Startup Bus takes six-hour detour to visit Youngstown and YBI

Quick, what's the most direct way from Columbus/Cincinnati to Texas for a busload of entrepreneurs?

Why north of course...

... to Youngstown

Startup Buses are launching from all over America, making their way to the SXSW Festival in Austin.

You can track these buses here, as they make their way across the USA with their precious cargo of entrepreneurs... entrepreneurs looking to hone their pitches for new companies.

One bus sponsored by southern Ohio groups such as CincyTech, The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, and the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association took a six-hour detour this morning.

A six-hour detour to Youngstown.

The media was there at the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI), watching as folks shared their business ideas. Some of the world-class talent associated with the YBI provided advice.

But a larger question arises:

Why Youngstown?

Why not visit one of hundreds of other incubators in the country?

Simply put, the Youngstown Business Incubator is on the mental map of the state and national entrepreneurs as a remarkable place to build a business.

So much so, it's a stop for a very cool national event like the Startup Bus.

You can watch the travels of the Startup Bus here, as chronicled by a great guy, Thomas Mulready of Cool Cleveland.



The soon-to-be four building campus in downtown Youngstown is home now to hundreds of employees, generating wealth, generating innovation, generating taxes for the region, and generating hundreds of other spinoff jobs in the region.

It's a tide rising all boats.


It's a tide selling product across the world, building a connected Global Youngstown.


It's a tide that is becoming more and more known across the nation.

ethnic food vendor and marketplace forms for Simply Slavic Fest now available!

For a first-time festival, the 2011 Simply Slavic event in downtown Youngstown was an amazing success!

Over 3,000 people came down for the inaugural one-day event last June, which was filled with delicious food and drink, dancing, educational opportunities, and most of all ... FUN.

Now, onto this year . . . mark your calendars for Saturday, June 16, 2012.

Do you want your church, business, or organization join in the ethnic festivities and make big profits like last year's participants?

Here's a great summary of the day from the Casey Malone Show:


All the forms to participate in the day's activities are now online:
Food Vendor Form
Craft/Marketplace Vendor Form
Heritage Table Form
Business Sponsorship
Family/Individual Sponsorship

Please note: vendors are expected to sell food and crafts of an ethnic variety. Vendors are welcome from anywhere in Northeast Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and all over the world!

If you are a church, and your parishoners make the best home-cooked food, then this is the festival for you!

If you are an organization, and your members sell unique ethnic crafts, then this is the festival for you!

If you are a stromboli vendor or a snow cone vendor, please call the folks at Youngstown's many other wonderful ethnic festivals for vendor opportunities.

Food vendor and marketplace vendor forms are due March 30, so tents can be ordered at a resonable price.

Please connect through contacts on the Simply Slavic website if questions arise.

- - -

These modern-day nations in Europe represent the origins of our Slavic ancestors: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine.

Can we get a organization/church from every one of these ethnic groups?

in a first, publicy traded company mentions Youngstown Earthquakes as risk factor 10-K documentation to the S.E.C.

For all publicly traded companies on the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, a company must file a document every year called a 10-K to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A somewhat standardized document in terms of content, the 10-K contains information about how the company participates/competes in the global marketplace, the compensation of executives, financial data, etc, etc, but also a list of "risk factors" that may impact a company's future ability to attain earnings.

On February 12, 2012 the publicly traded Consol Energy (CNX on the NYSE) with a market cap of $8.5 billion mentioned in its 10-K the following "risk factor" which can cause an investor to lose value in their investment:

"If we cannot find adequate sources of water for our use or are unable to dispose of the water we use or remove it from the strata at a reasonable cost and within applicable environmental rules, our ability to produce gas economically and in commercial quantities could be impaired."

further...

"As part of our drilling and production in the Marcellus shale, we use hydraulic fracturing processes. 

Thus, we need access to adequate sources of water to use in our Marcellus shale operations. 

Further, we must remove and dispose of the portion of the water that we use to fracture our shale gas wells that flows back to the well-bore as well as drilling fluids and other wastes associated with the exploration, development or production of natural gas. 

Our inability to locate sufficient amounts of water with respect to our Marcellus Shale operations, or the inability to dispose of or recycle water and other wastes used in our Marcellus shale and our CBM operations, could adversely impact our operations. 

For example, in Ohio, injection of gas well production fluids was temporarily suspended for underground injection disposal wells near Youngstown while regulatory authorities investigate whether injection of wastewater into the wells is causing low category earthquakes in the area."

