Traveller's notebook

While I'm in Florida, failing to avoid the internet and therefore avoiding the sun and warm air, I came across this article as part of Reuters Route to Recovery series. This blog series has highlighted the recession and economic successes and failures of several towns, Youngstown being one. Today's piece seems to be a capstone and worth a read.

America’s Route to Recovery: Part One – Castles Built on Sand.

Spreading the Word

While yours truly will be sitting on the beach in Florida on New Year's Eve, I would like to do my part to promote First Night Youngstown. Hundreds of volunteers devote time each year to putting on one of the best New Year's Eve events in the state. This year's event will feature bands, comedians, fireworks displays, and other cultural events. For those who won't be soaking up the sun, this not to be missed!

The schedule, courtesy of the Oakland's Brooke Slanina:

"You will notice that FNY has much to offer this year, as always. The Masonic Temple will be a rockin' hot spot with local bands and aWild West Show. SMARTS Center returns from 5-8 pm with Sumi Painting, free cookies and punch, a drum circle, and even balloon animals for the kids! Be sure to visit while you wait for a horse-drawn carriage ride from 6:30-8:30 pm.

The Covelli Centre will again offer Open Community Skating with $3 skate rental (or bring your own) from 5:30-8:30, followed by a fireworks display for the kids at 9 pm. Carriage rides will resume at 9:30 in front of 20 Federal Place, which will be a family affair as Jimmy DeCapua, Jr. of Jones for Revival opens for his dad's band, the Classic Cruisers!

And while a total of 20 venues will be open this year, only one (First Presbyterian Church) will feature First Night Youngstown's ONLY 10-year veteran, local magician and comedian Eric Thompson!

Not to be missed is Mayor Jay Williams' swearing in ceremony in the Atrium of the Commerce Building. The internationally renowned Youngstown Connection will perform from 10-10:30 and Mayor Jay takes his oath at 10:30. Revelers are invited to celebrate with Ohio's hardest working band, The Colin Dussault Blues Project of Akron, at the Youngstown Club Lounge.

Capture your memories of New Year's Eve at Studio 217, which will be staffed with professional photographers doing studio portraits for only the cost of printing. WRTA will also provide shuttle service all night long!

Please help us spread the word about the 10-year anniversary celebration of First Night Youngstown as we ring in 2010 with the biggest party to hit Downtown Youngstown all year long. With 20 participating venues, 19 restaurants, 2 fireworks displays, and an hour-long lead-in to the Countdown and Ball Drop with The Zou and Jason Alan Magic, there is certainly something for everyone!"

(click on image for larger map of event locations)

Resurgence through immigration

It could just as easily be about Brier Hill or Smoky Hollow. Instead, it's about Buffalo's 'Lower West Side':

Just west of downtown, the Lower West Side was historically a blue-collar Italian neighborhood, but in recent decades, Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics settled into the community. In recent years, the area has become home to resettled refugees from Myanmar, Somalia and other countries beset by conflict.

Buffalo is a Rust Belt town that in many ways looks like Youngstown. It too is about as far to New York City as to Chicago. A steel and shipping hub, it's economy was ravaged by the export of jobs overseas. Sound familiar?

And both cities have seen transformations in their economies. Now far removed from its industrial past, Buffalo, like other Rust Belt cities, has been emphasizing health care and higher education as growth industries.

The New York Time's City Room blog, normally painting on the canvas of New York City life and culture, has hit the road to bring stories from some of New York's other large cities. The story of Buffalo offers some thoughts on how recent immigration by Latinos and Asians has reshaped Buffalo, a city built by immigrants.

Just read the article and replace each mention of 'Buffalo' with 'Youngstown' and you will see a common tale.

* On the Road: The Transformation of Buffalo’s Lower West Side

Social media blizzard

As I endure the Snowpocalypse, AKA the Capital Crippler, AKA Blizzard 2009, here in Washington, D.C., you can also endure a Youngstown Pride social media blizzard by following us on Facebook and Twitter (@ytownpride). The Facebook and Twitter feeds will have some content that the blog doesn't have, including more of my random news and notes that don't warrant a full blog post.

