we all rise, or we all fall

Mayor Williams provides context here on a recent Forbes article about the decline of one suburb next to Youngstown:

"Yet, the Forbes article was 100% accurate in the larger message that it conveyed. The undeniable and overarching message of the article is that this area exists as a region. We will rise as a region and we will fall as a region.

There is no way any suburb in the Mahoning Valley will ever escape the shadow of Youngstown.

Good, bad, or indifferent.

Some elected officials and their constituents choose to live in a fantasy world and pretend that they can separate their communities from the challenges that face the central city. But to anyone with a firm grasp on reality, it would seem that those individuals are of the lineage of the fictional character Don Quixote, titling at their imaginary windmills.

Instead of allowing the Forbes.com article to be just another saga that we hope quickly disappears into the annals of other miserable tales about the Mahoning Valley, we should use it as a catalyst for actions that will lead to robust and sustained regional cooperation. That should be the story that we demand Forbes, or anyone else for that matter, writes about the Mahoning Valley."

and as shown in the recent Youngstown-Girard economic development agreement, adjacent communities can both become winners through cooperation.

winners.

big-time winners.