- - -

While this one perceived risk factor is among a laundry list of risk factors, it is interesting to note how the Youngstown earthquakes (presumably caused by the D&L disposal of fracking waste into the earth) has made it into a company's released documents to the SEC.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports on economic impact of Lordstown's third shift

this approximation of direct and indirect spin-off got my attention:

"A third shift at a Midwestern U.S. auto plant typically requires 1,000 autoworkers and creates 7,850 spinoff jobs ... about one-third within 60 miles of the plant, with others [two-thirds of jobs] at farther away suppliers and service providers."

And with subsequent real-life examples of how a third shift impacts the bottom line in a community, this week's Bloomberg Businessweek magazine profiled some of the economic activity around Lordstown/Youngstown from the third shift assembling the Chevy Cruze.

Here is this week's Putin cover if you are looking for a copy to pick up:

An interesting line of work I did not know existed is overnight childcare. Parents drop off their kids going into their shift around 10:00pm, and then after their eight-hour shift, pick them up after 6:30am and take them to school. Wow.

What other unique opportunities come about in a third-shift kinda town?

links to slideshow and story

renovations to begin next week for new market near YSU & Wick Park

In 2011 Mr. Ali Adi opened the Downtown Circle, which brought to downtown Youngstown a clean market stocked with goods, also serving daily unique freshly-prepared ethnic foods.

Less than a year later in January 2012, the successful entrepreneur will expand this model to an additional location in the city, but with a larger footprint.

Beginning next week, renovations will begin at the former R&S Market near the corner of Elm and Madison, just north of the YSU Campus and adjacent to other new and established private businesses near Wick Park such as Edward's Flowers, Dorian Books, and The Flats at Wick.

The new location, to be named the "University Circle," will have both a full market and a cafe space with wi-fi and seating for 46 people.

The existing two entrances will be remodeled into a single central entrance, with a complete physical redesign to the visual appeal of the building.

Similar to the location downtown, specialties such as chicken shawarma, grape leaves, smoothies, veggie falafel sandwiches, slowly-roasted meats can be ordered for lunches and dinners. The architectural drawings for the new place even have a space/drawn component for "vertical rotisseries."

What can north side residents and YSU students expect inside the "University Circle"?

Here's some quick shots of the interior and food from the "Downtown Circle" on Federal Street:

long live pickles on your pita...

using YouTube to inspect a slice of comtemporary Youngstown - December 2011

According to Google's FAQs about YouTube, in 2011 there were 48 hours of video uploaded every minute, or 8 years of content added each day.

And a little-bitty slice of that daily uploaded content is about Youngstown.

Youngstown music, Youngstown news, Youngstown sports, Youngstown quirks.

- - -

Let's play amateur historians for a moment...

If we looked only at the last two weeks of Youngstown-related uploads, and treated it as a time capsule of December 2011 and the things going on in our hyperlocal world, what is in that bundle?

Here then are 10 videos uploaded in the last two weeks, a snapshot of this corner of the earth at the end of the last month of the eleventh year of the current millennium....

#10 - Highlights of the 2011 Youngstown Men's Rugby Season, who practices at Harrison Commons in the Smoky Hollow. (here's an article about the Youngstown Women's Rugby Team)



#9 - An interview between a christian pastor and a sheep puppet, discussing the history of christmas...



#8 - A homemade rap music video, complete with historical settings in Oak Hill Cemetery and a decapitated human body...



#7 - On the other end of that spectrum, someone installing one of Yoko Ono's "Imagine Peace" billboards in downtown Youngstown...



#6 - From a demolition perspective, the 71-year old Westlake Terrace public housing project christened by good ol' Eleanor Roosevelt is coming down. One of, if not, the oldest publicly-funded housing projects in the United States. At its height, Westlake Terrace was over 600 units.



#5 - From the revitalization perspective, Iron and String Life Enhancement (ISLE) Inc will be constructing a bakery/diner named "Sugar Plum" in downtown youngstown, partially staffed by adults with disabilities...



#4 -YSU's STEM Dean, Dr. Martin Abraham, at the Youngstown Utica Shale Conference announcing the formation of The Natural Gas and Water Resources Institute...