(The highway exit to Camp Lowry)

Not a silver bullet

Recent local news articles have touted the Department of Labor's Trade Adjustment Assistance Act as a means for unemployed workers to learn a new trade in the face of plant closures, diminished product demand and the transfer of jobs overseas.

A lesson learned from faraway Caldwell County, N.C. shows us that retraining and retooling isn't the only thing needed to correct unemployment. Caldwell County is to furniture what Youngstown was to steel. Furniture manufacturing was the main source of employment and revenue for County residents. When the Broyhill furniture factory and largest employer in town shifted operations to China several years ago, hundreds of former furniture makers went back to school.

NPR recently focused on two unemployed workers in Caldwell who used TAA and tried to make the leap from building couches and ottomans into the building and programming servers. The story of these two is representative of the struggles of many workers who go through job retraining programs. In the case of Bill Curtis and Margo Rice, once Google opened a server farm 200 yards from the closed furniture factory, they realized that three years of computer training wasn't enough to compete.

A three-part series from 'All Things Considered' first focused on how laid-off workers tried to retrain to enter a 21st century workforce. Part two focuses on the results of that effort and what they have done since. Tonight's segment will take a look at the Chinese labors who took over the furniture jobs.

* NPR: High-Tech Dreams Dissipate for Furniture Workers

Going green in Youngstown

For so much of it's history, Youngstown was caked in black soot. In 1915, socialist leader Frank Bohn stated that, "Everybody breathing dirt, eating dirt-they call it "pay dirt," for Youngstown clean would be Youngstown out of work." In an exciting announcement, there is a new partnership to take Youngstown from the black coal and brown fields to a green community. Today in Copenhagen, while world leaders meet to craft plans to combat global warming, Youngstown and Global Green USA, a U.S. environmental nonprofit announced a partnership to advance sustainable, ‘green’ city goals.

Present for the announcement included U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-17) and Global Green USA CEO and President Matt Petersen. Along with Mayor Jay Williams, who was in Youngstown, they announced that this partnership will initiate a global design competition to create green jobs and sustainable development in Youngstown. By building on the successful Youngstown 2010 planning process and implementing a citywide and neighborhood-specific ‘greening’ plan, Youngstown can become a model ‘green’ city for the rest of the Midwest.

The project will complement the over $7.6 million in federal money that has been secured in for green energy related projects in the Mahoning Valley, including the Warren Technology and Business Center for Energy Sustainability, the YSU Center for Advanced Automotive Fuels Research, Development and Commercialization, and the YSU Center for Efficiency in Sustainable Energy.

The goals of Global Green’s Youngstown project are:

• To create a Climate Action and Sustainable City Plan, beginning with the implementation of key aspects of the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement and strategies that build on the Youngstown 2010 plan, all which can be implemented in the near- to mid-term to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet sustainability goals;
• To create a Neighborhood-Specific Plan for one neighborhood on Youngstown’s south side that currently suffers from devastating levels of blight, with many blocks left virtually empty;
• To generate provocative and creative ideas through a design competition that will bring national attention and resources to the project, along with actionable contributions (i.e., planning, design and policy) for the neighborhood specific planning and design;
• To establish measurable indicators of progress, documenting model policies and best practices that will be shared with regional and national decision makers;
• To leverage existing investments and secure firm commitments from local and regional funders, as well as a congressional appropriation, to fund capital costs associated with citywide and neighborhood-specific plan implementation; and
• To create a regional framework of ideas and next steps that will identify how the ‘greening’ of Youngstown can influence the ‘greening’ of the Rust Belt, and more immediately, be a key factor in the greening of the Pittsburgh-Cleveland Tech Belt corridor.

Former Youngstown resident and Applied Systems and Technology Transfer (AST2) president Jack Scott has already invested $25,000 into the project; a figure which has been matched locally by the Raymond John Wean Foundation.

Dave Skolnick has an article on Vindy.com.

