindset won’t last
They may have been the Glory Days
But now it’s time for a change

And I think you would agree
We’ve had our fill of apathy
Listen up, young and old
We have a future to behold

If you don’t see the potential
In the place you’re residential
You might have the blues and bummers
Listen, natives and newcomers:

There’s the Youngstown Symphony
And Funny Farm Comedy
The Monday Musical Club
The Youngstown Playhouse and pubs

We’re the home of Warner Brothers
(No, they didn’t come from Struthers)
We got Stambaugh, we got Powers
And long summer daylight hours

Gloomy winters we may curse,
But eleven states have got it worse!
We have affordable houses
And the schools aren’t overcrowded

There’s so much we take for granted
In the places that we’re planted
Spend the day at Mill Creek Park
The Butler Institute of Art

And if you happen to get lost
You can always play golf!
If you’re into thrills and speed
There’s Cedar Point in Sandusky

And just one hour away
The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame
Or if your love is football
Check out Canton’s famous Hall

The country’s most affordable?
Youngstown – Warren - Boardman
The Top 100 places to live was just revealed
Number 82 on the list? Canfield!

No one can hold a candle
To the ice cream from Handels
And the fireworks we see
Are even better than DC’s

Phil Keaggy, Ray Mancini
Musicians, actors, athletes
Jim Tressel, Bernie Kosar
Ed O’Neill – our hometown stars

Seen the Penguins on the street?
YSU’s great football team?
And the Dana School of Music
No musician can refuse it

Been downtown for ‘First Night?’
Seen Federal Plaza’s tree lights?
Have you seen the gems and treasures
Of the business architecture?

And new buildings, even better
Like the Convocation Center
We might call ourselves progressive,
Optimistic and impressive!

We’ve got family, traditions,
Opportunity and vision
There’s still a little ways to go
And new leadership will show

That our bright future’s even nearer
So let go of the rear view mirror
Respect our history, but live here now
Let’s make our home a
New Youngstown!

Tracy Mayle wrote the poem several years ago when she was volunteering for Youngstown 2010. She read it at the Festival of the Arts downtown in July 2005 and it won 2nd place. I share with all...

The people that keep us going

While I haven't seen it yet, what sounds like a great exhibit opens today at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor entitled "Working Ohio/Working Youngstown" and features the photos and words of firefighers, steelworkers, lab technicians, and janitors, the working men and women of Northeast Ohio. The exhibit is sponsored by Center for Working-Class Studies and the journalism program at Youngstown State University.

The exhibit started as a journalism project in Assistant Professor Alyssa Lenhoff's advanced journalism class, where students were tasked with capturing the experience and perspective of workers. According to Dr. Sherry Linkon, Co-Director of the Center for Working-Class Studies, the exhibit is exciting because it brings students into the process of redevelopment within Northeast Ohio. Projects like this "engage our students in the community, and for journalism students, it helps them learn that "news" is not only about the most visible, important members of the community but about everyone," said Linkon.

Linkon hopes that the project can help all of us get a sense of how work is shaping the Mahoning Valley today. "After the mills closed and as the auto industry declines, our shared identity as a community of industrial workers has faded, and we don't know what to replace that with. People ask me all the time, "what do people do there now?""

Here's what we do: we teach school, we run medical tests, we staff retail stores, we make high-tech materials and dance clothes, we work in offices, and much more. We work, largely in the service industry, many in locally or regionally-owned small and mid-sized businesses. Many of us work multiple part-time jobs, while some are building careers in fields that go almost unnoticed."

In addition to student photos, the exhibit features the work of Cleveland-area photographer Steve Cagan. If you are interested, the show runs through May 4 and admission is free. If you can catch it, a reception and gallery talk will be held at 7 p.m. tonight.

View Steve's online gallery of images from the show here.

You're only big time if Craig says so

And it looks like he finally has. For those who have lived in bigger cities, you are familair with Craigslist, the clearing house for selling that old couch, finding a roommate or reading the ever popular "rants and raves". Well, the creation of Craigslist Youngstown came and went without any notice on my part and I felt I would put it out there for the rest of the world to see (or at the two people that read my blog. Thanks mom and dad!). To check it out, navigate over to http://youngstown.craigslist.org/.

A packed downtown

Last week was a good week by all standards for Downtown Youngstown. According to the nearly official source DowntownYoungstown.com, last Saturday night there were 9,000 people downtown enjoying a variety of events.

• Chevy Center, 5,000, motocross rally
  
• Beeghly Center, 3,700, YSU vs. UIC
  
• B&O Station Banquet Hall, several hundred, Murder mystery theatre
  

YSU went on to defeat the UIC Flames for the first time in school history and the bars looked like they were busy. Never mind the cold, it was a great night to be downtown enjoying a wide variety of events which Youngstown has to offer. More nights like these can definitely be expected into the summer!

Lincoln arrives in Youngstown

The headline could easily be from an 1860's issue of the Mahoning Regsiter but instead, it refers to the latest acquisition by the Butler Institute of American Art. It was just revealed that the Butler obtained Norman Rockwell's ''Lincoln the Railsplitter'', the first Rockwell in its collection. The price? A mere $1.6 million. This is the Butler's first Rockwell, closing a gap in its massive collection of purely American art.