#3 - Some dude's assessment of Youngstown's recent 2.5 magnitude earthquake using earthquake visualization software and Google Earth... (Some of his info is correct, some info not so correct)



#2 - From a diaspora perspective, Catullo's Prime Meats is getting ready to send Youngstown treats across the USA...



#1 - Finally, The Youngstown Club's Famous cheese recipe created by James McGoogan well over 70 years ago has a commercial...



The world-famous cheese is now available at amazon.com to ship around the country & world.

These 10 videos . . . a slice of Youngstown in December 2011.

thurs - fri - mon : do a YBI Tour as you are home visiting family

Have you ever been inside the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI), whose portfolio companies are employing over 400 people in downtown youngstown?

Are you home for the holidays, looking for a place to explore in between your sacred duties like making pizzelles and eating kolachi?

Well, on an rsvp basis, the YBI will be offering tours to interested folks and those returning home for the holidays, both before and after Christmas.

the schedule:

Thursday, Dec 22
Tours from 9am to 5pm leave at the top of the hour, led by YBI Chief Evangelist Jim Cossler. RSVP needed.

Friday, Dec 23

Tours from 7am to 10am leave at the top of the hour, led by YBI Chief Evangelist Jim Cossler. RSVP needed.

Monday, Dec 26

Two tours at 11am and 1pm leave at the top of the hour, led by YBI staff.
Meet Dean Abraham of YSU's STEM College!
Check out the new OH WOW! Technology Museum!
Discounts for downtown eateries!

call 330-599-4583 to reserve a spot.
Thursday's slots are almost filled up.


need more info about the YBI before signing up. Read here about their 2011 efforts.

Parents, if you're reading this and feel your kids should go . . . tell them to stop by for a tour!

video of today's AMAZING downtown holiday parade and festival

hot off the presses...

check out the fun the citizenry had in Youngstown today.

a TON of people downtown



The St. Pat's float with the moving arms was really great, and got some points for ingenuity.

Kudos go to the City's Director of Downtown Events, Youngstown CityScape, YSU, WFMJ, and First Night Youngstown for their organizational efforts...

tonight 's (friday) - Simply Slavic event is loaded with unique wintery goodness

We're six months from the Second Simply Slavic Summerfest/Heritage Festival celebrating all things Central and Eastern European in Downtown Youngstown.

But once a year is not good enough to throw a party, especially a party with live music and kolachi tastings.

To celebrate the winter season as well, we've created an OUTSTANDING EVENT with MULTIPLE ARTISTS from as far way from Chicago.

please join us!

Doors open at 5pm 
for that 
post-work pivo

To the wee hours of the night 
we'll be 
slammin slivo.

here's the schedule for the evening:

5pm-6:30pm ~ after work European Beer Flights, with contemporary Euro Music by DJ Ken.

7pm-8:30pm ~ guitar and singing Croatian favorites by Youngstown's own Jamie Marich.

9pm-11pm ~ from Chicago, Baltic Fusion Group "Eastern Blok"

11pm-2am ~ Discotheque by DJ Richie

other items of interest:
* all wearing ethnic costume are eligible for a door prize. Come dressed!
* Kolachi tasting!
* Slivovica and Vodka specials!
* Central/Eastern European Beers!

Here's a sample of Eastern Blok's great & unique sound:

decorated downtown store windows set the stage for Saturday's holiday parade

The windows of Youngstown are trimmed with tinsel.

Why?

This Saturday the winner of the first-ever downtown youngstown window decorating contest will be announced, and a whole lot more.

This year's holiday parade will be really ramped up compared to years past. Besides the parade, there will be a lot to do...

10am - Oh WoW opens up for the day, filled with science and family fun. (till 7pm)

1pm - "The Nutcracker" by Ballet Western Reserve will be at the Warner Theater

1pm - at 20 Federal Place (the ol Strouss') there will be free train rides, free hands-on activities by the SMARTS downtown pioneers, baked good vendors, Youngstown Club nippy cheese, more food, and fresh-cut wreaths and garlands for purchase.

3pm - the parade gets underway, with floats and floatsam down Federal Street.

4pm - the Central Square downtown christmas tree will be lit, with Santa making an appearance. Free pictures with Santa courtesy of YSU photography students.

7pm -  another "The Nutcracker" performance by Ballet Western Reserve

Looking to be a nice day Saturday with 50 degrees and Sunny!

Many of the newest downtown lunch and coffee shops will be open as well...

Here's a few pictures of some other downtown windows:

well done!