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.

Forget the cake, I'm here for the cookies

It was actually a line item in the contract with my wedding hall vendor - a table for cookies had to be provided. I can't imagine a wedding in Youngstown without one. Friends from around the country are in awe by this tradition, but it's expected, if not demanded, in Youngstown.

My wedding closed out with close to 250 dozen cookies. Do the math. The saddest part was that I have no idea where the leftovers went. I'm guessing the wait staff enjoyed homemade treats for days, if not weeks.

(The photo is the only evidence of my cookie table that I can find. Being a firefighter, the groom's cake was a hit as well.)

The New York Times has all the news on cookie tables that's fit to print, except to say it gets it wrong on the origin of the cookie table. Pittsburgh has nothing on Youngstown and I said so three years ago. Those out-of-towners who have no idea what I am talking about need to read the article below.

* The Wedding? I’m Here for the Cookies (New York Times. December 15, 2009)

Five long years

This week represents my fifth year and 357th post in the blogosphere, with my first post from December 13, 2004 entitled 'Here in Northeast Ohio, back in 1803' and starting off with some of the history of this great city. Thanks to all of you who continually come back to read. Back from my long winter, I hope to continue to provide some great information, history, insight and commentary. When all else fails, you can always go read Vindy.com.

A lion of the North Side

When you talk of great Youngstown patriarchs, John Manning's name is at the top of the list. Northsider's knew the Manning's and Lowry's as probably the largest Catholic families ever to run the halls of St. Ed's, Ursuline and Rayen. Many people I met, when looking at me, would ask, "Are you a Manning?" When I replied 'No, a Lowry,' the comment back usually ended with, 'same thing'. Mr. Manning passed away Friday evening after a brief illness. It was an honor to have known him and an even greater honor to consider several of his grandchildren among my closest friends.


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John P. Manning Sr.

YOUNGSTOWN – John P. Manning Sr. returned to the Lord on Dec. 11. 2009.

He was born on Sept. 3, 1920, in Youngstown. His parents, Michael Manning and Mary Gilmore, were Irish immigrants from County Galway and County Mayo respectively.

From 1926 to 1935, he attended St. Edward’s School in Youngstown where he completed his grade school education. He spent his high school years at The Rayen School, graduating in 1939.

While at Rayen, Mr. Manning was in a number of activities. He played football, earning two letters. He was the basketball manager from 1938 to 1939. He competed in track and was on the intramural basketball team. While in high school, he worked at McKelvey’s department store on the delivery truck.

After graduation, John worked in shipping at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Cold Strip Plant, until the end of 1941. In January of 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served until his discharge in February of 1946. He served stateside, assigned to anti-aircraft and light tank detail. Early in 1944, he was sent to the Pacific Theater, where he served in the Amphibian Tractor Battalion in the Philippines and Japan.

While stationed in Osaka, he played football as center for the I Corp Headquarters in Osaka Stadium against the 33rd Division. It was the first American football game ever in Japan. While in Japan he served as water commissioner for the government in Japan and taught math to American soldiers.

After the military, John came home to Youngstown where he attended Youngstown State while working at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. He enrolled at Ohio University in September of 1946 and graduated in 1949 with a B.S.C. Degree. While at OU, he made the Inter-fraternity All-Star Team as a center. In 1950, he attended graduate school at Youngstown State, in Business Administration, and majored in five subjects: Accounting, Math, Economics, Business and Finance.

Mr. Manning started his employment at the Koppers Company in February 1950. He was their office manager for 31 years. He handled all traffic, accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventories, and all union negotiations. John retired in May of 1981. He also worked many years for the diocese of Youngstown as an accountant.