I love how our architecture is captured in the reflections of the windows.

The handprint wreaths on the Oh Wow center are really imaginative...

And the YSU Student Art Association (SAA) deserves mad props for decorating many many windows downtown with high quality paintings.

Youngstown's new chicken & waffles restaurant is open from midnight to 6am

Last Saturday evening, was heading south along Market Street then made the turn onto Southern Boulevard (toward St. Dom's and the Boulevard Tavern) and this sign was flashing, full of light:

 

Can this be?

A new restaurant in the city which OPENS at midnight?

Enter "Annie Mae's Chicken & Waffles"

Fast forward one week to tonight, and a trip to this oasis around 3am both confirmed their hours and provided to our crew a great & tasty meal.

Annie Mae's Chicken and Waffles is located on the site of the former restaurants over the decades such as "The Oven" and "Busy Bee" and a Jamaican establishment as well, and has a huge kitchen with ample seating . . . which was mostly full at 3am.

Here's a picture of my plate:
a delicious & fluffy, yet crisp, waffle with sweet butter and a fried chicken breast on top. with a smattering of additional syrup.
Sweet and savory!

 

Here's a friend's plate who ordered the grits, which sometimes are hard to find locally. (at least good grits)

The Uptown area was very vibrant at that time of night, with many folks walking over from nearby establishments or parking in their adjacent lot.

Even though the late-night hours were a nice bonus, looking at the front of their menu, Annie Mae's has daytime hours as well.

From the menu, their hours of operation:
Monday to Thursday - 7am to 8pm
Friday and Saturday - 7am to 6am
Sunday - 7am to 8pm

- - -

If you're looking to support small businesses in Youngstown, give this place a try.

I've been to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles in LA, and lived next to Gladys Knight's Chicken & Waffles in Atlanta, and just taking the waffles, Annie Mae's waffles are better than both.

Seriously.

cover of The Economist is all about "diasporas" - Youngstown are you listening?

Thousands of former citizens of the Youngstown & Mahoning Valley are returning to the nest this Thanksgiving, walking past airport newsstands seeing the image below on the cover of The Economist:

And there are networking penguins on the cover no less!

Perhaps this is the most graphically perfect representation of the Youngstown diaspora, due to our university's beloved mascot.

(images the property of The Economist)

As an exercise, everyone should read the story in the magazine and each time you see the word "diaspora" substitute it with "people from Youngstown but living elsewhere" and let the message sink in.

Heck, turn it into a drinking game, downing a shot of gravy or slivovica each time you read see "diaspora."

Let's open a bottle and read some examples:

point 1:
"People from Youngstown but living elsewhere" have always been a potent economic force, but the cheapness and ease of modern travel [and ease of communication] have made them larger and more numerous than ever before.

point 2:
These networks of kinship [think cookie table] and language [think brier hill pizza] make it easier to do business across distances.

point 3:
"People from Youngstown but living elsewhere" also help spread ideas. Many of the brightest minds are educated at universities. When they go home, they take with them both language and contacts.

point 4:
"People from Youngstown but living elsewhere" spread money too. They not only send cash to their families, they also help companies in their current location cooperate with local Ohio companies.

point 5:
Migration bring youth to aging areas and allows ideas to circulate in millions of mobile minds.


- - -

in short, developing an effort to engage the Youngstown diaspora can...
- improve Youngstown-based businesses, charities, and institutions
- support a pathway for those wishing to come home


So now that this diaspora concept is becoming more mainstream, can Youngstown do more NOW to engage its Diaspora?


check out what our friends to the north in Cleveland are doing this weekend:

"Potential boomerangs are the target of a talent attraction effort under the aegis of the Cleveland Leadership Center. This Saturday, the group is sponsoring a networking event aimed at college students and recent graduates at the Corner Alley downtown -- intersection of East 4th Street and Euclid Avenue -- from 3 to 5 p.m.

Those who attend can meet with corporate recruiters and civic leaders to learn more about opportunities in Cleveland -- and they'll be only a couple of blocks away from the Christmas lighting celebration on Public Square.

If that sounds like something for you -- or for your children who'll be home for the holiday -- go to cleveleads.org for more information or to buy tickets."

and Pittsburgh? (from the Cle PD)

"Civic, political and foundation leaders there are offering a $100,000 reward to someone who will move to Pittsburgh.