John Manning was very active in our community. The following is a list of the many organizations and fundraising drives he has served on: Hospice of Youngstown, St. Edward School fund for Ursuline & Mooney, Ursuline High Boosters, Ursuline High School Nick Johnson Committee, Mill Creek Child Care Center, Youngstown Traffic Club, Chesterton Club, SCORE of Youngstown State, Stambaugh Pillars, Sierra Club of Youngstown, Manning Investment Company, Doris Burdman Home, Mill Creek Child Development Center, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Ursuline Sisters Solo Deo Club, St Edward Mission Club, St Edward PTA, Northside Citizens Coalition, Oblate Sisters Cinquata Club, District XI on Aging, Goodwill Industries, Mahoning Transitional Homes, Newman Club Member, Chairman of Inter -fraternity Greek Week Affair, Jewish Community Center, Youngstown St. Patrick’s Parade Committee, Mahoning Valley Gaelic Society Charter Member. He worked on many area fundraising drives, to name a few, Youngstown Public Libraries, United Way, Youngstown Cancer Drive, Diabetes Drive for Northside Hospital, Gilliagans Campaign for Governor, White House on Education for Ohio, and Ursuline Capital Campaign.

He was also an avid Notre Dame and YSU fan.

He was made an honorary alumni of Ursuline High School in 1998.

John Manning married Kathleen Reagan on Sept. 16, 1950. She passed away July 23, 1991 after 41 years of marriage.

He is survived by five sons; Michael (Linda) of Liberty, Fr. Patrick of Walsh University in Canton, Thomas (Alice) of Youngstown, Edgar (Shirley) of Boardman and Liam (Nicole) of Raleigh, N.C.; four daughters, Kathleen (James) Zidian of Boardman, Marian (Mark) Acerra of Girard, Margaret Bishop of Mathews, N.C., and Martina (Dominic) Marzano of Struthers.

He also leaves his beloved grandchildren of whom he was so proud, Meredyth Ray, Jessica McKenna, Dylan and Zachary Acerra, Patrick, Thomas and Meaghan Manning, Katie Taylor, Gregory Thompson, Elliot and Liam Bishop, Kellie, Colleen, Erin, Mikayala and Sean Manning; three great-grandchildren, Madison, Oliva and Will; and one sister, Claire Nissen

In 1998, he took the entire Manning clan to visit their ancestral home in Ireland.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife of 41 years, Kathleen Anne Reagan; as well as a daughter, Colleen Anne; and a grandson, Sean; a sister, Helen; and two brothers Edward and William.

Calling hours will be Monday at St. Edward The Confessor Catholic Church from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. and from 3 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Most Rev. George V. Murry, S.J., D.D., Ph. D., will preside at the Funeral liturgy at St Edward Church at 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers memorial contributions take the form of donations to the Hospice of The Valley, The Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown, or Ursuline High School.

McVean, Hughes & McClurkin Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

Steel Town 1944

The visuals are stunning. Stacks spewing clouds of smoke into the sky, nearly obscuring the Home Savings & Loan building while men and women, all wearing hats, jump on and off busses at street level. Rivers of molten ore running down chutes to create the ships, tanks or guns that in peacetime would be office buildings. In Youngstown we make steel. We make steel and talk steel.

A World War II -era film created by the Office of War Information, 'Steel Town 1944' offers an incredible glimpse into Youngstown's past. My hope with this blog was to continue to spread Youngstown's rich past while highlighting some of the remarkable things going on to rebuild. For those who lived in the steel boom years of Youngstown's past, in the words of Doc Graham, "The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces."

Some interesting points to watch out for:

• 6:36 - Hooking up the hoist to a bucket of molten iron
  
• 7:30 - The 1944 Wilson-South football game at South High.
• 7:59 - South High School principal's office, classroom and cafeteria
  
• 10:05 - A Youngstown Symphony Orchestra made up entirely of steelworkers and their wives, rehearsing a piece written by Gerald Marovich, a Youngstown-native in the Navy

Not to give the ending away, but this closing quote is a classic:

"When the war is over, we're going to have other problems. We know about that in Youngstown. We've had it here before. There are times when there is no smoke in the sky and mills were quiet. The streets full of men, angry, questioning, wondering. We're beginning to understand that these things don't just happen in one place. They happen everywhere."

'An Idora Revival'

It's not the neighborhood in which Ruby Yates raised her children or sent them down the block to the amusement park, but there's a lot of promise afoot for Idora, a small Youngstown neighborhood that some would call the west end of Fosterville. A great Vindicator article highlights the renewal occurring in the this area. It is worth checking out here: http://www.vindy.com/news/2009/dec/02/an-idora-revival/

Some great lines:

• “Our goal is to transform vulnerable, undervalued and transitional neighborhoods to healthy neighborhoods of choice,” - Presley Gillespie, director of YNDC
• “Now neighbors on opposite ends of the street know each other and are talking. It seems to feel as if the neighborhood is getting its future back.” - Ian Beniston, policy director at MVOC

Just some of the great, exciting things happening in Youngstown.

link: http://idoraneighborhoodassociation.weebly.com/ (Idora Neighborhood Association)

Back for a little while

My initial objection to being a casual writer to this blog was that my readership, assuming I had one, would get frustrated at long gaps between posts. I felt that I brought some closure to my initial (4-year) attempt at this blog by at least telling people that I wasn't coming back any more.

Next thing I know, the city decides to sell Fire Station 7. I later learned that it was a planned move and in the budget documents for a year. Regardless, no one was annoyed, frustrated or outraged at the move. No discussion occurred and it all went unsaid. I took the opportunity to write a rather disheveled entry about sentimental thoughts and poor development choices. I felt that the entire event going unmentioned outside of The Vindicator wasn't appropriate.

It got my juices flowing again. Sort of. Maybe I will post once a week; maybe my posts will be months apart. Maybe the Youngstown Pride will win the 2010 WBL World Championship. There are a lot of uncertainties ahead, but I may try and blog about them.

Selling Youngstown history to the highest bidder

Call is nostalgia, call it love, call it what you will. Youngstown's Fire Station 7 has always been 'my' firehouse. It's not difficult to see the beautify and history in this firehouse that this year celebrated its 105th anniversary.

It started in the fall of 1989 when YFD Fire Inspector Hubert Clardy, recently retired, and the crew of Engine 7 brought to St. Edward School the finest fire engine ever to pump a working fire in Youngstown. A fire prevention lesson to a 3rd grade class, some stop-drop-and-rolling, and a chance to sit up in the seat of that magnificent pumper and I was hooked for life.

It was that encounter with that crew, engine and and the connection to that fire station that made me realize that I wanted to be a firefighter. Most young kids grow out of that phase in their life where red lights and sirens cause them to run to the window. I still leap over the furniture. Ask my wife.

My love of the fire service began with Station 7. Yesterday, the city put a price on it. In a move that raised no apparent public debate or outcry, Youngstown sold Fire Station 7 to US Campus Suites LLC to the tune of $1 million. Youngstown gets to lease the firehouse for about three more years at $10 a year until US Campus Suites is ready to build The Flats at Wick student housing complex. In 2012 (or so), like so much of Youngstown history, Fire Station 7 is a memory.

At a time when Youngstown finally is so close to determining its future, with a motivated generation of self-made public planners, and positive development abounds, it takes a giant step backward by selling its history.

Numerous news articles and blog posts have cried out for the need to save the Wick Park Historic District. Homes and houses alike have been burned by arsonists, salvagers and thieves along Park Ave, Pennsylvania, Woodbine, Broadway, North Heights, and Fairgreen. The neighborhood would probably burn with greater ferocity if not for Engine 7, just around the corner.

An unfortunate consequence of these arsonists are the vacant plots of land that dot every street. Why not use this land for student housing? It's within a half block of the existing Cafaro and Lyden housing, cheaply available, and ready to build. Instead, the city sold out in an effort to cut its deficit. The cost was a neighborhood institution, now sitting on death row.

The city will argue that downtown Fire Station 1 is adequate to serve the North Side. They are correct in that Fire Station 1 can handle the additional firefighters and trucks. There is space within the firehouse for three firefighters per shift and an extra truck.