They're looking for a special someone, 45 or older, who's both ambitious and civic-minded. Half the money can be used to launch a new enterprise, but the other half goes into a charitable trust the recipient has to spend in Pittsburgh.

"We want to bring in people with wisdom, experience and leadership skills to build the civic capacity," says Shawn Bannon, spokesman for the Experienced Dreamers contest.

It's an essay contest, to be precise. Entrants have until Dec. 16 to detail their grand plans. The winner will be chosen in an online vote.

One middle-aged dreamer will not transform Pittsburgh, of course, but this is about marketing. Pittsburgh has spent decades reseeding its entrepreneurial culture and reclaiming industrial wastelands."

 and Scranton?

"Rediscover Scranton volunteers promote and strengthen greater Scranton’s quality of life and business assets by identifying and contacting accomplished professionals with ties to greater Scranton, informing them of economic, quality of living and growth opportunities, and encouraging them to relocate their businesses and families to the area.

The program cultivates relationships between former and current residents of the area. Rediscover Scranton targets successful company executives, professionals, entrepreneurs, individuals who work in the creative industry and any other successful former residents.

Rediscover Scranton has formed partnerships with leaders from local and regional government and non-profit organizations, as well as local colleges and universities."

http://www.rediscoverscranton.com

and Youngstown?
(fill in the blank)


 

a look inside Joe Maxx Coffee - opens downtown at 7am on Monday

Got the chance to step inside downtown's newest establishment over the weekend. Joe Max Coffee looks fantastic and was warmly welcomed by entrepreneur Mike Avery and the team.


Doors open at 7am Monday.

Great job of the interior design, especially with the red hues with black and white accents. The colors match the bridges and university at entry points to the downtown.

Roasted coffees, smoothies, and other drinks can be found now at the base of the Realty Building in the space occupied a few years ago by The Bean Counter Cafe.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

recap of first use of Youngstown's new community oven (and our blog's first video)

"a harbinger of a fully-developed neighborhood"

For the first time in many many years, an outdoor neighborhood bread oven was used to prepare nourishing food in the Smoky Hollow Neighborhood of Youngstown.

It happened yesterday at the weekly lunch of the Rotary Club of Youngstown.

The leadership of Wick Neighbors Inc, a CDC advancing the development of the Wick Ave area and the adjacent neighborhood, joined the Rotarians at the MVR to literally "break bread" together - in the form of artisanal hand-crafted pizzas.

The outdoor community bread oven was installed in the Hollow earlier this year at the park now known as the Harrison Commons.

Besides the oven and an herb garden planted around its periphery, Harrison Commons is also home to cut stone benches, a decorative pergola which doubles as a stage, and the replication in granite of a very old Sandborn map highlighting the previous locations of multiple bread ovens throughout the Hollow.

(please see this post from SY in July 2011 for a full overview)

- - -

Another first-time events aligns with the first-time feast from the oven...

As seen below, it's the first ever topical neighborhood video produced by the New Media Team employed at Shout Youngstown.

Check it out:



You can learn more information about Wick Neighbors and their ongoing efforts here.

Next up?

Fixing up and construction along the Hollow's Walnut Street corridor.

more details coming soon . . .

kiwi fruit, community bread ovens, & other great people lead Youngstown CityScape's 5th Annual Beautification Awards

Some of the homes, churches, business, and neighborhood improvements that are taking place in the city of Youngstown are simply amazing.

For example, check out this well maintained kiwi fruit trellis (with furniture underneath) that provides both shade and fruit during the year:

Here's another great project - the working community bread oven with herb garden in the Smoky Hollow at Harrison Commons:

What do these two projects have in common?

They are two of the many great projects from 2011 recognized during the 5th annual CityScape Beautification Awards in the City of Youngstown.

Here's a video recap of the event by our friends over at Defend Youngstown.




Congrats to all the award winners!

Go here to nominate your friends, churches, or any other effort that inspires you at this web site.

wednesday morning 8am update: at this link, you'll find a list of all the Beautification awardees, courtesy of The Business-Journal.

wednesday morning 8:30am update: at this link, you'll see a video from the event (which two videos later has a story on new downtown signs) courtesy of WKBN.

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To all global readers interested in Youngstown happenings, if you're not signed up yet to receive Defend Youngstown's daily updates, SY highly recommends it.

For example, if your schedule is really busy, it's a great way to get important hyper-local information synthesized to your email box every weekday.

You can sign up for the daily news updates here.