Where they are wrong is the additional time it will take that fire engine to get to fires on the Lower East Side, the far North Side, and the highway responses of the Madison Avenue Expressway. The distance between the two station is 1.1 miles. For someone trapped in a fire, that's minutes. Response times to those neighborhoods will suffer; Fire loss may go up.

Youngstown's efforts were not interested in the protection of a neighborhood. They were out to cut deficits at the expense of the history of the neighborhood they say they are trying to save. Front page stories tell of Pennsylvania Ave homes burning as the city sells the nearest firehouse. Where is the outrage?

Gone like Sheet and Tube

After four years, it's unfortunetly time to hang it up. I just don't have the time due to work, being heavily involved in a volunteer fire department, and the fact that I live three states away. I wish all of my former readers the best of luck in '08.

Defend Youngstown.

Respectfully,

Joe Lowry
Proprietor

Youngstown's High Technology: It's Not Just Software

The "da Vinci," a robot that is already changing how surgery is done in Youngstown, is only one of the ways that the city is changing from a manufacturing base into a high technology corridor. While high-tech companies like Turning Technology are leading the charge to make Youngstown a player in the software industry, we shouldn't discount the significance of St. Elizabeth Medical Center getting its own high tech robot that will change the way health care is delivered in the Valley.

The St. Elizabeth's Center for Robotic Surgery has been in operation since September of last year, and using the da Vinci have already performed 40 robotic prostatectomies (prostate surgery), 20 robotic hysterectomies, one robotic pyeloplasty (removal of a blockage in the ureter leading from one of the kidneys to the bladder), and one robotic cystectomy (removal of all or part of the urinary bladder).

What are the advantages of the da Vinci? The benefits to the patients are significant. Surgery times of six hours for a prostatectomy have been reduced to four hours and the goal for the program is eventually to do the surgeries in two hours. This leads to a reduction in blood loss to the point where a transfusion is unnecessary and less time in the hospital. Average stays are only 32 hours. Other advantages include reduced pain, less time on a catheter and less post-surgery narcotic use.

The St. Elizabeth's Center for Robotic Surgery staff includes Dr. Daniel Ricchiutti, his brother Dr. Vincent Ricchiutti and Dr. Mark Memo, all of N.E.O. Urology Associates. The doctors and the hospital hope that the center will become a regional referral center, and they hope that patients from the Mahoning Valley will stay here for their surgeries. Those that need hysterectomies or prostate surgery now have good reason to seriously consider that option.


Dr. Daniel Ricchiuti


Dr. Mark Memo


Dr. Vincent Ricchiuti

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes

If you haven’t been downtown for a while, the Taft Technology Center on West Federal Street is nearly complete. Turning Technology will be moving 130 jobs into the building by May 1st.

What does this mean for a Valley that is still losing manufacturing jobs? Recently, Indalex, GE, and Mold-Tech have either ceased or significantly cut back operations. In spite of the difficult transition—one that is sure to continue—there is a bright future for Youngstown, and the Taft Technology Center and Turning Technology are certainly part of that future.

Excerpt From the Vindicator, Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Inc. Magazine last year ranked Turning Technologies as the fastest-growing, privately held software company in the U.S.
Entrepreneur Magazine ranked it last year as the seventh-fastest growing small business in the nation with $20.6 million in sales in 2006. Sales increased to nearly $28 million in 2007.
Broderick and two others started the company in 2001 and recorded just $111,000 in sales the following year.

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

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.

Black Monday Events... time to remember

The Steel Museum will play host to an event to mark the 30th anniversary of Black Monday.

What: Remembering Black Monday 1977-2007
When: 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 19
Where: Youngstown Historical Center, also known as the Steel Museum, 151 W. Wood St.

According to the Vindicator, some of those who were directly involved with the closings and the efforts to save the mills will share their thoughts about what happened and why it matters.
The event is part of the 2007-08 Center for Working-Class Studies Lecture Series sponsored by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society Young Leaders' Advisory Board, YSU Center for Applied History and the Office of Social Action at the Diocese of Youngstown.